There has been a great deal of discussion recently about the problems with various drugs for hypertension. None of this discussion puts this disease into context. Perhaps the greatest difficulty with hypertension is helping patients understand the concept of “saving now for retirement later.” What I mean by that is the vast majority of patients [...]
Exposure to particulate matter air pollution causes heart attacks, strokes, heart rhythm disturbances, and heart failure in susceptible people, according to an expert panel convened by the American Heart Association. The panel updated the AHA's 1994 report using new data....
Athletes have been enjoying the benefits of creatine supplements to gain stronger muscles since the 1990s, and the supplement has also proven beneficial among other groups. Could it help cardiac patients regain strength to help with their heart-training workouts as part of rehabilitation? The evidence at this stage suggests not - exercise alone proved a far more powerful tonic for patients in a study out today. The results appear in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation, published by SAGE........ Obese people without metabolic risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, such as hypertension and cholesterol, do not have the elevated cardiovascular risk typical of obesity, but they represent only a small percentage of the obese population, as per a long-term study. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego........ Please tell my you brush your teeth. Not doing so is bad for your teeth, but could even give you a heart attack, according to a recent report in the British Medical Journal. Now that's just bizarre, isn't it? London-based...
I don’t know who said it, but supposedly the lead story on news programs is always the bloodiest. On Monday the general public was treated to the media version (should I say circus?) of a barely published article in Lancet that was actually leaked before publication. I say barely published because there is a pretty [...] Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients face a two hundred percent increased risk of suffering a Myocardial Infarction (MI, heart attack) versus the general population, which is comparable to the increased risk of MI seen in diabetes patients, as per results of a newly released study presented today at EULAR 2010, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Rome, Italy........ An article in this month's Circulation journal recommends an "exercise prescription" as more effective than a doctor just telling his patient, "You need to exercise more." The prescription is more specific and goal-oriented. Regular exercise prevents heart attacks and deaths... A study of twins shows that even with genes that put them at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, eating a Mediterranean-style diet can improve heart function, as per research reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. Using data from the Emory Twins Heart Study, scientists observed that men eating a Mediterranean-style diet had greater heart rate variability (HRV) than those eating a Western-type diet. Heart rate variability refers to variation in the time interval between heart beats during everyday life - reduced HRV is a risk factor for coronary artery disease and sudden death........ 
It is all well and good to tell patients to take a handful of pills every morning and to insist that they spend a considerable amount of money on them…but do they really work? At the present time, five classes of drugs have been found to improve the prognosis of patients sustaining a myocardial infarction. [...] University Hospitals Case Medical Center heart specialists have uncovered new research showing an increased risk of cancer with a group of blood pressure medications known as angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs). This class of drugs is used by millions of patients not only for hypertension but also for heart failure, cardiovascular risk reduction and diabetic kidney disease........ 
Two studies were recently published concerning the cardiovascular risk of working overtime. The first published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine (there is a journal for everyone) and the second in the European Heart Journal. The first studied nurses and the second London civil servants.
Over a 15-year period, 12,116 nurses were studied. They were originally between [...]Even for people who have existing heart disease, the Mediterranean diet helps prevent future heart disease complications, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last month. We've known for years that the traditional Mediterranean diet prevented...
It is uncertain whether conditions characterized by increased circulating triglyceride concentrations are causal in coronary heart disease. Although epidemiological associations have suggested a positive correlation between triglyceride levels and coronary risk, these associations disappear after controlling for HDL and LDL cholesterol.
In this study the authors assessed a promoter polymorphism (rs662799) of the apolipoprotein A5 (APOA5) [...]
Although rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality have declined substantially over the last three decades, the exact reasons for this are not yet clear. Identifying the factors associated with this improvement is vital for setting future healthcare policy. Diet, lifestyle, risk factors and treatment uptake are all important, but these change rapidly and have [...]
It has been one year and 104 blogs since I started this dialogue with you and I hope you are enjoying it. I have learned a great deal and I look forward to continuing it this year.
I would like to thank the people behind the scenes Christine Moncrieffe and Lidia Amoretti who edit and post [...] Circulation of cholesterol is regulated in the brain by the hunger-signaling hormone ghrelin, scientists say. The finding points to a new potential target for the pharmacologic control of cholesterol levels. The animal study, led by Matthias Tschp, MD, professor in the University of Cincinnati (UC) endocrinology division, appears online ahead of print Sunday, June 6, 2010, in Nature Neuroscience....... 
My apologies to Dr. David Reuben, who wrote the book by this title in 1971, for stealing his title. Yes it seems a long time ago that people thought this was so controversial. I guess that’s what the Internet has done. People are definitely more informed. Or are they?
It turns out that we cardiologists are [...]