Heart Disease

Well, they won't make you immortal, but short of that, oats are one of the best foods you can eat, particularly if your goal is to lower your cholesterol. David Jacobs, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, said he believes oats really do deserve a "thumbs up. " Because they are hard to refine (they get so sticky that they gum up the machinery) most of the oat products available are whole grains, precisely the type of carbohydrate that nutritionists say we should eat more of. Jacobs and his team, in a 2007 study of more than 27,000...

Half the nation's overweight teens have unhealthy blood pressure, cholesterol or blood sugar levels that put them at risk for future heart attacks and other cardiac problems, new federal research says. And an even larger proportion of obese adolescents have such a risk, according to the alarming new numbers. "What this is saying, unfortunately, is that we're losing the battle early with many kids," said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a University of Colorado School of Medicine expert who was not involved in the study.

Men diagnosed with prostate cancer are routinely given a harsh hormone therapy treatment for four months - it suppresses the production of the male sex hormone testosterone - but little was known about how effective that treatment was at increasing the odds of survival in those with early- and intermediate-stage disease. So researchers decided to test whether giving the drugs along with radiation treatments could prolong a patient's life. The answer, according to a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, is no and yes: no, the drugs - such as...

Attempts to trivialize serious issues are a regular problem in American political discourse. The bottle bill, seat belt safety, the fight against tobacco use, all were targeted by opponents by trying to change the question or divert it to some silly or superfluous side alley of conversation. Sadly, the most recent example of this technique is the replacement of serious conversation about the dangers of obesity with a meaningless kerfluffle over selling fudge brownies at school bake sales.

A coronary artery calcium scan is a CT scan that looks for calcium deposits in the arteries that supply the heart. It is noninvasive and is often promoted commercially - for roughly $300 per scan - as a way to screen for the buildup of plaque in arteries, a condition called atherosclerosis. Calcium often - though not always - builds up in plaque the longer it sits in artery walls. Thus a high score on a calcium scan can indicate long-lasting plaque and - perhaps - elevated risk of heart attacks or sudden death.

"YOU SEE all those brown little things?" Ann McKee asked me as I looked through a microscope. I was viewing a slide sample of the brain of Dave Duerson, the Notre Dame All-American defensive back who won Super Bowls with the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 1990 New York Giants. Duerson was a Notre Dame trustee, a National Football League Man of the Year for community service, and an economics major who completed a management program at Harvard Business School. Early in his football retirement, he nearly tripled the annual sales of a meat supply company to $63.5 million.

Statins - which include Lipitor (atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), and Crestor (rosuvastatin) - are relatively safe drugs, and they've saved thousands of lives over the past 20 years, particularly in men with established heart disease. But like any drug they can cause problems in some, including muscle aches, an increased risk of diabetes, and, gaining recent attention, memory loss. Unfortunately, the exact incidence of memory problems isn't known. Manufacturer-sponsored clinical trials show that they occur in fewer than 1 percent of users, but statin...

Cholesterol-lowering statins, prescribed to some 30 million Americans, have begun to lose a bit of their luster. Signs are starting to appear that the risks of taking statins may outweigh the benefits for people at low risk of having a heart attack. Some doctors have begun to question the wisdom of putting young adults with high cholesterol on statins for decades, and many expressed outrage at national guidelines issued last year to test cholesterol levels in 9-to-11-year-olds, which could result in a surge of children being placed on statins.

WASHINGTON - Heart disease can sneak up on women in ways that standard cardiac tests can miss. It’s part of a puzzling gender gap: Women tend to have different heart attack symptoms than men. They’re more likely to die in the year after a first heart attack. Many women don’t realize that heart disease is the number one female killer. One in 30 women’s deaths in 2007 was from breast cancer, compared to about 1 in 3 from cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association.

WASHINGTON -- Declines in death rates from most major causes -- including heart disease and cancer -- have pushed Americans' life expectancy to a record 77.6 years. Women are still living longer than men, but the gap is narrowing. Women now have a life expectancy of 80.1 years, 5.3 more than men. That's down from 5.4 years in 2002 and continues a steady decline from a peak difference of 7.8 years in 1979, the National Center for Health Statistics said yesterday in its annual mortality report.

NEW YORK — The NFL is telling retirees about a medical study that says former players live longer than men in the general population. While player safety issues related to brain trauma and other football-related injuries dominate the headlines, the study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found 334 deceased men in a sampling of 3,439 former NFL players. Estimates for the general population anticipated 625 deaths. Players in the study participated in the NFL for at least five seasons from 1959 through 1988, and were observed by NIOSH through 2007.

Here are some tips for staying mentally fit: Get plenty of exercise. Regular exercise can counter effects of aging on the brain. Get adequate sleep. Poor quality or too little sleep can cause fuzzy thinking. Avoid cigarettes. Smoking can damage the heart and affect blood flow to the brain. Don't overdo alcohol. Drinking can affect memory. Eat colorful produce. Chemicals called flavonoids, which give fruits and vegetables their color, have been associated with improved brain function.

Everything's not better with Blue Bonnet on it. Despite the ad claim, Blue Bonnet 53 percent Vegetable Oil Spread rated lowest of 15 butter alternatives Consumer Reports' trained tasters sampled, due to its fatty residue, stale taste, and lack of dairy flavor. Other findings: Taste. The best of the bunch was Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter with Canola Oil (the oil shaves off some saturated fat). It has a whipped-butter taste and lacks the slight to moderate movie-popcorn fake butter flavor (officially diacetyl)

Negative emotions like anger, anxiety, and depression have long been associated with heart disease, but what about the flip side? Can positive emotions like optimism, life satisfaction, and a sense of well-being actually lower your risk of having a heart attack or stroke? Perhaps, according to a new review of more than 200 studies from the Harvard School of Public Health. The researchers found that those who scored high on the happiness index were less likely to be diagnosed with heart disease compared to those whose happiness scores reflected a more ho-hum existence.

Negative emotions like anger, anxiety, and depression have long been associated with heart disease, but what about the flip side? Can positive emotions like optimism, life satisfaction, and a sense of well being actually lower your risk of having a heart attack or stroke? Perhaps, according to a new review of more than 200 studies from the Harvard School of Public Health. The researchers found that those who scored high on the happiness index were less likely to be diagnosed with heart disease compared to those whose happiness scores reflected a more ho-hum existence.

Cholesterol-lowering statins, prescribed to some 30 million Americans, have begun to lose a bit of their luster. Signs are starting to appear that the risks of taking statins may outweigh the benefits for people at low risk of having a heart attack. Some doctors have begun to question the wisdom of putting young adults with high cholesterol on statins for decades, and many expressed outrage at national guidelines issued last year to test cholesterol levels in 9-to-11-year-olds, which could result in a surge of children being placed on statins.

ATLANTA -- The government today warned that a few drinks a day may not protect against strokes and heart attacks after all. Some studies in recent years have touted the health benefits of moderate drinking, with a portion of them indicating that up to four drinks a day can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease in people 40 and older. But researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from 250,000 Americans who participated in a 2003 telephone survey.

TRENTON, NJ -- Prison life may be dangerous, but getting out can be deadly, too. Newly released inmates were almost 13 times more likely than the general public to die during their first two weeks of freedom, a study in Washington state found. Drug overdoses were the top killer, with former convicts 129 times more likely to die that way within two weeks of their release than the general population. That cause of death was followed by heart disease, homicide, and suicide, according to the study, the first major look at the issue.

WASHINGTON — Gene scans may not be right for everyone. New research suggests that for the average person, decoding your own DNA may not turn out to be a really useful crystal ball for future health. Today, scientists map entire genomes mostly for research, as they study which genetic mutations play a role in different diseases. Or they use it to try to diagnose mystery illnesses that plague families. It's different from getting a genetic test to see if you carry, say, a particular cancer-causing gene.

The president and Congress recently cut funding for local public health initiatives dramatically as part of a deal to offset the planned cuts to Medicare physician payments. Eliminating critical and promising community prevention funding was a huge disappointment, and a real setback to programs that successfully cut health care costs. The foundation of our current health care system is the treatment of illness and disease rather than the promotion of good health. If we created the conditions to make it possible for people to take better care...