Walk to school, less heart risk as an adult (USA)

A morning walk or bike ride to school could reduce stress reactivity in children, which is linked to later heart risk, U.S. researchers say. Senior investigator James Roemmich, a University at Buffalo associate professor, and graduate students Maya Lambiase and Heather Barry say cardiovascular reactivity - changes in heart rate and blood pressure due to stress - is associated with the beginnings of cardiovascular disease in children and atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis, in adults, is the build-up of cholesterol, calcium, fat and other substances in artery walls. The research team had 20 boys and 20 girls - all Caucasian, ages10-14 - visit the Behavioral Medicine Research Laboratory. Half of the children sat in a comfortable chair and watched a 10-minute slide show of images of a suburban neighborhood to simulate a ride to school. The other half walked on a treadmill - while images of a suburban neighborhood were projected onto a screen - at a self-selected pace for 1 mile, wearing a book bag containing 10 percent of their body weight. The study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, finds, on average, during this activity, heart rate increased by about three beats per minute in children who walked, compared with about 11 beats per minute in children who "rode" to school - UPI

Some heart patients not getting treatment: study (USA)

Some patients with congestive heart failure are not receiving recommended medicines that could keep them alive longer and out of the hospital, a trend that may be adding to the nation's health costs, U.S. researchers say. A team at Stanford University School of Medicine in a study conducted over 15 years found that patients got prescriptions for drugs that would help their condition in fewer than half of doctor visits, and that number was falling. "There are some recommended medications for heart failure that have been proven to be effective against mortality and morbidity, to lower hospitalizations and improve death rates," said Dr. Dipanjan Banerjee, a cardiologist at Stanford who worked on the study released in the Archives of Internal Medicine - Reuters

World Congress of Cardiology Scientific Sessions 2012 (Dubai)

The World Congress of Cardiology Scientific Sessions are to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2012. Held every two years in different locations around the world, this is the first time in the 62 year history of the World Congress of Cardiology that it is to be held in the Middle East

Vitamin B may not guard against second stroke, heart attack

Stroke patients who take vitamin B supplements to lower their homocysteine levels may not be protected from second strokes or heart attacks, a new study finds. Earlier studies found an association between homocysteine, an amino acid, in the blood, and an increased risk for stroke and heart attack. Vitamin B supplements lower homocysteine levels, but whether this really has an effect on stroke and heart attack risk has been unclear, the Australian researchers noted. "B vitamins are safe, but they were not, statistically, significantly more effective than placebo in preventing major vascular events among stroke and TIA [transient ischemic attack] patients," said lead researcher Dr. Graeme J. Hankey, head of the stroke unit at Royal Perth Hospital in Western Australia. "B vitamins have not been proven to have a role in secondary stroke prevention." The report is published in the August 4 online edition of The Lancet Neurology, and will appear in the September print issue of the journal

Temperature drop may raise risk of heart attack (UK)

Cooling temperatures raise the risk of heart attacks, researchers warn. About 200 extra heart attacks are linked to each drop of 1 degrees Celsius in outside temperature, a study shows. The highest risk is within two weeks of a reduction in average daily temperature, with the elderly and heart disease patients most vulnerable. But temperatures getting hotter cause no extra risk, according to research published by British Medical Journal online. Researcher Krishnan Bhaskaran, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said there was a 2 per cent increase in the risk of heart attack in the next 28 days for each 1C fall in temperature. "This translates to around 200 extra heart attacks, so if there are successive falls over a number of days there would be additional sets of extra heart attacks," he said. Researchers analysed data on 84,000 hospital admissions for heart attack between 2003 and 2006 in England and Wales, and daily temperatures from 15 geographical areas

New strategy to fix a broken heart: scaffold supports stem cell-derived cardiac muscle cells

"These days people usually don't die from a heart attack. But the damage to heart muscle is irreversible, and most patients eventually succumb to congestive heart failure, the most common cause of death in developed countries. Stem cells now offer hope for achieving what the body can't do: mending broken hearts. Engineers and physicians at the University of Washington have built a scaffold that supports the growth and integration of stem cell-derived cardiac muscle cells. A description of the scaffold, which supports the growth of cardiac cells in the lab and encourages blood vessel growth in living animals, is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"

Early cholesterol problems spell trouble for middle-aged arteries

"Researchers say too much cholesterol isn't safe - at any age. And a recent study suggests it really does matter what you eat and how much you exercise in your 20s and 30s. How come? A heart-healthy diet and regular exercise can lower LDL, or "bad" cholesterol. That's the stuff that can really clog up arteries that feed the heart. And, it turns out, the clogging process starts early. So it's never too soon to start being nicer to your heart. Seems obvious, right? But researchers say the medical community hasn't fully appreciated the consequences of high cholesterol during young adulthood. Now, though, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine sheds some interesting light on how plaques build up" - GBP News

Scots' cholesterol research could be life-saver

Scottish scientists have discovered new genes linked to high cholesterol, paving the way for tests to predict a person's risk of heart disease. An international team of researchers, including experts at Edinburgh University, studied the genetic make-up of more than 100,000 volunteers to help to pinpoint genes which might have an impact on cholesterol levels. The scientists said the study showed for the first time that it was possible to predict who was likely to develop high cholesterol using a genetic blood test - Scotsman

Poorest people at highest heart disease risk: U.S. data

Socioeconomic status plays a more important role than race or ethnicity in cardiovascular disease risk disparities in the United States, a new study has found. Researchers analyzed data from 12,154 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2001-2006) and found that the poorest people have the highest risk of cardiovascular disease, but there are few differences in risk between racial and ethnic groups. The study included whites, blacks, U.S.-born Mexican Americans and foreign-born Mexican Americans. The lower a person's socioeconomic status, the greater their risk for cardiovascular disease - in all racial and ethnic groups, the investigators found

Essex Start! Heart Walk seeks event volunteers (USA)

"The American Heart Association is seeking volunteers to help during the Essex County Start! Heart Walk, scheduled for Sunday, October 17, at the ADP Corporate Campus. Presented nationally by Subway, close to 3,000 participants are expected to walk toward heart health while helping to raise funds to support the American Heart Association's mission of building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. The Essex County Start! Heart Walk is the signature fundraising event for the American Heart Association's Start! movement. This movement is a national initiative to get Americans and their employers to incorporate at least 30 minutes of activity into every day"

Staying up late may up heart disease risk

Staying up until 2 a.m. and upsetting the body's internal clock might come with serious consequences for lipid metabolism, a U.S. researcher suggests. M. Mahmood Hussain of the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center says circadian rhythm gets thrown off by staying up late or by traveling it may result in high triglycerides - fatty acids in the blood - a risk factor for heart disease. Plasma triglycerides double or triple during the course of the day, reaching their lowest point at night when nocturnal animals eat and are most active

Scientists find 95 blood-fat genetic links to heart disease

In the largest study of its kind, an international team of scientists has identified 95 genetic variants associated with fat, or lipid, levels in the blood that can contribute to heart disease. Together, the gene variants - 59 of which were linked to lipid metabolism for the first time - explain about one-quarter of the inherited variations in cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood, researchers reported in today's issue of Nature. Diet and exercise also influence blood lipid levels

A built-in source for new heart cells

"In heart disease, cardiac muscle gradually dies off and, with little or no way to regenerate those cells, that can ultimately lead the heart to fail. But scientists reporting in the August 6th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, might have found a way to fix those losses. They've devised a three-ingredient molecular cocktail that transforms fibroblasts – structural cells that the heart is chock full of – directly into beating heart cells. "In the cardiac field, we've been trying for over 20 years to figure out how to convert non-muscle cells into cardiac muscle," said Deepak Srivastava of the University of California, San Francisco. "Now we've found a way to change fibroblasts – which make up 50 percent of all heart cells -- into new cardiomyocytes." Researchers had been searching for a master regulator of cardiac muscle – a single ingredient that could drive the formation of heart muscle. That kind of master had been found for skeletal muscle in the 1980s, but finding the same for the heart turned out to be a bigger challenge" - EurekAlert

Aspirin doesn't prevent many heart attacks (Canada)

"A low-dose aspirin taken daily only reduces the risk of a first heart attack by less than 1 percent, Canadian researchers found. Study co-authors Dr. Michael Bayliss, a cardiologist now working in Ontario, and Dr. Andrew Ignaszewski, head of the University of British Columbia's division of cardiology at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, said they found a daily aspirin reduces the risk of having a first heart attack, a stroke or death from vascular disease by .06 percent per year, the Vancouver Sun reported Thursday. However, the study authors said previous studies showed for those with a history of heart attacks, an aspirin reduces the risk of another attack by 20 percent and reduced the risk of stroke in women. The study, published in the British Columbia Medical Journal, said there is no evidence that an aspirin reduces the risk of heart attacks for women or diabetics. The study authors said it is not known why aspirin might affect men more than women but it might have something to do with how the drug is metabolized in the presence of male and female hormones" - UPI

Fit heart can slow brain ageing, US researchers say

"Keeping your heart fit and strong can slow down the ageing of your brain, US researchers say. A Boston University team found healthy people with sluggish hearts that pumped out less blood had "older" brains on scans than others. Out of the 1,500 people studied, the team observed that the brain shrinks as it ages. A poor cardiac output aged the brain by nearly two years on average, Circulation journal says. The link was seen in younger people in their 30s who did not have heart disease, as well as elderly people who did"