Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is more likely to go undiagnosed in women than men, says Maya Rao, MD, of Columbia University.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, warning signs of CKD include high blood pressure, puffiness around eyes, and swelling of hands and feet. Other signs include frequent urination, particularly at night, and painful or difficult urination. Tests may show blood or protein in the urine. Around 19 million Americans are affected by CKD.

Rao’s paper, being presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual meeting, suggests that educating practitioners about CKD may increase timely diagnosis of the disease. Her study included a review of 900 patients in rural, community-based primary care clinics in Oregon. Rao’s analysis showed that 52.4% of patients found to have CKD didn’t have a diagnosis in their charts. Plus, women were more likely to be undiagnosed than males.

Rao says that instead of just ordering a blood test called creatinine to test kidney function, primary care doctors should also obtain a glomerular filtration rate, a more accurate estimate of kidney function. According to the National Kidney Foundation, a glomerular filtration rate less than 60 is a warning sign for CKD.

Have you discussed kidney function tests with your GP?

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CKD Often Undiagnosed in Women

I don’t hear much traffic noise near my home, but my rattling refrigerator is certainly annoying and sly. (It was so silent for the repair guy.)

A new study by Swedish researchers found that people exposed to noisy roads are more likely to suffer from hypertension, a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

The study, published in Environmental Health, analyzed the link between living close to noisy roads and suffering from high blood pressure. Physical changes in response to noise exposure may include changes in blood pressure, heart rate and amounts of stress hormones.

Researchers found that exposure to noise above 60 decibels was linked with high blood pressure in the young and middle-aged. However, increases in noise didn’t affect blood pressure for older adults, ages 60 to 80. Researchers suggest that perhaps the noise just doesn’t annoy older adults or that the effect may be harder to detect because of other risk factors with increased age.

The 27,963 study participants lived in southern Sweden and completed health survey questionnaires. Around 30% of the people living in the European Union experience high levels of traffic noise.

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Traffic Noise May Raise Your Blood Pressure

An interesting study, published in the most recent issue of the journal Neurology, found that people over the age of 45 years who had a high lower blood pressure number, the diastolic number had a higher chance of having memory or cognitive problems than those who are normotensive, or have normal diastolic blood pressure numbers.

Researchers looked at almost 20,000 people who were over 45 years old. According to a press release from American Academy of Neurology,

For every 10 point increase in the reading, the odds of a person having cognitive problems was seven percent higher. The results were valid after adjusting for other factors that could affect cognitive abilities, such as age, smoking status, exercise level, education, diabetes or high cholesterol.

Most people tend to focus on the upper number of the blood pressure reading, the diastolic pressure. While it can be dramatically high, such as 200/110, doctors have come to recognize that the lower number plays a large role in heart and brain health as well. In this instance,

Research has shown that high diastolic blood pressure leads to weakening of small arteries in the brain, which can result in the development of small areas of brain damage.

At this point, researchers don’t know if this is reversible or not. But, by knowing that there is a relationship between higher diastolic numbers and memories, doctors have an even added incentive to try to keep those numbers low.

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Memory Problems? How’s Your BP?

Although we know it’s important to protect our skin from the sun to reduce the risk of skin cancer, as with everything, moderation and common sense needs to take hold. Unless their skin is very fragile, five to 10 minutes in the sun without sunscreen shouldn’t do any harm to their skin, but will be very beneficial for vitamin exposure. By removing the sun from a child’s life altogether, they are at higher risk for many other illnesses.

In a study published today in the online version of the journal Pediatrics, researchers write:

Seven out of ten U.S. children have low levels of vitamin D, raising their risk of bone and heart disease, according to a study of over 6,000 children by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The striking findings suggest that vitamin D deficiency could place millions of children at risk for high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease.

Digging down further, researches found that 9% of the children were vitamin deficient, while 61% didn’t have enough vitamin D.

The highest risk children for low vitamin D levels were:

• older children
• girls
• African-American
• Mexican-American
• drank little milk (less than one per week)
• were sedentary (4 hours or more/day spend in front of a screen – TV, video, computer)

As if the low vitamin D levels weren’t bad enough, the researchers also found that other measurements were off. The parathyroid hormone, something that controls the blood calcium, were higher than they should be, blood pressure was higher, and the good cholesterol (HDL) levels were lower than they should be.

The researchers were stunned by how common the problem seems to be. They’re hoping that this research will alert doctors to look for signs of vitamin D deficiency (which can also lead to rickets – soft bones that can show by bow-leggedness, for example) and to encourage parents to give their children vitamin D-rich foods and get some sun exposure.

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Images courtesy PhotoXpress.com, iStock.com

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Low Vit D in Kids Now = Problems Later

Researchers were quick to point out that energy drinks are not the same as sports drinks. Sports drinks help “replenish carbohydrates and electrolytes” after a workout. Energy drinks do that.

In other words? Choose your beverages carefully.

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Energy Drinks: Bad for Heart Disease

People that had insomnia for a year or longer and slept less than five hours a night were “five times as likely to have high blood pressure.” This confirms that the power is sleep is important. If you are having trouble that you think might be insomnia, seek medical attention.

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Insomnia’s Harmful Effects

A study that was published online on Wednesday in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy , has found that healthy adults who drank two cans a day of a popular energy drink had an increase in both blood pressure and heart rate. The researchers did point out though, that there didn’t seem to be any changes in the heartbeats themselves, as seen with an ECG (electrocardiogram).

The small study (15 men) looked at both blood pressure and heart rate for one week. Two days before the study started, the men stopped drinking or eating anything with caffeine and other than the study energy drink, they didn’t consume any for the week-long study.

What the researchers found was that the men’s heart rates rose, on average, 7.8% on the first day of the study and by 11% at the end of the week. Their blood pressure rose at least by 7% throughout the study, starting the first day.

Why would the blood pressure and pulse go up? The ingredients of the drinks do that. The main ingredients are 80 mg of caffeine (3 x the amount in a bottle of Coca Cola), 1,000 mg of taurine, an amino acid that is said to play a role in the heart, and about *5* tablespoons (not teaspoons) of sugar. All in one 250 mL can.

The role of caffeine and sugar is obvious, but we’re not so sure about the taurine. The amino acid does exist naturally in some of the food we eat, but recommendations seem to be that we shouldn’t consume more than 3,000 mg of extra taurine per day. If you drink three cans, you’re at your limit.

So, if the drinks have such an effect on healthy hearts, perhaps those with problems should avoid them altogether.

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Images: Stock.Xchng.com, MorgueFile.com

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Heart disease? Skip the energy drinks

CRP(C-reactive protein) inflammation encourages plaque to form in the blood vessels. This plaque will eventually cause the blood vessels to rupture causing a heart attack or stroke.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) is often shortened to CPR. When your health care provider is explaining your disorder they will usually use the term CRP.  You will see CRP in written articles also.

If you are experiencing any health problems related to your heart make an appointment with your health care provider immediately. Be sure to tell them at the time of your appointment, you would like your cholesterol and CRP levels checked.

People who are otherwise healthy but have high CRP levels are more likely than those with low CRP levels to have heart disease and its complications, such as heart attacks, strokes, sudden cardiac death, and peripheral arterial disease (hardening of the arteries in the legs, which causes leg cramps and poor circulation in the legs and feet). In fact, people with high CRP have 2 or 3 times the risk of heart disease compared to people with low CRP levels.

You can find more informative on this site Heart Health.

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CRP Heart Inflammation

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner you may want to consider giving your love, a heart healthy treat.

For those of us with partner’s that have high blood pressure or heart problems that love their sweets, this article is a great find. Dark chocolate may be just what the answer you are looking for.

Do you know that cocoa is actually a fruit? We all know that fruits are good for us.

Researchers have found a link that shows cocoa and dark chocolate aid in the fight against cardiovascular disease.  The studies show reduced risk for blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks.

Food scientists at Cornell University found that there are twice the antioxidants in cocoa as were in red wine. The study also stated that there were three times more antioxidants in cocoa than found in green tea.  

Cocoa also appears to have anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties. And cocoa is a good source of the minerals magnesium, sulphur, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, potassium, and manganese; plus some of the B Vitamins.

We have all heard at one time, the chocolate was not healthy. Now the findings are the the right kind of chocolate such as dark chocolate is actually heart healthy.

Studies have also proven that dark chocolate contains an amino acid Tryptophan, that aids in the fight against depression.

To find more on this interesting article click here. Dark Chocolate

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Chocolates For Your Love

The couch at his new college Fordham University in New York had taken his blood pressure and stated that it was too high.

Like most young people Danny Thrall thought he was young and athletic what could be wrong with him, other than something minor.

His test revealed that his aorta was greatly enlarged; this was due to a leaky valve. The doctor advised Danny that the surgery would have to be done quickly. During the surgery part of his aorta and valve would have to be removed and replaced with a mechanical version.

Danny flew home to Chicago for his surgery.

This was not the first time Danny had undergone heart surgery, when he was six months old doctors had to repair a narrowing aorta.

Throughout his childhood, he routinely saw cardiologists. But until these recent tests, his doctors had noted nothing more than some minor valve leakage.

To find the entire story just click here Danny Thrall.

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