Mixing herbal remedies and heart drugs is dangerous

People who take herbal remedies while using heart drugs may face higher risk of cardiac problems, a medical report warns.

Some herbal medications affect the activity of prescription drugs for heart troubles, dampening or enhancing their effects, says report author Dr. Arshad Jahangir, a consultant cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Herbs, if mixed with drugs, could make blood pressure medications and rhythm-controlling medications less effective and might cause serious heart rhythm problems and bleeding, according to the report published in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Even grapefruit juice, recommended as an aid in weight-loss programs, is problematic in interfering with enzymes that break down drugs in the digestive system, including the statins used to lower cholesterol levels and amiodarone used to treat and prevent abnormal heart rhythms, Jahangir says.

Using herbal remedies among the elders is specially problematic because they
typically have more than one disease and take multiple medications.

While up-to-date statistics are not available, it appears that more than 15
million Americans are using herbal remedies and the number is growing, according to Jahangir.

However, many patients have not realized the danger and fail to inform doctors of their use of herbal remedies.

Douglas Mackay, vice president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, an
industry association, encourages patients to inform their doctors of their herbal remedies.

"Many herbal supplements offer healthful benefits and fiber, garlic, and hawthorne provide heart health benefits, and the potential risk for a drug interaction can be eliminated by speaking openly with your doctor," he says.

Source: News.Xinhuanet.com

Sitting Too Much May Be Deadly

Here's a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly.

Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for prolonged periods - even if you also exercise regularly - could be bad for your health. And it doesn't matter where the sitting takes place - at the office, at school, in the car or before a computer or television - just the overall number of hours it occurs.

Research is preliminary, but several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.

In an editorial published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define physical activity to highlight the dangers of sitting.

While health officials have issued guidelines recommending minimum amounts of physical activity, they haven't suggested people try to limit how much time they spend in a seated position.

"After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals," Ekblom-Bak said. She explained that genes regulating the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down.

Even for people who exercise, spending long stretches of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organisation, said people who exercise every day - but still spend a lot of time sitting - may get more benefit if that exercise were spread across the day, rather than in a single bout.

That wasn't welcome news for Aytekin Can, 31, who works at a London financial company and spends most of his days sitting in front of a computer. Several evenings a week, Can also teaches jiu jitsu, a Japanese martial art involving wrestling, and also does Thai boxing.

"I'm sure there are some detrimental effects of staying still for too long, but I hope that being active when I can helps," he said. "I wouldn't want to think the sitting could be that dangerous."

Still, in a study published last year that tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for about a dozen years, researchers found people who sat more had a higher death risk, independently of whether or not they exercised.

"We don't have enough evidence yet to say how much sitting is bad," said Peter Katzmarzyk of the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Baton Rouge, who led the Canadian study. "But it seems the more you can get up and interrupt this sedentary behaviour, the better."

Figures from a US survey in 2003-04 found Americans spend more than half their time sitting, from working at their desks to sitting in cars.

Experts said more research is needed to figure out just how much sitting is dangerous, and what might be possible to offset those effects.

"People should keep exercising because that has a lot of benefits," Ekblom-Bak said. "But when they're in the office, they should try to interrupt sitting as often as possible," she said. "Don't just send your colleague an email. Walk over and talk to him. Standing up."

Source: www.smh.com.au

7 Steps for a Healthy Heart

The American Heart Association has, for the first time, identified seven health factors and lifestyle behaviors its research indicates are necessary to keep your ticker in good shape.

“Life’s Simple 7” categorizes cardiovascular health as Poor, Intermediate, or Ideal in each of seven areas.

Published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, the AHA says ideal cardiovascular health for adults is defined by these health measures:

1. Never smoked or quit more than a year ago.
2. A healthy body mass index (BMI), an estimate of body fat determined by a formula using weight and height.
3. Physical activity, and the more the better. The new measure says at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise is necessary for ideal health, or 75 minutes weekly of vigorous physical activity.
4. Blood pressure below 120/80.
5. Fasting blood glucose less than 100 milligrams/deciliter, a fasting measure of blood sugar level.
6. Total cholesterol of less than 200 milligrams/deciliter.
7. Eating a healthy diet. Four to five of the key components of a healthy diet are followed. For a 2,000-calorie diet, these include:
   
   • At least 4.5 cups of fruits and vegetables per day
   • At least two 3.5 oz. servings of fish per week, preferably oily fish
   • At least three 1-ounce servings of fiber-rich whole grains per day
   • Limiting sodium to less than 1,500 milligrams a day
   • Drinking no more than 36 ounces weekly of sugar-sweetened beverages

The AHA hopes the seven factors could improve the cardiovascular health of Americans by 20% by the year 2020, and also reduce deaths from cardiovascular-related diseases and strokes by 20%.

Source: www.webmd.com

Younger Women Often Miss Signs of Heart Attack

Many younger women ignore or simply don't recognize the warning signs of a heart attack, often because it doesn't resemble the typical "Hollywood heart attack."

So say the authors of a study being presented Friday at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke, in Baltimore.

"So many women said, 'We wish we had a better stereotype, you never see anything in the media,'" said study author Judith Lichtman, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale School of Medicine. "I personally would love to see some cutting-edge TV series of, for example, a young person having a heart attack with atypical symptoms."

"The classic image of someone having a heart attack is someone like John Belushi. It's a heavy man clutching his chest. We never think of young women as having heart disease, so the image is not part of their consciousness," added Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of Women & Heart Disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It's so important that we not only tell women that heart disease doesn't necessary have to look like [a Hollywood script], but they have to understand what makes them at risk."

Heart disease is the leading killer of American women, claiming almost half a million lives a year, or about one death per minute. According to background information from the authors, 16,000 young women with heart disease die every year and 40,000 are hospitalized.

Last year, a study from the same group of researchers found that women under the age of 55 often fail to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack until it's too late.

Eighty-eight percent of women in that trial reported traditional symptoms of severe chest pain. Yet only 42 percent suspected something was wrong with their heart.

Only half of the women experiencing heart attack symptoms sought care within the first hour, apparently because they thought their symptoms weren't real or weren't serious.

For this study, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 30 women aged 55 and older a week after they had been discharged from the hospital following a heart attack.

Many didn't realize the symptoms were due to a heart attack. For example, one woman said she was told she was experiencing symptoms of acid reflux. Others attributed symptoms to fatigue, overexertion or stress.

Often, the symptoms just didn't line up with how heart attacks are presented in the popular media.

"I had probably seen a show or something with somebody having a heart attack," said one woman. "And they fall. They grab their chest. And then they grab their arm... I mean, you don't see anybody saying I have pain in my jaw or especially a heart attack, you don't see them vomiting... I did not know that and it's probably because of television, I would say is why I thought it would just be in the chest."

Similarly, another woman told investigators, "It's like... I didn't have any of the typical heart attack symptoms that you always hear about on TV and the ER hospital shows."

Some delayed treatment because symptoms went away for a while, or because they were too busy or had experienced prior, negative encounters with the health-care system ("...they throw you out, you know," said one woman. "If you don't have the money right there, then in two days you're gone").

One woman said she called her doctor about chest pains but was scheduled for a regular appointment in five days. Another woman who went to the emergency room spent an hour trying to find a supervisor to help her after a "rude" nurse just kept telling her to have a seat.

"A lot of women were triaged for a regular visit or, even in the ER, were being looked up for a lot of things other than a heart attack," Lichtman said.

Ironically, for some women, it was actually a relief to know that they were having a heart attack, that finally the mystery was over, Lichtman said.

Lichtman and her colleagues will be looking at this issue in more depth in a U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded study enrolling 2,000 women under 55 and 1,000 men in the same age range.

"A little bit of empowerment goes a long way," Steinbaum said. "Knowing your risk and knowing the potential for heart disease, seeking early care for symptoms that are really unclear and then saying, 'I am at risk for heart disease, please help me' becomes important in the paradigm of how this needs to develop."

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

High-Fat, High-Protein Atkins Diet Increase Risk Of Heart Disease

www.allheadlinenews.com

The high-fat, high-protein and low-carbohydrate Atkins diet of eggs, meat and cheese may put the followers at risk for heart disease in just one month, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Maryland say the popular diet raises your "bad" cholesterol and damages the blood vessels thus increasing the risk of heart disease.

Dr. Michael Miller, lead author of the study said, "I think the Atkins diet is potentially detrimental for cardiovascular health, if maintained for a long duration and without attempts to lose weight."

"A stabilizing Atkins diet is not the way to go," he added.

After putting 26 people on three diets, the high-fat Atkins and the low-fat South Beach and Ornish diets, researchers found that the Atkins Diet raised the study subjects' bad cholesterol by an average of 16 points.

It also brought on symptoms of hardening of the arteries, a precursor to strokes or heart attacks. However, the subjects had better lab tests on the other two diets.

The Ornish Diet lowered their bad cholesterol by 25 points, while the South Beach Diet lowered it by 10 points. The conditions of their arteries also improved on both diets.

Though the Atkins diet does help in losing weight but the experts say the consumption of saturated fats are not good for heart health. In addition, many people experience rebound weight gain which is not good. The results were presented at this week's annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Fla.

Report: Heart Disease Patients Getting Younger

www.thepittsburghchannel.com

Medco Health Solutions said more young adults are now using cholesterol drugs and blood pressure drugs than ever.

Experts said there are a couple of reasons young people are using these medications, including obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

But doctors are much more aggressive these days in preventing heart attacks and stroke.

Not long ago, a heart attack nearly took Laura Younger's life.

"When I stood up to leave the room, that's when I collapsed, and my heart stopped," she said.

Paramedics got her heart beating again, and Younger got smart about diet and exercise.

New data show many young adults could benefit from her example.

According to Medco, between 2001 and 2006, the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs jumped 68 percent among its 20- to 44-year-old customers. The rates rose from 2.5 percent to more than 4 percent, or roughly 4.2 million Medco customers.

Blood pressure drugs increased in that age group from 7 percent to 21 percent in the same time period, totaling roughly 8.5 million.

Medco said they believe the epidemic of obesity and overweight young people is the reason more are using cholesterol and blood pressure medication.

Meanwhile, heart disease prevention experts are happy young adults are asking for the medications before they have a heart attack or stroke.

However, they said they should first work to increase their exercise, get a better diet and lose weight.

It's better to take action before you need medications. But experts said once patients start taking medications, they usually stay on them.

Whole Grain Cereal Reduces Heart Failure Risk

www.dogflu.ca

Results of a new study find that eating whole grain cereals can reduce a person's risk of developing heart failure.

It has long been known that eating cereal with whole grains could reduce one's blood pressure and risk of having a heart attack, but now according to U.S. researchers they can also reduce the risk of heart failure.

For their study, Djousse and colleagues studied the breakfast habits of more than 21,000 male doctors with an average age of 53.7 years for nearly 20 years.

They found that men who ate 1 bowl of whole grain cereal per day, had a 28% reduced risk of developing heart failure compared to men who did not.

"Eating half a cup to a cup of whole grain breakfast cereal may help lower your blood pressure. It may help lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease," said Dr. Luc Djousse of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

"This study adds another piece to the puzzle. It may also lower your risk of heart failure," he added.

According to the CDC each year, an additional 550,000 cases of heart failure are reported in America.

The condition occurs when the heart becomes weak, and is unable to pump blood as efficiently as it is supposed too.

Parental Heart History Critical For Both Genders

www.chicagotribune.com

By Melissa Healy

When a man suffers a heart attack at a young age, klaxons sound and red flags flutter for his son. Pointing to a son's inherited risk of going down the same road, physicians probably will urge him to stay away from cigarettes, watch his weight and exercise regularly. And there's growing evidence that that advice prompts many men to take heed - especially the recommendation to exercise.

But do alarm bells sound for the female child of a premature heart attack victim - and does she hear them? A study in the September issue of the American Heart Journal suggests the answers are no and no. The study establishes that although the daughters of families with premature heart disease are at higher risk of developing heart disease themselves, they either are failing to get that message or not bothering to heed it.

Between ages 30 and 50, these women are more likely to be overweight and to smoke than are their female peers without a family history of heart disease. Further, they are only slightly more likely to exercise and, overall, appear less inclined than men are to shape up when an immediate blood relative is stricken with heart problems.

"Women seem to feel they have a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to heart disease," says Dr. Alexis Anvekar, a Pasadena, Calif.-based internist and American Heart Association spokeswoman. "They seem to feel that it's a man's disease."

The American Heart Journal study looked at data collected on 2,400 people as part of the Dallas Heart Study, which surveyed and examined about 6,000 Texas residents to track the incidence and development of heart disease. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center internal medicine specialist Dr. Amit Khera and colleagues looked at how men and women, with and without histories of heart disease, compared on measures of cardiovascular risk factors, arterial blockage as detected on scans, and their reports of exercise activity and tobacco use.

The data supported the long-held belief that women generally have lower levels of plaque and fatty buildup in their arteries. But closer inspection showed that among those women with a family history of premature heart disease, the concentration of arterial plaque and fatty deposits was twice that of women with no such family history. And these women's atherosclerosis was on par with that of men with no family history of heart disease. A family history of heart disease, in effect, wiped out the biological protection against heart disease most females enjoy.

"Having a family history kind of turned a woman into a man biologically," said Khera, the study's senior author.

Along with vulnerable genes, parents with heart disease tend to pass down to their children unhealthful habits. As a result, both men and women with a family history of heart disease were more likely than their same-sex peers without such a history to smoke, weigh too much and (for women but not men) to be sedentary.

But for men, the differences were typically narrow, suggesting that many men with family histories of heart disease had rejected unhealthful habits in an effort to reduce their risk.

There was little evidence that women in the same situation had made such changes.

Khera suggests that, with major public campaigns to educate women to heart disease risks, things might be a little different now than three to five years ago, when the Dallas snapshot was taken. But he said women with family heart disease history - as well as their doctors - still have far to go.

"People are finally getting the message, and women are often more compliant, " when told they must change their ways, Khera says. But if a woman is to be saved from her father's disease, he adds, she needs to get the message, get the treatment and make the changes that could make the difference.

Take a siesta to reduce your blood pressure

www.dailyindia.com

A new study has found that expecting an afternoon nap could reduce blood pressure, consequently cutting down the risk of heart attacks.

Researchers at the Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, U.K., have discovered that the time just before one falls asleep in the afternoon is the most beneficial in reducing blood pressure and lessening the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Afternoon naps, or siestas are typically short naps or rest periods of no more than an hour that are taken in the afternoon.

While earlier studies on siestas have found that this practice may slightly increase the risk of heart attack, the new study has shown an inverse relationship between siesta taking and fatal heart attacks.

According to the researchers, change in blood pressure is the key factor linking afternoon naps to cardiovascular function. Some researchers hypothesize that the lower blood pressure reduces strain on the heart and decreases the risk of a fatal heart attack.

The current study provides a detailed description of changes in cardiovascular function of daytime sleep in healthy individuals, comparing napping with other daytime activities such as standing and lying down without going to sleep.

For the study, the researchers tested nine healthy volunteers (eight men, one woman) who did not routinely take afternoon naps. The volunteers wore equipment that checked blood pressure, heart rate, and forearm cutaneous vascular conductance (which determines dilation of blood vessels).

During one afternoon session, the volunteer spent an hour resting, lying face-up in bed. During another session, the volunteer spent an hour relaxed, but standing. And in one session, the volunteer was allowed an hour to sleep, lying face-up. During the sleep stage, the researchers measured the volunteer's different stages of sleep.

After analysis, researchers found a significant drop in blood pressure during the sleep trial, but not during the resting or standing trials. Besides, this drop in blood pressure occurred mostly after lights out, just before the volunteer fell asleep.

According to the John Moores team, this fall in blood pressure may be one explanation for the lower cardiovascular mortality that some studies have found among people who habitually take siestas. On the other hand, some studies of nocturnal sleep have shown that blood pressure rises when we awake and that more cardiac deaths occur in the mornings.

Hence, the team will next look at blood pressure during the waking portion of the afternoon nap to see if this period may also pose an increased danger of coronary mortality.

The study entitled, 'Acute Changes in Cardiovascular Function During the Onset Period of Daytime Sleep: Comparison to Lying Awake and Standing,' is published in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, published by The American Physiological Society.

Chronic Work Stress May Trigger Second Heart Attack

www.foxnews.com

People who experience chronic job strain after a first heart attack double their risk of suffering from a second one, according to new research from the Universite Laval’s Faculty of Medicine in Quebec.

Previous research had linked work-related stress to a first coronary heart disease event. But this latest study, published in the Oct. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to find conclusive evidence that links stress to a second heart attack as well.

For the study, the research team followed a group of 972 participants, ages 35 to 59, who had suffered a heart attack. Participants were interviewed six weeks, two years and six years after returning to work in order to collect data on their health, lifestyles, socioeconomic status and levels of work stress.

A job was defined as stressful if it combined high psychological demands (heavy workload, intense intellectual activity and important time constraints) and little control over decision-making, including a lack of autonomy, creativity and opportunities to use or develop skills.

During the six-year follow-up period, 124 participants suffered a second heart attack and 82 experienced unstable angina for a total of 206 recurrent events.

People who had reported high levels of stress at work during the first two interviews were twice as likely to fall victim to another event. The risk remained the same even after taking into account factors such as severity of the first heart attack, other health conditions, family history, lifestyle, socioeconomic status, personality and other work-environment characteristics.

The study also found that during the first two years following a heart attack, job strain does not increase the probability of experiencing a second heart attack.

“Employers and occupational health service professionals must find ways to modify the psychological demands of a job or the level of control over decision-making for people returning to work after a heart attack,” concluded study author Chantal Brisson in a news release.

Happy relationships good for the heart

www.telegraph.co.uk

By Laura Clout

Some relationships can be bad for your health, say researchers.

A new study has found that people who lack emotional support and understanding from their partner, have a 34 per cent increased risk of heart disease than those in the most supportive relationships.

Scientists at University College London tracked more than 9,000 people for 12 years.

Participants were asked how far they felt able to confide in their partner, whether talking to them made problems worse, and to what extent the other person offered support.

Those in the most negative relationships were found to be 1.34 times more likely to suffer ailments such as a heart attack, angina or chest pain than those who rated their partner the most highly.

Of the 8,499 people who did not have coronary heart disease at the beginning of the study, 589 reported a heart disease event in this period. Those in the most unhappy relationships were found to have a 34 per cent higher chance of developing heart-related problems than those in the happiest relationships.

British Heart Foundation nurse Cathy Ross said it was important to identify groups least likely to receive emotional support.

A Bad Relationship Can Cause Heart Attack

Study: Sex OK for Men with Chronic Heart Failure

Sex may not be dangerous for men with chronic heart failure, despite fears that intercourse may place too much strain on their heart, a new review shows.

The problem, however, is that many men with chronic heart problems may lose interest in sex as a result of the fatigue, depression, and the prescription side effects they often experience, as well as from fear of damaging the heart, researchers say.

The literature review, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, compiled data from patient surveys and clinical trials on chronic heart failure, sexual activity and sexual dysfunction, and found that the patient’s peak heart rate during intercourse was lower than their heart rate during normal everyday activities like walking on level ground, climbing stairs or doing general housework.

Sixty to 70 percent of men with heart conditions also experience erectile dysfunction, the authors said. Erectile dysfunction often results from a decrease in exercise, as well as blood vessel and circulation abnormalities that may reduce blood flow into the penis.

The authors said that patients who cannot take erectile dysfunction medication may be able to remedy the problem by developing an exercise routine, which may help to enhance their sex drives and overall health.

Men with heart failure can have sex

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Panic Attacks May Increase Heart Risk

www.cbsnews.com

By Salynn Boyles

More Heart Attacks Seen In Older Women Who Experience Panic Attacks

Older women who experience panic attacks appear to have an increased risk for having heart attacks or heart-related death, new research suggests.

Postmenopausal women in the study who reported at least one full-blown panic attack within six months of being interviewed were four times as likely as other older women to have a heart attack or related death over the next five years.

They were three times as likely to have either a heart attack, heart-related death, or stroke, and nearly twice as likely to die from any cause.

Earlier studies have implicated depression as a risk factor for heart disease, but the new research is the first to suggest a direct link between anxiety-related panic attacks and heart attack and stroke risk.

Harvard Medical School associate professor of psychiatry Jordan W. Smoller, M.D., who led the study team, says more research is needed to confirm the finding.

"There is not a lot of previous evidence suggesting that panic attacks are in themselves dangerous (in terms of heart risk)," he tells WebMD. "Our study does not resolve the question. But it does suggest that older women with a recent history of panic attacks may warrant closer scrutiny for cardiovascular complications."

Panic Attacks and Heart Attacks

The study included 3,369 healthy postmenopausal women participating in the larger ongoing Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial examining risk factors for heart disease and other health outcomes among older women.

When they entered the study between 1997 and 2000, the women, whose average age was 66, were asked if they had recently experienced a panic attack. They were then followed for an average of 5.3 years.

At enrollment, one out of 10 women reported having had a full-blown panic attack within six months.

After adjusting for the impact of other established cardiovascular risk factors, a recent panic attack was associated with a fourfold increased risk of heart attack or heart-related death and a twofold increase in death from any cause.

The findings are published in the October issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Our study adds panic attacks to the list of emotional states and psychiatric symptoms that have been linked to excess risk of cardiovascular disease and death," the researchers wrote.

Impact on Heart Hard to Measure

Smoller says it is not clear if the anxiety that leads to panic attacks directly increases cardiovascular risk or if panic attacks are actually a symptom of undiagnosed heart and vascular disease.

"Shortness of breath, chest pain, and raised heartbeat are all symptoms of panic attack," he says. "It is possible that some women who reported these symptoms might have unrecognized cardiac problems."

It is also not clear if the findings apply to younger women and men, or if aggressive treatment of panic attacks with anti-anxiety drugs lowers heart attack and stroke risk.

Cardiologist Gerald F. Fletcher, M.D., tells WebMD that while there is growing evidence to suggest that depression, anxiety, and other psychological conditions have an adverse impact on the heart, the impact remains difficult to measure.

Fletcher is a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.

"We have been able to show a direct link between heart disease and risk factors like hypertension, cholesterol, obesity, and smoking, "he says. "These are easily measurable, but the impact of depression and anxiety on heart risk is not."

Panic Attacks In Older Women Linked To Risk Of Cardiovascular Diseases

Sleep Deprivation Can Lead To Hypertension Risk in Women

www.efluxmedia.com

by Anna Boyd

A new study by British researchers shows that women who deprive themselves of sleep may be more likely to die of heart disease.

Warwick Medical School researchers from the University of Warwick published their study this week in the journal Hypertension. The authors write that women who slept five hours or less were twice as likely to suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension) than women who slept seven hours or more a night.

They found no difference between men sleeping less than five hours or more than seven hours each night.

“Sustained sleep curtailment, ensuing excessive daytime sleepiness and the higher cardiovascular risk are causes for concern,” lead author Prof. Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School, said in a statement.

“Emerging evidence also suggests a potential role for sleep deprivation as a predictor or risk factor for conditions like obesity and diabetes,” he added.

Cappuccio and his colleagues analyzed data pertaining to more than 6,500 participants, more than 4,000 men and more than 1,500 women. All were volunteers from 20 civil service departments based in London.

The researchers established hypertension as blood pressure equal to or higher than 140/90 mm Hg within their sample, or if the participant regularly required blood pressure medications.

Cappuccio said lack of sleep had been linked to a higher risk of developing high blood pressure but also to increased death from cardiovascular cause. “It is a stark finding but the results are highly suggestive of a causal link,” the Daily Mail quotes him as saying.

He will present his research later this month at the British Sleep Society's annual meeting in Cambridge, according to the Daily Mail.

Lack of sleep may lead to heart disease

Sleep deprivation is hazardous

Natural Sleeping Aid: Falling Asleep Easily & Naturally

Top 10 tips for a healthy heart

There are many steps people can take to try to prevent heart disease. You can start by concentrating on key lifestyle areas such as eating, exercise, smoking and drinking, and considering other factors like family history, diabetes and stress. Here are 10 top tips for a healthy heart.

Jessica Aldred
Friday September 7, 2007
SocietyGuardian.co.uk

1. Stop smoking. Quitting smoking is the single most important thing a person can do to live longer. If you are a smoker, you are twice as likely to have a heart attack than a non-smoker. But from the moment you stop smoking, the risk of heart attack starts to reduce. With public smoking bans recently introduced, there has never been a better time to give up.
2. Cut down on salt. Too much salt can cause high blood pressure, which increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Avoid foods like crisps, salted nuts, canned and packet soups and sauces, baked beans and canned vegetables, pork pies, pizzas and ready meals. Many breakfast cereals and breads that appear healthy also contain high levels of salt, so keep your eye on these too.
3. Watch your diet. A healthy diet can help to reduce the risk of developing heart disease, and can also help increase the chances of survival after a heart attack. You should try to have a balanced diet, containing plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, oily fish, starchy foods such as wholegrain bread, pasta and rice. Avoid foods like biscuits, cakes, pastries and dairy products that are high in saturated fats and sugar.
4. Monitor your alcohol. Too much alcohol can damage the heart muscle, increase blood pressure and also lead to weight gain. Binge drinking will increase your risk of having a heart attack, so you should aim to limit your intake to one to two units a day.
5. Get active.The heart is a muscle and it needs exercise to keep fit so that it can pump blood efficiently round your body with each heart beat. You should aim for 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a day. If this seems too daunting, start off gently and build up gradually. Keeping fit not only benefits your physical health - it improves your mental health and wellbeing too.
6. Manage your weight. The number of people who are overweight in Britain is rising fast - already more than half of the adult population is overweight or obese. Carrying a lot of extra weight as fat can greatly affect your health and increases the risk of life-threatening conditions such as coronary heart disease and diabetes. If you are overweight or obese, start by making small, but healthy changes to what you eat, and try to become more active.
7. Get your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked by your GP. The higher your blood pressure, the shorter your life expectancy. People with high blood pressure run a higher risk of having a stroke or a heart attack. High levels of cholesterol in the blood - produced by the liver from saturated fats - can lead to fatty deposits in your coronary arteries that increase your risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and diseases that affect the circulation. You can help lower your cholesterol level by exercising and eating high-fibre foods such as porridge, beans, pulses, lentils, nuts, fruits and vegetables.
8. Learn to manage your stress levels. If you find things are getting on top of you, you may fail to eat properly, smoke and drink too much and this may increase your risk of a heart attack.
9. Check your family history . If a close relative is at risk of developing coronary heart disease from smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of physical activity, obesity and diabetes, then you could be at risk too.
10. Make sure you can recognise the early signs of coronary heart disease. Tightness or discomfort in the chest, neck, arm or stomach which comes on when you exert yourself but goes away with rest may be the first sign of angina, which can lead to a heart attack if left untreated.

· Health tips from the British Heart Foundation.

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Getting Up Early is Bad for the Heart

www.shortnews.com

A study has been undertaken by several Japanese universities and hospitals has stated that waking up early in the morning may be bad for your heart. The study researched some 3,017 healthy adults. Their ages varied between 23 and 90 years.

The study found that "Rising early to go to work or exercise might not be beneficial to health, but rather a risk for vascular diseases." The study was awful sure to state that those who rise early are also generally older.

Sleep Quality May Be Determined by Pillow Height, Study Finds

Natural Sleeping Aid: Falling Asleep Easily & Naturally

"Good" Cholesterol Not Always Good for Heart Health

Source: www.physorg.com

It’s yet another example of how a good thing can go bad: Researchers have found evidence in laboratory studies that ‘good’ cholesterol, renowned for its ability to protect against heart disease, can undergo detrimental changes in protein composition that make it ‘bad’ for the heart.

Scientists long have suspected that there may be dysfunctional forms of so-called ‘good’ cholesterol, also called high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, that can loose their heart-protective effect. But the exact chemical composition of HDL, both good forms and bad, has remained largely unknown, researchers say.

In a study presented today at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, researchers reported what is believed to be the most detailed analysis to date of the protein composition of HDL. They uncovered surprising new information about HDL, including previously unrecognized proteins that appear to play an important role in maintaining heart health. Their findings could one day lead to new, more accurate lab tests for heart disease as well as new, potentially life-saving treatments for the disease, which is the number one killer in the United States and other developed countries.

“Targeting HDL could represent a new horizon in heart disease diagnosis and treatment,” says study leader Jay Heinecke, M.D., of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. “But simply boosting HDL levels may not be enough to prevent heart disease. You might have to target the right proteins in HDL.”

HDL, which removes cholesterol from artery walls, is also suspected of having anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Its evil twin, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) deposits cholesterol in arteries. To further explore HDL’s role in the body, Heinecke and colleagues conducted a detailed analysis of the protein composition of HDL and found 48 proteins, including 22 proteins that play a role in cholesterol metabolism and 13 proteins not previously known to exist in HDL.

Of the proteins identified in HDL, some might play a previously unsuspected role in preventing atherosclerotic plaques from rupturing. The rupture of these plaques, followed by formation of an artery-plugging blood clot, causes most heart attacks, the researcher says. Other important protective proteins identified in HDL may protect heart cells from injury during a heart attack, Heinecke says.

But other components found in HDL have potentially destructive effects in the body by promoting cholesterol accumulation and inhibiting some of the heart-protective effects of other proteins, Heinecke says. Thus, boosting HDL cholesterol levels alone might not protect the heart, he says. Indeed, a major pharmaceutical company recently withdrew an experimental HDL-boosting drug when it was found that the drug caused an increase in deaths and heart problems, Heinecke notes.

A better understanding of the protein components of HDL could therefore lead to new, more accurate tests for predicting or evaluating heart disease, says Heinecke, whose study is funded by the National Institutes of Health. He notes that heart attacks can occur in people whose cholesterol levels appear normal and that conventional diagnostic tests for cholesterol levels do not always give a clear picture of the disease. More effective, targeted HDL-based interventions could potentially save lives, especially when used in combination with statin drugs that target low density lipoproteins (LDL), or bad cholesterol, says Heinecke, who notes that more studies are needed.

“There’s still a lot we don’t know about heart disease,” Heinecke says. “HDL is still a big mystery, but we’re closing in on it and we’re pretty excited.” Important interventions for fighting heart disease include exercise, a well-balanced diet, and taking heart medications as prescribed, experts say.