You say po-tae-to I say po-ta-to. Calcium supplements are now under fire. For years it has been thought that prescribing calcium to post menopausal women helped maintain bone health as well as possibly reducing the risk of high cholesterol. Apparently that news is ’so yesterday’.
Researchers at the University of Auckland examined the effects of calcium supplementation on heart attacks stroke and sudden death. 1,471 healthy post-menopausal women aged 55 years or over took part in the study. And just what did they find?
Dietary calcium intake was assessed and women were seen every six months over five years. Adverse …read more

Fa-la-la-la-la…la-la-la-la……. The holidays are here and with them comes stress, anxiety and overall worry. Did I get all the shopping done? Have I finished the cookies? Did I send the cards out yet? “I forgot my cousin twice removed from my step fathers side of the family- he needs a gift!!!!!!!”
Yup- that pretty much sums it up-the holidays blow in and out like a flash of light. It is hard sometimes to stop and think about what the true meaning is and to not get caught up in the hub bub!
And what 2 days of the year do you think …read more

Working at an urgent care facility, I see a lot of acute heart attacks as well as extreme panic attacks. I was poking around the internet and my old text books this morning looking for definitive differences on the ol’ anxiety attack and MI. I know that some experience such extreme panic type feelings, heart palpitations and shortness of breath, that the only definitive way to tell exactly what is going on is looking for ST changes on an EKG.
So much of what I read really bothered me. “The difference is that panic attacks are not crushing and heart attacks …read more

Endorphins and other morphine-like substances known as opioids, which are released during exercise, don’t just make you feel good — they may also protect you from heart attacks, according to University of Iowa researchers.
That good ol’ “runner’s high” is caused by natural opioids that are released during exercise and they are super duper (that is a word from my kids) good! If we can harness exactly how these altered gene expression patterns work, we can reveal specific cardio-protective pathways and viola… we can mimic these same properties of exercise into treatments for heart disease. And that is that.
Read more …read more

When you really stop and think about it, aren’t you more active in the summer months than the winter months? I think I am with the pool, walks in the evenings and running with the kids all day long. So this little tidbit of information shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
A five-year study found people treated in the summer were on average 8% more likely to see their blood pressure come down to healthy levels.
These same findings were reported from 15 VA hospitals across the US. Not only are blood pressure’s elevated in the winter months but the incidence of …read more

Cocaine isn’t the only illegal drug out there that can cause a heart attack. Ecstasy or “XTC” as it is known has been making a comeback in the younger population. The emergencies rooms across the world are seeing more and more heart attacks and untimely deaths from this nasty little drug. Oh boy, I feel like I want to lock my daughters in their rooms until hey are 30!
Physicians in the emergency department should become familiar with this drug because of its emerging trend toward its use, advise the case report’s authors. Although it was once thought …read more

I am bringing you a list of 10 Hearty trivia facts. Some are oh so crazy and off the wall, others are expected. Enjoy! And don’t forget to check out all of my fellow science and health bloggers “top 10 lists”. I think it is a fun way to relay information, both clinically and personally…
Top 10 Hearty Trivia Facts
1. Author of Frankenstein Mary Shelley kept her dead husband’s, poet Percy Shelley, heart wrapped in silk until she died. Imagine how that smelled!
2. You can purchase the largest model of a human heart for a small price …read more

So, more proof that stress can “kill you”, or at least make you sick. We all know that turmoil and constant marital strife can make your days seem very long and your life feel plain out miserable but it can also put you at higher risk for heart disease.
In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, those with the worst close relationships were 34 percent more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends.
Being in a …read more

Hmm… I will present this to you with no opinion or comments from me. It seems that researchers out of The Bristol Heart Institute in Britain have confirmed the belief that certain patients that have survived heart attacks and heart disease become more naturally pre-conditioned than their healthy counterparts.
… Discovered surprising responses of the heart to mock cardiac surgery in a mouse model. When the heart was stopped and restarted — mimicking the conditions used in most heart bypass surgery — scientists found hearts with coronary disease from genetically modified mice were more resistant to damage than hearts without …read more

Human embryonic cells has helped rebuild heart tissue in rats. Yes, the research was on rats but promising and welcomed none the less. Here is what the group of US researchers had to report…
Implanting human embryonic stem cells in rats four days after they had heart attacks repaired heart muscles and improved heart function, researchers from the University of Washington and the biotechnology company Geron report in an article appearing Monday in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Previous attempts to “heal” with stem cells in a cardiac fashion have failed secondary to the limited success of deriving heart cells from …read more