Lazy People & Sex;Heart Attack Risk

[waltky]

New study finds surprising number of middle aged women with AF...

Sustained Irregular Heartbeat Raises Mortality Risk for Middle Aged Women
June 04, 2011 - Many doctors see atrial fibrillation (AF), an abnormal heart rhythm, in their elderly patients. But a new study indicates that a surprising number of middle aged women, who are otherwise healthy, are diagnosed with AF and are at a higher risk of death.

Judy Kulp has come to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston to check on her atrial fibrillation. "It feels like a middle school kid who wants to be a drummer in the band, but has no sense of rhythm," said Kulp. Atrial fibrillation happens when electrical impulses in two of the four chambers of the heart go into an irregular or chaotic pattern. Doctors often diagnose it when patients come in with symptoms of heart papitations. It is a condition not commonly seen in middle aged women.

An international group of researchers wanted to know why, so they looked at results of the Women's Health Study, conducted from 1993 to 2010. Data was collected from 35,000 women whose average age was 53. No one in the group had previous heart problems. But surprisingly, the women with sustained atrial fibrillation had a twofold greater risk of death than others. Dr. David Conen of the University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland and other researchers wanted to know what the risk factors were for these women, especially those who appeared to be healthy.

"There was an increased risk of death among women who developed atrial fibrillation, even in a population who was at absolutely low risk of cardiovascular disease at baseline," said Conen. Cardiologist Christine Albert of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts was one of the researchers. She says the key is whether the AF is constant. "When we looked at women who had what we call paroxysmal [brief and intermittent] atrial fibrillation, which is atrial fibrillation that comes and goes, we didn't find an elevation in total mortality," said Albert.

Patients are often treated with medication to reduce high blood pressure and are urged to reduce their cholesterol levels and not to smoke. Judy Kulp underwent what's called ablation therapy, which uses catheters to suppress the atrial fibrillation. "I feel fantastic," said Kulp. "I haven't had any symptoms. The difference of not knowing what's going to happen from day to day, to feeling great, is wonderful." Women, and men, who feel they have symptoms of atrial fibrillation are advised to see their doctor for appropriate treatment. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Source

 

[Shadow]

Uncle Ferd says, "Yea, dat's why ya oughta have sex everyday - so's ya can stay in shape...
Sporadic Physical Activity Increases Risk of Heart Attack
April 01, 2011 - Millions of people find themselves in the emergency room each year due to a heart attack because they overdid it during an exercise routine, or a bout of love-making

Doctors the world over tell their patients to exercise for better health. But people who seldom or never exercise need to be extra cautious about engaging in strenuous physical activity. A new study shows that for these people, a sudden burst of activity, like jogging or sex, can be deadly. You hear this often: "Check with your doctor before you start a new exercise program." A new study shows the wisdom of that advice. Each year, millions of people find themselves in the emergency room after a heart attack because they overdid it during an exercise routine, or a bout of love-making.

Regular cardiovascular exercise reduces the risk of heart problems. But for the couch potatoes of the world - people who are sedentary - suddenly launching into a cardio program or having sex can lead to a heart attack. Doctors at Tufts University Medical Center in Boston studied the problem and found a direct link between exercise and heart attack for these patients. Doctors Jessica Paulus and Issa Dahabreh reviewed 14 studies of the exercise-heart attack connection, mostly involving men between the ages of 55 and 64. "For those individuals who were unaccustomed to regular physical activity or who did not typically exercise, this risk was much higher than for those individuals who were regular exercisers," said Paulus.

The study showed the greatest risk is during the activity and for up to two hours afterward. Should anyone interpret this as an excuse not to exercise, however, Paulus said they should think again. "If they are unaccustomed to exercising but they’d like to start becoming more physically active, they should do so very gradually and under the care and supervision of a physician."

Dr. Dahabreh also pointed out that regular exercise is good even for people who have a higher risk for heart attack, because it conditions the heart to beat more slowly during a strenuous workout or sexual activity. "People who exercise frequently, regularly, several times per week, will then have a much smaller increase (in heart rate) while they are involved in these specific activities," said Dahabreh. The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Source

See also:

Donor DNA May Identify Early Heart Transplant Rejection
April 01, 2011 - Study could also help improve success of other transplants; Examining donor DNA could give doctors a non-invasive, early warning of organ rejection, which could be controlled with anti-rejection medications.

Scientists are reporting a new way to identify when a heart transplant recipient is starting to reject the new organ. The new technique could help doctors ensure the success of more transplants. The human immune system is programmed to reject foreign bodies. It's how we fight off infections. That's one of the biggest obstacles in organ transplant: the body sees the new organ as foreign. So transplant recipients take powerful immunosupressant drugs, but rejection still happens. If discovered early enough, doctors may be able to adjust the patient's medications. If not, they may need another transplant...assuming an organ is available.

To monitor for rejection of heart transplants, doctors examine the new heart for signs of rejection every couple of months. "The current gold standard to look for rejection is to actually physically biopsy the heart, which means the doctors go in and rip a piece of it out and look at it under a microscope," says Stanford University researcher Stephen Quake, who calls the procedure "rather medieval." "The key insight for this work was to realize that a heart transplant is really a genome transplant. When someone else's heart gets put inside your body, all the cells in that organ have that person's genome, which is different than yours. And so, if you sequence DNA from the blood, you can tell which DNA is coming specifically from the heart as opposed to other organs by those small differences in the genome."

Scientists have long known that the blood contains bits of DNA, which were in cells that have since died. And if a transplanted heart is being rejected, it will have more dead cells, and shed more DNA. "When the organ is being rejected, your immune system is attacking it and the cells become very unhealthy and start to die, and when they die they spill their genome into the blood," Quake explains. "And so you'd expect an increase in the amount of heart DNA in the blood to be a direct consequence of damage to the heart. And that's, in fact, what we showed in this paper."

For this research, Quake studied heart transplant patients, but he says he believes the same method could be used for other kinds of organ transplants, too. That would give doctors a non-invasive, early warning of organ rejection, which can be controlled in many cases by adjusting the patient's anti-rejection medications. The Stanford University researcher describes the DNA-based method of identifying organ rejection online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source

Uncle Ferd could be right. Missionary sex is very good for working your butt and core muscles..I've heard.

 

[whitehall]

You can move this to the conspiracy forum but I think you are going to see studies all over the place which promote concern and even outrage about certain American lifestyle habits. Nobody really knows what is in the incredible monster of a "health care law" and my guess is that if the federal government guarantees your health care it will also monitor and possibly attempt to regulate your lifestyle.

 

[Shadow]

You can move this to the conspiracy forum but I think you are going to see studies all over the place which promote concern and even outrage about certain American lifestyle habits. Nobody really knows what is in the incredible monster of a "health care law" and my guess is that if the federal government guarantees your health care it will also monitor and possibly attempt to regulate your lifestyle.

What do you mean attempt...They already try...

ban soda
ban fatty foods
ban Ronald Mcdonald
ban bake sales/food fundraisers
ban smoking
ban candles and other "smells" in public places

and so on...

 

[waltky]

Dat's what Uncle Ferd tells his fat g/f's; he says "Aw honey, but sex is good fer ya"...

Good sex everyday keeps doctors away
Jul 6, 2011, You would have never thought that a kiss could help keeping dental worries at bay or a gratifying sexual act at night make you feel fit and fresh the next morning. But that's what studies across the web claim.

Healthy sex leads to a healthy life. You may have tried copious measures to get that extra glowing skin and shiny hair. You must have also worked out rigorously to achieve that perfect ten figure you've desired. But the key to your mind and heart is fulfilling sex. Even for those who lose their temper or are always in a depressed state of mind, 'sex' can be the solution.

A happy sexual life with your partner not only gets you in shape with better skin texture and silken tresses, it also burns extra calories, keeps you fit, combats asthma, relieves headache, reduces depression and tranquilises your mind. From make-up experts, hair stylists, sexologists and fitness connoisseurs – there's a common consensus that a vigourous sexual life leads to a healthy life – both physically and emotionally. We get them share more on this...

There have been several notions stating that 'sex' produces certain hormones that bring happiness, which lead to a fit body and a healthy mind. Shedding some light on this, Dr. Sanjay Chugh, specialist on sexual issues, states, "Sex contributes to general good health. Any sexual intimacy that is enjoyable and pleasurable promotes well being by providing several physical and psychological benefits. It is believed that sex boosts chemicals in the body that protects us against diseases. Research also suggests that sex and masturbation can help ease joint and muscle pain, combat depression, promote heart health and lengthen one's life span."

Dr. Samir Parikh, clinical physiatrist adds, "The basic fact is that a good sex life also means in a larger picture, a good relationship with one's partner and this makes the partner happier, less stressed and by virtue of that physically healthier." Not just this, sex also accelerates blood circulation and one's basic metabolic rate, which further enhances the well-being of our mind and soul and helps us calm down.

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Doctors Achieve Milestone Using Artificial Heart With No Beat
July 06, 2011 - In March, two doctors at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston achieved what medical experts call a major milestone by implanting a continuous-flow artificial heart in a human patient. The mechanical heart worked flawlessly. But the patient, who suffered from other grave illnesses, eventually died after he and his family decided not to prolong treatment. The success of the artificial heart used in that case has opened the way to greater use of the device in other cardiac patients.

Since the first artificial heart was implanted in a human here in Houston in 1969, the field has advanced steadily. But it hasn't kept pace with the need for devices that can keep patients alive until they can get a real organ transplant. Heart disease remains the number one killer of Americans each year. Of the estimated 5 million people in the United States with failing hearts, only around 2,000 are likely to get a transplant this year.

That is where various types of artificial pumps have come into play. Last month, at the Texas Children's Hospital here in Houston, Jordan Merecka, 17, became the first patient in a U.S. pediatric hospital to have his congenitally deformed heart removed and replaced with an external mechanical heart pump. Meeting with reporters a few days ago, he told how he almost ran out of time, waiting to have the procedure. "This is just a godsend. A couple months earlier and I would not be here right now," said Merecka.

Merecka, who now awaits a transplant, has limited mobility in the hospital as he remains tethered to the artificial heart beating loudly beside him. But nearby, at the Texas Heart Institute, doctors and researchers are working with another type of artificial heart, one that is much smaller, much more efficient and does not beat. Lead researcher Dr. Bud Frazier explained its advantages over devices like the one keeping Jordan Merecka alive at Children's Hospital.

"It is a good life-saving pump, but the limitation of it is that it is externally powered and externally driven, and it requires a large console," said Frazier. "So, if we are really going to impact the premature death from heart failure, we have to have a pump that is implantable and can replace the heart." The artificial heart Frazier and his colleague, Dr. William Cohn, developed is small enough to be implanted in the human chest. But, unlike an animal or human heart, it produces no pulse because it is a continuous-flow mechanism. It uses a small spinning turbine to keep blood flowing at a steady rate rather than a pump that mimics the action of the heart found in humans or in the calves the doctors have used for trials.

To provide the blood flow of a natural human heart, vibrating pumps must beat 100,000 times a day, 35 million times a year, leading to mechanical breakdowns. The continuous-flow pumps are much more durable and can last years without a problem. These continuous-flow devices have been used for some time to assist the left ventricle of the heart, which is the part that sends blood throughout the body and is the part that most often fails. But the doctors at Texas Heart Institute use a device that is essentially two such pumps put together to replace the functions of both sides of the heart.

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[AmericanDream]

I've heard of people having heart attacks from having sex too. Stay in shape America! Or stop fornicating so much.

 

[waltky]

Heart disease is the main reason people's hearts suddenly stop...

Study: High Percentage of Sudden Heart-Related Deaths Preventable
July 15, 2011 : There's new medical evidence that women who do not smoke and maintain a healthy weight with diet and exercise can reduce their risk of sudden cardiac death by more than 90 percent. The finding might seem obvious, but for many people it isn't.

Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anybody - young and old alike. It is not a heart attack. It's a mechanical problem where the heart just stops beating. Without emergency medical care, most people who experience it die within minutes. Heart disease is the main reason people's hearts suddenly stop. An abnormal heart beat also increases the risk. Age is a factor. So is obesity and lack of exercise. Although women face the same risk as men for heart problems, they are more likely to delay contacting a doctor or going to an emergency room. Stephanie Chiuve, a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, is one of the co-authors of a study that followed more than 80,000 women for 26 years.

"The objective of our study was to examine the burden of sudden cardiac death that may be due to unhealthy lifestyle habits," she said. The participants reported on their smoking, exercise and eating habits. Among the women who volunteered for this study, some had heart disease and others didn't. Chiuve says the results were consistent in both groups. "Within this population, approximately 81 percent of all sudden cardiac deaths [might] have been prevented had all of the women adhered to a healthy lifestyle," she said.

But the study found that women who maintained a healthy weight through diet and exercise, and also didn't smoke, lowered their risk of sudden cardiac death even more - by 92 percent. The message is clear: eat plenty of fruits and vegetables - and exercise. Doctors generally recommend between five and nine servings daily. And exercise? One cardiologist says the type of exercise doesn't matter. "Some of this activity doesn't have to be an exercise program," Dr. Paul Thompson said. "It simply has to be not sitting. There are some studies that show that you get a lot of the benefits of exercise simply by being on your feet and not sitting at a desk."

In the United States, sudden cardiac arrest causes more than 300,000 deaths each year. The World Health Organization reports that heart disease accounts for more than 15 million deaths, or about 30 percent of the global total, every year. If public health initiatives work to decrease risk factors for heart disease, doctors say the numbers of people dying from sudden cardiac arrest and other heart conditions should decrease as well. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Study: High Percentage of Sudden Heart-Related Deaths Preventable | Health | English

 

[waltky]

Take an aspirin for heart disease...

Cheap heart drugs are not used enough, study finds
Mon, Aug 29, 2011 - Encouraging more people to use aspirin and other low-cost medicines would reduce the toll from heart disease and stroke, the leading cause of death worldwide, researchers said.

A seven-year study of more than 150,000 people found that about 60 percent of those with heart disease may not be taking any of the four effective drug types, according to research presented yesterday at the European Society of Cardiology’s conference in Paris. Use of the treatments was low even in countries with well-developed health systems, according to researchers led by Salim Yusuf of the Population Health Research Institute in Hamilton, Canada. “Efforts to increase the use of effective and inexpensive drugs for prevention of cardiovascular disease are urgently needed, and would substantially reduce disease burden within a few years,” researchers wrote in the study published in The Lancet.

Cardiovascular disease is the world’s biggest killer and may cause 23.6 million deaths annually by 2030, up from 17.1 million in 2004, according to the Geneva-based WHO. More than 80 percent of deaths occur in lower and middle-income countries, where people have less access to health services and are more exposed to risks such as poor diets, according to WHO. Researchers looked at anti--platelet drugs such as aspirin, which reduce blood clots, -cholesterol-lowering statins and two types of treatments that lower blood pressure, so-called beta blockers and angiotensin receptor blockers. Participants in 628 rural and urban communities across five continents completed standardized questionnaires by telephone interviews, visits to their homes or when they went to a clinic.

The study “provides a stark and alarming message,” Anthony Heagerty, a cardiologist from the University of Manchester in England, wrote in an accompanying editorial. “The implication is that a fresh approach to secondary prevention is needed, especially in high--income countries,” he wrote. Canada, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates were the three high-income countries considered. -Middle-income nations included Brazil, Poland, Turkey, China and South Africa. The poorer countries were India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

The study, the largest of its kind to date, according to The Lancet, showed that only a quarter of people suffering from cardiovascular disease used aspirin and other anti-platelet drugs. Use of the other three drug types was even lower, according to the researchers. In low-income countries, less than 10 percent of patients used the drugs. Governments need to educate doctors and patients about the drugs and work with industry to make sure they are available, Heagerty wrote. “Strong action is needed,” he said. “An epidemic of cardiovascular disease is just beginning in many countries that are ill-prepared for what is to come.”

Cheap heart drugs are not used enough, study finds - Taipei Times

See also:

First Scots patient has ground-breaking heart procedure
12 Aug 2011 : A 64-YEAR-OLD man has become the first person in Scotland to have a heart valve replaced without major surgery.

Ernest Donnelly, who was born with a congenital heart condition, had the malfunctioning valve replaced in two hours through a vein in a ground-breaking procedure.

Within hours of the procedure on Tuesday Ernest was up enjoying a party with his family and was released from hospital yesterday.

Unlike open heart surgery, transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement does not require stopping the heart and placing the patient on a heart-lung bypass machine.

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[waltky]

Impotence could be indication of heart problems...

Impotence could point to heart problems: study
Thu, Sep 15, 2011 - Failing erections may be a harbinger of heart disease in some men, according to a review of a number of studies — but heart-healthy lifestyle changes or cholesterol-lowering drugs could have a positive impact on men’s sexual health.

Scientists have long known about the link between impotence, or erectile dysfunction, and heart health. Although there is no proof so far, a common theory is that arteries supplying the penis with blood during erections may clog up earlier than those in the heart, which are larger, thus providing an early warning of possible later coronary artery disease. To address the connection between the two, Dong Jiayi of Soochow University in Suzhou, China, and colleagues combined 12 earlier studies of impotence and heart disease, covering about 37,000 men. “This meta-analysis ... suggests that erectile dysfunction significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke and all-cause mortality, and the increase is probably independent of conventional cardiovascular risk factors,” they wrote in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

They found that men with erectile problems had a 48 percent increase in their risk of developing heart disease and also had higher death rates than men who didn’t have sexual problems. Traditional risk factors such as smoking, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure didn’t explain the link, strengthening the case that impotence, when it isn’t due to partnership problems or other psychological issues, is a risk factor for heart disease in its own right.

However, another study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that both lifestyle changes and cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins appeared to improve men’s erectile problems — but only a little. Men who exercise more or were put on a Mediterranean diet rich in whole grain, fruits, vegetables, nuts and olive oil, for instance, reported a 2.4 point improvement on a 25-point scale of erectile problems.

Those put on statins saw a similar improvement of 3.1 points, Bhanu Gupta and colleagues said at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The results were based on six trials with 740 participants. “The results of our study further strengthen the evidence that lifestyle modification and pharmacotherapy for cardiovascular risk factors are effective in improving sexual function in men with erectile dysfunction,” they wrote. They added that lifestyle changes appeared to work regardless of whether the men were taking Viagra, the most common drug to treat impotence, or not.

Source

 

[waltky]

Many researchers are looking at using stem cells to repair the heart...

Cardiac cells 'heal heart damage'
14 November 2011 - Stem cells taken from a patient's own heart have, for the first time, been used to repair damaged heart tissue, researchers claim.

The study, published in the Lancet, was designed to test the procedure's safety, but also reported improvements in the heart's ability to pump blood. The authors said the findings were "very encouraging" Other experts said techniques with bone marrow stem cells were more advanced and that bigger trials were needed. The scientists say this is the first reported case of cardiac stem cells being used as a treatment in people after earlier studies had shown benefits in animals.

Improvement

The preliminary trial was on patients with heart failure who were having heart bypass surgery. During the operation, a piece of heart tissue, from the right atrial appendage, was taken. While the patient was being sewn up, researchers isolated cardiac stem cells from the sample and cultured them until they had about two million stem cells for each patient. The cells were injected about 100 days later. Doctors measured how efficiently the heart was pumping using the left ventricle ejection fraction - what percentage of blood was leaving one of the heart's main chamber with every beat.

In the 14 patients given the treatment, the percentage increased from 30.3% at the beginning of the trial, to 38.5% after four months. There was no change in the ejection fraction in the seven patients who were not injected with stem cells. Dr Roberto Bolli, one of the researchers from the University of Louisville, told the BBC: "We believe these finding are very significant. "Our results indicate that cardiac stem cells can markedly improve the contractile function of the heart."

Heart v bone

The heart is not the only source of potentially useful stem cells. Trials have already taken place using stems cells from bone marrow. Prof Anthony Mathur, from Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Prof John Martin, from University College London, are already conducting large randomised clinical trials. They are investigating the effect of giving patients stem cells from their own bone marrow, in NHS hospitals, within six hours of a heart attack.

More BBC News - Cardiac cells 'heal heart damage'

 

[waltky]

Grief raises heart attack risk...

Bereavement raises heart attack risk, says study
9 January 2012 - The first seven days following bereavement appear to be the most risky in terms of heart health

The newly bereaved are at greatly increased risk of heart attack after the death of a close loved one, US researchers say. Heart attack risk is 21 times higher within the first day and six times higher than normal within the first week, a study in the Circulation journal of nearly 2,000 people shows. Symptoms to watch for include chest pain and shortness of breath. Experts say intense grief puts extra strain on the heart.

The psychological stress associated with loss can raise heart rate, blood pressure and blood clotting, which, in turn, can increase the chance of a heart attack. A person's sleep and appetite are also likely to be disrupted. Compound this with self-neglect - such as not bothering to take regular medication - and the result can be grave. The researchers say it is important for family and friends to be aware of these risks and to keep an eye out during such difficult times.

Emotional

Lead investigator Dr Murray Mittleman, of Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said: "During situations of extreme grief and psychological distress, you still need to take care of yourself and seek medical attention for symptoms associated with a heart attack. "Caretakers, healthcare providers and the bereaved themselves need to recognise they are in a period of heightened risk in the days and weeks after hearing of someone close dying."

The researchers reached their estimates by studying 1,985 heart attack survivors and comparing how many of them had recently been bereaved. Among the study participants, 270 (13.6%) experienced the loss of a significant person in the prior six months, including 19 within one day of their heart attack. Heart attack risk went up significantly within the first week after the death of a close loved one. The risk was highest in the first seven days following bereavement and declined steadily thereafter.

Vulnerable BBC News - Bereavement raises heart attack risk, says study

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

You can move this to the conspiracy forum but I think you are going to see studies all over the place which promote concern and even outrage about certain American lifestyle habits. Nobody really knows what is in the incredible monster of a "health care law" and my guess is that if the federal government guarantees your health care it will also monitor and possibly attempt to regulate your lifestyle.

What do you mean attempt...They already try...

ban soda
ban fatty foods
ban Ronald Mcdonald
ban bake sales/food fundraisers
ban smoking
ban candles and other "smells" in public places

and so on...

I don't perceive it to be the government that's doing that...it seems to be ordinary citizens who are leading the campaigns against some of those activities.

Like the smoking situation...blame the nonsmokers who are doing all the whining about it, not "the government." (I'm an ex-smoker, in case you were wondering. Quit 10 years ago.)

 

[waltky]

New anti-clotting drug for surgical patients with stents...

New Drug Makes Surgery Safer For Patients With Stents
January 19, 2012 - People who have had heart surgery often take blood-thinning drugs to prevent life-threatening blood clots from forming. But if these patients ever need surgery again, they face a dilemma. They must stop taking the anti-clotting medication several days before surgery to avoid bleeding to death in the operating room. Once off the medication, though, they risk a deadly blood clot. The ideal solution would be an anti-clotting drug that leaves the body quickly so patients can have surgery without delay. VOA's Carol Pearson reports just such a drug is on the horizon.

Heart stents open blocked arteries and restore blood flow. They can also help support weak arteries and keep them open. Stents are implanted during a common procedure called angioplasty. During this procedure, the doctor threads a thin, flexible tube with a balloon or a similar device on the end through a blood vessel to the narrow or blocked artery.

After stenting, patients are put on a blood-thinning medicine to prevent clots in the stent. The problem comes when patients taking these drugs have to have heart surgery. Cardiologist Eric Topol sums up the dilemma. “The stakes are really high once a stent’s been placed in an artery of the heart and if a stent clots it either results in a heart attack or the patient dying,” Topol said.

Dr. Topol is the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. He co-authored a study involving 200 patients who had heart stents and who needed open heart surgery. Half the group was given a placebo. The other half received a medication called cangrelor which patients receive intravenously. "We were testing to see whether or not we could inhibit their platelets, which are the cells that form a blood clot," Topol said.

Cangrelor’s anti-clotting property loses effect within a few hours, so it can be discontinued just prior to surgery. “The results were pretty striking on the side of being able to inhibit clotting. We were able to do that in all the patients, virtually, with this medicine cangrelor as compared to the placebo,” Topol said.

Not only were the patients able to have surgery sooner, Dr. Topol says, but they didn't have any trouble with bleeding. "So now we have an intravenous medication that was tested which can be used in those days between stopping the oral medications and actually undergoing the major operation,” Topol said. A report on the successful trial of the new anti-clotting drug, cangrelor, appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Spource

 

[merrill]

Sex gets that heart pumping which is good for many things especially getting oxygen to the brain and clearing any gas problems that may be nagging the system.

Then again so does a 90 minute fast pace walk... then again exercising improves sex so what a deal.

 

[expat500]

Please tell me no tax dollars went to fund any of these moronic studies

They're called Quangos in the UK.

The new Labour government loved them.

 

[Big Black Dog]

When it comes to sex, I do my part. I lay there and sweat...

 

[expat500]

When it comes to sex, I do my part. I lay there and sweat...

Do your part?

Like strumming a lute?

 

[waltky]

The way genes switch on and off could influence the health of our hearts...

Gene switch 'key to heart health'
22 January 2012 - Scientists may be closer to understanding how genes can influence serious heart conditions, says a Nature Genetics report.

The failure to turn off a specific gene at the right time in an embryo's development could mean illness later in life. Mice in which the gene was left active were born apparently healthy, but suffered heart muscle problems later. A heart charity said it might one day be possible to fix the genetic switch. The science of "epigenetics", which places importance not just on the genes you carry, but also how well they are working, is a relatively new area.

There is increasing evidence that suggests that while you carry the same set of genes for life, environmental factors, such as diet or even your mother's health while you are in the womb, could affect their activity, and your chances of certain illnesses later in life. The scientists from the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco focused on two genes, and their role in cardiomyopathy, a enlarging and weakening of the heart muscle which is a feature in life-threatening heart defects in children and adults.

Developing signs

One of the genes, called Six1, appears to play an important role in embryonic heart development, while the other, Ezh2, seems to have the job of switching off genes, including Six1, when they are no longer needed. The researchers tested the precise relationship by stopping Ezh2 from working in the embryo and foetus at various points during pregnancy, thereby allowing Six1 to go on working for longer than usual.

They found that while the mice were born apparently normal and healthy, they then started to develop the signs of cardiomyopathy. This suggested that although leaving Six1 switched on in humans might produce a seemingly healthy baby, it could be storing up heart problems for later in life. Analysis of the results revealed that, in a healthy pregnancy, Six1 should only normally be switched on briefly during heart development.

'Crucial step'

 

[nitroz]

Awwwwwwwwww....


Do I HAVE to get it up now?

 

[editec]

Study: Sex Increases Heart Attack Risk for Lazy People

If you sit on your butt most of the time, this news may make you break out in a sweat: Sporadic bursts of sex or exercise can increase the risk of a heart attack.

Dr. Issa Dahabreh and Dr. Jessica Paulus, researchers at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, made this discovery after reviewing 10 studies investigating physical activity, three involving sexual activity and one study that looked at both.

Study: Sex Increases Heart Attack Risk for Sedentary People

This is news?

I'd have thought such a finding was rather self evident.

People unused to strenuous activity often have heart attacks when Ior shortly thereafter) they do strenuous things.

duh!