Fish help fight Atherosclerosis!What's on in Heart Health Month?Hibiscus Tea cuts Blood Pressure


ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY
HEART DISEASE
HEARTZINE
INTRO
LABORATORY
NEWS

News

Fish help fight Atherosclerosis!

Saturday 7th March 2009 Scientists from the University of California have discovered a fish which develops atherosclerosis when fed a diet with too much cholesterol. The fish is transparent, allowing scientists to monitor the progress of the disease without disturbing it.
 
The zebra fish, a small fish which is transparent when young, appears to develop artery hardening in a way likened to the human disease atherosclerosis when fed a diet containing excessive amounts of cholesterol. In the study, the high cholesterol feed was mixed with a red fluorescent lipid - a type of fat which emits a red light when stimulated with the right kind of light source. The fish themselves were genetically modified to produce green flourescent protein within their endothelial cells, emitting green light and allowing the structures to be seen. This produced clear images with red atherosclerosis and green vasculature.
 
Although the physiology of a fish is very different to that of a human, the fact that an unstable plaque …
 

What's on in Heart Health Month?

Tuesday 10th February 2009: February is Heart Health Month - so let's take a look at events across the US in this prominence raising initiative.
 
2nd
 
The Mayor of Blackfoot kicked off the campaign in the area with a wear-red request; focusing on reaching women over 50 with a message that they need to have a checkup to screen for heart disease.
 
6th
 
US National Wear Red Day: Americans wore red to show their support for heart health and the fight against cardiac ailments.
 
7th
 
Macy's at the Neshaminy Mall hosted the Woman's Heart Health Expo, including blood pressure and body mass index screenings and cooking demos.
 
8th
 
Red Dress Sunday, celebrated across Baltimore churches in conjunction with St. Agnes Hospital. Particular emphasis this year is on spreading information about avoiding heart disease to African-American women, amongst whom it is the leading cause of death. Parishoners filled the pews, most of them wearing something red and sermons touched upon the importance of heart he…
 

Hibiscus Tea cuts Blood Pressure

Tuesday 10th February 2009: Just a pint of tea made from the fragrant hibiscus sabdarifa flower has been shown to produce a reduction in blood pressure within persons already at risk of cardiovascular disease.
 
High in anti-oxidants, the tea is thought to act through its ability to destroy free-radicals; molecules associated with both cancer and heart disease.
 
Diane McKay, presenting the research at the AHA's annual conference, described how at-risk patients had a drop of 7.2% in their blood pressure on average; contrasted to the placebo drink which resulted in just 1.3% reduction.
 
Vincent Murphy, writing for Heartzine, suggests that "although the health benefits of Hibiscus Tea are clearly demonstrated in this study, it is unclear whether the body will desensitise itself to the effects over a longer period of time". …
 

Fish Oil Capsules Cut Death Risk for Heart Patients

Sunday 31st August 2008: A major clinical study conducted by researchers at the ANMCO Research Centre in Florence, Italy has found that a daily dose of one capsule of fish oil significantly improves the survival prospects of patients with heart failure. Findings of the study were presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology and also published online in Lancet.
 
A total of 7,000 patients with heart failure were tracked in the study conducted by Luigi Tavazzi and colleagues. The patients were split equally in two groups with one group getting a daily Lovaza capsule (a prescription-formulation pill derived from fish oils, produced by Norway’s Pronova BioPharma) containing 1 gram of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, while the other group was given a placebo. Both groups were followed for an average of 3.9 years.
 
During the follow-up period, 955 patients from the Lovaza group died, compared to 1,014 in the placebo. Hospital admissions among the fish oil capsule patients number…
 

Kids with Fatty Liver Face Increased Heart Risk

Tuesday 1st July 2008: Overweight or obese children who are suffering from fatty liver disease might be at increased risk for metabolic syndrome, a precursor to cardiovascular disease; these are the findings of a study by researchers at the University of California that has been published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
 
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of liver disease in children. NAFLD has already been linked to metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of risk factors that boost a person’s chances of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. This disease is indicated by the presence of oily droplets of triglycerides in liver cells. There are an estimated 6 million children in the US currently affected by NAFLD.
 
For their study, researchers led by Dr. Jeffrey B. Schwimmer studied 150 boys and girls with an average age of 12.7 years with NAFLD. All the children had been referred to a specialised clinic for obesity and/or fat…
 

Low Fat Milk Can Cut Heart Disease Risk

Sunday 29th June 2008: Researchers from multiple universities in the US and Norway have found that drinking just one glass of low fat or fat free milk could provide lot of heart protection. The research findings have been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
 
Milk is a highly nutritious drink providing nine essential nutrients including calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D, protein and potassium. Low fat or fat free milk is considered to be extremely good for health with the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommending consumption of at least three glasses of such milk every day.
 
For their study, the researchers looked at more than 5,000 adults between the ages of 45 and 84 years. They measured the kidney function of all study participants, tracked eating patterns and tested their albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR). The last is a measure which can indicate poor kidney function and extremely high risk of cardiovascular disease if it is too low.
 
The researchers found low ACR an…
 

Chinese Rice Derivative Good for Heart Health

Friday 20th June 2008: Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found that Xuezhikang (XZK), a traditional Chinese dietary supplement can help reduce the risk of heart problems following a heart attack. XZK is a derivate of red yeast rice and has been used in China for centuries. Findings of the study have been published in the American Journal of Cardiology.
 
Study leader Dr. David M. Capuzzi and colleagues recruited 3986 men and 884 women, all of whom had suffered a heart attack and had high cholesterol levels. The volunteers were all on cholesterol-lowering agents. For the 4.5 years that the study lasted, the researchers divided the participants into two groups and assigned one group to take a capsule of XZK and the other group to take a placebo twice a day. The cholesterol-lowering treatments were discontinued for both groups.
 
Over the course of the study, the researchers found that 1.9 percent of the subjects who received XZK had a non-fatal heart attack compared to 4.9 …
 

Gene Variants Cut Cholesterol, Protect Heart

Thursday 19th June 2008: A joint study by UK and Dutch scientists suggests that one third of the population have genes that could keep them safe from heart disease by increasing their levels of the “good” HDL cholesterol. Findings of the study have been published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
 
Studies have already proved that it is possible to protect the heart by cutting down levels of “bad” or LDL cholesterol. Statin drugs that specifically target bad cholesterol are already available and widely in use. However, the link between the levels of “good”, or HDL cholesterol is not clearly established. Some studies have found that raising the levels of this cholesterol is good for the heart.
 
The study team from Cambridge and Newcastle Universities, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands collated the results from nearly 100 studies covering more than 147,000 patients across the world. The researchers studied the effect of having at least …
 

Coffee Good for Feminine Hearts

Wednesday 18th June 2008: Women who drink at least three cups of coffee a day might actually be cutting down their risk of dying from heart disease, a new study by researchers at the School of Medicine at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain suggests. The study findings have been published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
 
The study team led by Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia studied more than 84,000 women and 41,000 men for a period of nearly twenty years. All participants were required to complete questionnaires every two to four years with details about their coffee intake and other habits including diet, smoking and general health.
 
Detailed analysis of the data gathered showed that women who consumed two to three cups of decaffeinated coffee daily reduced their risk of death due to heart disease by 25 percent during the follow up period compared to people who did not drink coffee; their risk of death due to reasons other than cancer or heart disease also fell by 18 percent.
 
The benefi…
 

Cholesterol Ratio Indicative of HRT Heart Effects

Tuesday 17th June 2008: A new study published in the American Journal of Cardiology suggests that menopausal women who are considering hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should get their cholesterol levels checked to get an idea about their heart risk due to the therapy.
 
Some studies have shown that HRT can weaken the hearts of women going through menopause and put them at increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and other heart related events. However, there are also studies that have shown HRT to be far more beneficial in soothing extreme symptoms of menopause than the heart side effects it exerts. So far, no criteria have been defined for judging if a woman is at increased risk of heart disease due to the treatment or not.
 
The new study by Dr. Paul F. Bray and colleagues at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia provides this much needed test. The research team analyzed data gathered on women as part of the hormone trials under the Women’s Health Initiative. 271 of the women covered dev…
 

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