Cardiovascular

Growing evidence shows that exposure to lead in the environment is associated with cardiovascular disease, including increased risk of hypertension. However, those studies have looked at lead concentrations in blood, not bone lead, a better indicator of cumulative lead exposure over time. In a new study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) ...

A harmless shard from the shell of a common childhood virus may halt a biological process that kills a significant percentage of battlefield casualties, heart attack victims and oxygen-deprived newborns, according to research presented Sunday, September 6, 2009, at the 12th European meeting on complement in human disease in Budapest, Hungary. Introducing the virus’s shell ...

A moderate aerobic exercise program, without weight loss, can improve insulin sensitivity in both lean and obese sedentary adolescents, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that permits glucose to enter cells to be used for ...

A long-standing system for assessing the risk of cardiovascular disease amongst older people should be replaced with something more accurate, according to a study published published on the British Medical Journal website. The Dutch study looked at several hundred people with no history of cardiovascular disease aged 85 over a five year period to see ...

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in processed foods contain trans fatty acids that interfere with the regulation of blood flow. A new report reveals a new way in which these “trans fats” gum up the cellular machinery that keeps blood moving through arteries and veins. In the August 2009 issue of the international journal Atherosclerosis, University ...

People who have a reduced lung capacity may have a greater risk of heart attack and stroke because they show evidence of inflammation, reveals a study published online ahead of print in Thorax. This association is not related to smoking, respiratory diseases or obesity. The New Zealand researchers took measurements of lung capacity and inflammation ...

Got high cholesterol? You might want to consider a bone density test. A new UCLA study sheds light on the link between high cholesterol and osteoporosis and identifies a new way that the body’s immune cells play a role in bone loss. Published Aug. 20 in the journal Clinical Immunology, the research could lead to ...

US doesn’t fare as well as Japan and Australia Despite many medicines and other treatments for patients with vascular disease, a large international study shows these patients have a surprisingly high rate of recurring events such as strokes, heart attacks and hospitalizations as well as mortality. Also unexpected: patients in North America (including the U.S.) experienced ...

Study highlights: * Measuring blood flow in the ankle may identify stroke survivors at risk of subsequent events. * This test, the ankle brachial index, compares blood flow in the ankle to blood flow in the arm to detect poor circulation caused by fatty plaque buildup in the lower ...

Aging yeast cells accumulate damage over time, but they do so by following a pattern laid down earlier in their life by diet as well as the genes that control metabolism and the dynamics of cell structures such as mitochondria, the power plants of cells. These research findings, presented at the American Society for Cell Biology ...

Americans with diabetes nearly doubled their spending on drugs for the disease in just six years, with the bill last year climbing to an eye-popping $12.5 billion. Newer, more costly drugs are driving the increase, said researchers, despite a lack of strong evidence for the new drugs’ greater benefits and safety. And there are more ...

An analysis of four studies involving more than 14,000 patients found that long-term use of the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia®) increased the risk of heart attack by 42 percent and doubled the risk of heart failure, according to a new report from researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues. There was no ...