Avocado nutrition: Health benefits and easy recipes
Swimming lessons save lives: What parents should know
Preventing and treating iliotibial (IT) band syndrome: Tips for pain-free movement
Wildfires: How to cope when smoke affects air quality and health
What can magnesium do for you and how much do you need?
Dry socket: Preventing and treating a painful condition that can occur after tooth extraction
What happens during sleep 鈥� and how to improve it
How is metastatic prostate cancer detected and treated in men over 70?
Could biofeedback help your migraines?
What is autism spectrum disorder?
Heart Attack Archive
Articles
Hot flashes and heart health
This symptom is common in menopause, but frequent or persistent episodes could be a sign of higher risk for heart attack or stroke.
Researchers have begun to pay more attention to cardiovascular risk factors that are unique to women, such as early menopause (before age 40) and certain pregnancy complications. Recently they turned their attention to a common menopausal symptom that affects up to 85% of women: hot flashes.
Study results presented in September 2019 to the North American Menopause Society from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) found that women who experience frequent or persistent hot flashes may be more likely than women who don't to experience a heart attack or stroke or other serious cardiovascular problems. (Researchers defined "frequent" hot flashes as having them six or more days in the previous two-week period. Women with "persistent" hot flashes reported those frequent hot flashes at 25% or more of study visits.)
Advice about taking aspirin and statins after age 75
These drugs are mainstays for preventing heart disease. Are they safe and effective in older people?
Low-dose aspirin and statins are both common, inexpensive drugs that help prevent the two root causes of most heart attacks 鈥� blood clots and cholesterol-laden plaque clogging the arteries of the heart. In recent years, a number of studies have helped experts refine their advice as to who should or should not take these medications.
However, evidence-based advice for people in their mid-70s and beyond is a bit harder to come by. Historically, most drug trials have included only a small proportion of people 75 and older, in part because there are fewer people in that age demographic. Also, older people tend to have other chronic health conditions. As such, they may be more prone to drug side effects, making doctors reluctant to enroll them in clinical trials.
Who needs aspirin?
Age, family history, and other risk factors determine if daily aspirin can help prevent a heart attack or stroke.
For many of us, aspirin was the go-to medicine of our youth. Everything from headaches, colds, and general aches and pains were treated with two aspirin and a glass of water.
For decades, aspirin was widely believed to be a safe way to protect healthy adults from heart attacks and strokes. But over the past couple years, new research has questioned this premise and many doctors have already stopped prescribing aspirin for adults at low risk of cardiovascular disease.
Flu shot may lower risk of early death in people with high blood pressure
In the journals
Need another reason to get your annual flu shot? It could protect you from a fatal heart attack or stroke if you suffer from high blood pressure, according to research presented at a 2019 joint conference of the European Society of Cardiology Congress and the World Congress of Cardiology.
Previous research has found that the inflammation from a flu infection can trigger a heart attack or stroke, and people with high blood pressure are especially at high risk.
A major change for daily aspirin therapy
New recommendations could affect millions of people.
You may remember a time when taking a daily baby aspirin was almost a rite of passage for generally healthy older adults. The idea was that, for people with a low to moderate risk for heart disease, aspirin therapy was a simple and cost-effective way to help prevent a heart attack or stroke.
But taking aspirin increases the risk for bleeding in the stomach and brain (see "How aspirin affects the body").
Were the old aspirin studies wrong?
Ask the doctor
Q. For 25 years, my doctor has recommended low-dose aspirin to reduce my risk of a heart attack. Recently, he told me that new studies indicate that I can stop. What's changed?
A. Millions of people are asking the same question. I'm afraid some of them think that, when doctors change their recommendations, it means we really don't know what we're doing. To the contrary, the recommendation you got 25 years ago was based on sound scientific evidence, and so is the recommendation you received recently.
Winter weather warning
When the temperature drops, the risk of a heart attack rises. Here's how to stay safe in chilly weather.
Cold weather 鈥� especially when it's windy or snowy 鈥� can challenge your cardiovascular system. When you venture outside, the tiny blood vessels in your fingers and toes squeeze tight to shunt blood deeper into your body, keeping your vital organs nice and cozy.
To overcome the resistance from those narrowed vessels, your heart beats with extra force, causing your blood pressure and heart rate to rise. This normal physiological response usually isn't a problem, especially for healthy people.
The state of statin prescribing: Location matters
Research we're watching
If you've had a heart attack, national guidelines strongly recommend taking a high-intensity statin to prevent a second heart attack. But a study of Medicare recipients finds that where you live may affect your chances of receiving a statin prescription.
People living in New England were most likely to receive a high-intensity statin (74%), while those from the West South Central states (such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana) were the least likely (41%). The data came from nearly 140,000 people ages 66 and older who were hospitalized for a heart attack from 2011 to 2015. The findings were published online July 24 by JAMA Cardiology.
Protect your heart, preserve your mind?
Heart attacks may leave people more vulnerable to thinking and memory problems as they age.
Growing older often means slowing down, both physically and mentally. Just as people can't move quite as fast as when they were younger, their thinking and memory abilities 鈥� known as cognitive function 鈥� may also slowly wane.
Now, new research suggests that people who have a heart attack or angina (chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart) may face a faster drop in thinking skills than people who don't experience those heart-related problems.
Ultra-processed foods linked to poor heart health
Research we're watching
Eating ultra-processed foods 鈥� such as packaged snacks, sugary cereals and drinks, chicken nuggets, and instant soup 鈥� may leave people more prone to heart disease and an early death, two new studies suggest. Both were published May 29 in The BMJ.
One study followed more than 105,000 adults for just over five years. Researchers found that for every 10% increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods people ate, their risk of a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular event was 12% higher. The other study tracked nearly 20,000 people over an average of 10 years. People who ate more than four servings of ultra-processed foods daily had a 62% higher risk of dying from all causes compared with those who ate only two servings per day.
Avocado nutrition: Health benefits and easy recipes
Swimming lessons save lives: What parents should know
Preventing and treating iliotibial (IT) band syndrome: Tips for pain-free movement
Wildfires: How to cope when smoke affects air quality and health
What can magnesium do for you and how much do you need?
Dry socket: Preventing and treating a painful condition that can occur after tooth extraction
What happens during sleep 鈥� and how to improve it
How is metastatic prostate cancer detected and treated in men over 70?
Could biofeedback help your migraines?
What is autism spectrum disorder?
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