Women’s Health Newsflash: Why Heart Health Is So Important to Women

February is American Heart Month, and I’m teaming up with the rest of the b5media Science and Health Channel to discuss heart health. This issue is of particular importance for women because heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in America today. So, in honor of raising awareness of heart health, today’s Women’s Health Newsflash is all about the heart. Because who has time to read it all? Here’s what you need to know about recent women’s heart health news.

Heart Disease May Be On The Rise Again, After Years Of Decline, Population Research Shows

Autopsies of individuals in one Minnesota County suggest that the decades-long decline in the rate of coronary artery disease may have ended and possibly reversed after 2000, according to a new report. “Over the past century, the rate of death due to heart disease in the United States rose until the mid 1960s when it began a steady decline, which continues today,” the authors write as background information in the article. These declines appear to be accompanied by reductions in the incidence and death rates of coronary artery disease, the most common form of heart disease, characterized by blockages in the vessels that supply blood to the heart. Read more >>>

Dangerous Duo: Hostility Plus Depression Elevates Risk For Heart Disease

Researchers led by Jesse Stewart, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Indiana University — Purdue University Indianapolis, report that hostility and depression appear to act together in a complex way to elevate inflammatory proteins in the human body, possibly putting hostility plus depression on the list of risk factors for heart disease along with high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and smoking. The findings, that hostility enhances inflammatory processes relevant to heart disease only in the presence of depressive symptoms, are published in the February-March 2008 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. Read more >>>

More Heart Deaths in Nation’s Future? Obesity Blamed for Increased Risk of Coronary Artery Disease

In the U.S., a decades-long trend toward less heart disease has ended — and may now be going the other way. The finding comes from an unexpected source — autopsies of the heart arteries of 425 people aged 16 to 64 who died in accidents, homicides, or from other “non-natural causes” from 1981 to 2004. Year after year, Mayo Clinic researcher Cynthia L. Leibson, PhD, and colleagues found less heart disease in these non-elderly adults — until 1995. At that point, the downward trend ended. “The prevalence of coronary artery disease is not continuing to decline,” Leibson tells WebMD. Read more >>>

New Heart Attack Treatment Vacuums Blood Clots From Blocked Arteries

A tiny vacuum threaded through an artery sucks blood clots away from the heart, improving outcomes for heart attack patients. Blood clots in the heart arteries cause heart attacks, angina, and other problems. The current treatment — balloon angioplasty with wire-mesh stents to prop open the artery — has enormously increased the chances of surviving a heart attack. Now, the odds of surviving a heart attack may be even better. Instead of using a balloon to squash the clot against the sides of the artery, a new technique allows doctors to vacuum away the clot. Read more >>>

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Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King

Tags: womens health, woman, health, headlines, heart disease, american heart month, number 1 killer of women