How are your genes looking? No it is not a typo and I do not mean the ones on your backside, I mean the ones your Mama and Papa gave you!
Cholesterol be warned… they are on a rampage and their coming for you. An international study of over 20,000, yes 20,000, people allowed researchers to identify 7 new genes that influence blood cholesterol levels and confirmed 11 other genes that were previously thought to influence high lipids.
Of the seven new variants, two influenced HDL, one influenced LDL, and three influenced triglycerides, which are found in fat and in the bloodstream …read more

Well duh… This is one of those, “I could have guessed that” pieces of info. Sometimes I wonder why I didn’t go into research, haha.
Tobacco smoke-filled air is bad for cardiovascular health, and drinking alcohol at the same time only makes it worse, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
There was a 4.7 fold increase in artery lesions when the mice were exposed to smoky air in a laboratory enclosure and fed a liquid diet containing ethanol, the intoxicating ingredient in alcohol. We need to curb our habits now…
via Science Daily

All righty then. I found research out of UT Southwestern Medical Center that is a bit taboo. They have found a drug that can counteract the symptoms associated with a cocaine overdose. That handy little drug is most often seen in the operating room or ICU’s and is used as a anesthetic. And it’s name… dexmedetomidine.
They found that the drug was effective in reversing the actions of cocaine on heart rate, blood pressure and vascular resistance in the skin by interfering with the ability of cocaine to increase nerve activity. “Typically, patients with cocaine overdoses in …read more

An international trial has been stopped early! There were such significant reductions in the incidence of stroke and overall mortality in those receiving treatment that it has been given the red light.
The 3,845 patient Hypertension in the Very Elderly Trial (HYVET) is the largest ever clinical trial to look at the effects of lowering blood pressure solely in those aged 80 and over. Preliminary results of the trial, which is coordinated by scientists from Imperial College London, suggest that lowering blood pressure significantly reduces both stroke and mortality in the over-80s.
The final numbers will be presented after the patients …read more

Scientists have long reported that deaths from lung diseases, heart attacks and strokes are significantly higher on days with high pollution levels, the newspaper said.
This was reported out of Los Angeles, imagine that. A US study has shown the exposure to diesel exhaust can cause heart disease in people with high cholesterol. Hmm… Can’t anything trigger a heart attack in people with extremely high cholesterol?
This is why you always have to take research with a grain of salt. True diesel exhaust has been linked to lung cancer and asthma attacks, as well as DNA damage, but this …read more

So, I have a sticky kind of topic to share with you today…
A large study has found that black Medicare patients are less likely than white patients to receive blood vessel opening procedures such as angioplasty following a heart attack, whether they are admitted to hospitals that provide or do not provide these procedures, but also experience higher mortality rates at 1 year, according to a study in the June 13 issue of JAMA.
Why the difference?  Do you really think it is solely race related or are there other factors that play in to the decisions for interventions?
“These differences …read more

Cardiac disease deaths fall while obesity and diabetes are on the rise.
So, that’s surprising? How can the amount of diabetics rise and yet cardiac disease among the very same people is decreasing. Bizarre? No…
Epidemiologists at the University of Liverpool and the Heart of Mersey have found that approximately half the recent fall in coronary heart disease deaths in the US is due to positive life style changes and a further half to medical therapies.
So yet another tribute to the ol’ healthy lifestyle. Diet and nutrition play such a big part. So, I promise …read more

Hot dog ladies! Have a drink on me… We now have research that supports that a drink a day keeps the doctor away, well at least the cardiologist. That’s right, women that have the occasional drink run less of a risk of having a non-fatal heart attack than women who abstain from the ol’ liquid poison during their lives.
Results showed that in this population-based study, women who drank moderately had a significantly lower risk of heart attack than abstainers, and the benefits were greatest in women who had a drink daily. A lower risk for drinkers than …read more

Protected by its own nutrients and blood supply, a beating heart supported by an investigational organ preservation device was successfully transplanted into a 47-year-old man with congestive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension on Sunday, April 8.
Very cool stuff! This pioneering surgery took place at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine using a heart that was maintained in a beating state on the investigational Organ Care System (OCS) for two hours and 45 minutes.
The recipient was discharged from the hospital on April 30th in good shape. The OCS keeps organs in their physiological, beating state during transportation to …read more