The professional people who look after CARG members at the Shaw Centre

Exercise Therapists: Kristin Troesch; Trent Litzenberger; Stacy Sigfusson

Dr.Y Nataraj

Dr. Witt

Dr. J. Nataraj

Dr. U. Rattan

RhinoChill Intra-Nasal Cooling System effectively chills brain after cardiac arrest

"It has been known for a while now that cooling the body after cardiac arrest improves neurological outcome, and therapeutic hypothermia has become a standard measure in many hospitals. However, in a study in this month's Circulation, a new nasopharyngeal device was used to initiate cooling during cardiac arrest. The RhinoChill Intra-Nasal Cooling System from BeneChill (San Diego, CA) uses a non-invasive nasal catheter that sprays a rapidly evaporating coolant liquid into the nasal cavity, adjacent to the major vascular structures of the brain. The system is compact, battery operated and easy and fast to insert, making it more practical in emergency situations than surface or intravascular cooling devices" - medGadget

Lack of close ties may increase heart disease risk

Women who live in neighborhoods lacking in close ties are more likely to have coronary artery calcification, a key marker for underlying heart disease, than those who live in more socially cohesive neighborhoods, according to a study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researcher Daniel Kim. Women who lived in the most economically deprived neighborhoods had more than double the odds of underlying heart disease. The study was published online last month in the American Journal of Epidemiology

The Heart Foundation 2011 Conference - Australia

"The Heart Foundation's 2011 Conference, "Heart to Heart: from Access to Action", will be held at the world class Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, on 17-19 March 2011. The Heart Foundation is the leading organisation in the fight against cardiovascular disease in Australia. Over more than five decades, we have achieved some great milestones in pursuit of our mission of reducing suffering and death from heart, stroke, and blood vessel disease in Australia"

Binge drinking, high blood pressure a lethal combo

"It's no secret that high blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. Nor should it come as a surprise that binge drinking isn't the healthiest habit. But a new study suggests that combining the two may add up to double the trouble - and much more, in some cases. Compared to teetotalers with normal blood pressure, men with high blood pressure (hypertension) who even occasionally down more than six drinks in one sitting have nearly double the risk of dying from a stroke or heart attack, according to the study, which followed 6,100 South Koreans age 55 and up for two decades. If men with high blood pressure have 12 drinks or more at one time, their risk is nearly five times higher, the study found. 'Somehow the binge drinking compounds [high blood pressure] - and more than just a little bit,' says Brian Silver, MD, a neurologist at Henry Ford Hospital, in Detroit, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association"

Sleep hours could cause heart disease

The amount of sleep a person gets could increase risk for heart disease, a recent study by a West Virginia University professor found. Anoop Shankar, associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine, examined 30,397 adults who participated in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey to see if there was a correlation between sleeping habits and heart disease. His study, published in the August journal issue of SLEEP, found sleeping fewer than five hours a night or more than nine hours a night could increase the risk of heart disease. "We asked a question: On an average how many hours did you sleep in 24-hour period?," Shankar said. "The adults answered that question and we then did a diagnostic on heart disease." They examined this association between heart disease and sleep to establish the percentage of people with heart disease and all cardiovascular diseases, such as angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke, he said.

Antagonistic people may increase heart attack, stroke risk

Antagonistic people, particularly those who are competitive and aggressive, may be increasing their risk of heart attack or stroke, researchers report in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers for the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), studied 5,614 Italians in four villages and found that those who scored high for antagonistic traits on a standard personality test had greater thickening of the neck (carotid) arteries compared to people who were more agreeable. Thickness of neck artery walls is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke. Three years later, those who scored higher on antagonism or low agreeableness - especially those who were manipulative and quick to express anger - continued to have thickening of their artery walls. These traits also predicted greater progression of arterial thickening. Those who scored in the bottom 10 percent of agreeableness and were the most antagonistic had about a 40 percent increased risk for elevated intima-media thickness, a measure of arterial wall thickness. The effect on artery walls was similar to having metabolic syndrome - a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease

More smokers quit using NHS help (UK)

National Health Service smoking services helped a record number of people quit last year, figures show. The NHS Information Centre said 373,964 had successfully given up, an 11% rise from the 337,054 who gave up in in 2008/09. The figures are for people in England who successfully stopped when they were followed up after four-weeks. A separate report from the centre shows around one in 20 hospital admissions for over-35s were linked to smoking. It brought together data from a wide range of previously published material and said smoking accounted for 462,900 admissions. - BBC

Physical activity and cardiovascular health (UK)

In 1953, Morris et al published the findings from a study showing that bus conductors in London, who spent their working hours walking the length of the buses as well as climbing up and down the stairs of the English double-decker buses to collect fares, experienced half the coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality rates of their driver counterparts, who spent their day sitting behind the wheel. Investigators hypothesized that it was the physical activity of work that protected the conductors from developing CHD, at the same time realizing that other factors may also play a role because the conductors were smaller in size, as evidenced by their smaller uniform sizes. Thus was born the field of "physical activity epidemiology": formal epidemiological investigations into the associations of physical activity with many health outcomes...more in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association

Expensive new blood pressure meds no better than generics

"Expensive brand-name medications to lower blood pressure are no better at preventing cardiovascular disease than older, generic diuretics, according to new long-term data from a landmark study. Paul Whelton, MB, MD, MSc, reported the results on Aug. 13 at the plenary session of the China Heart Congress and International Heart Forum in Beijing. Whelton is president and CEO of Loyola University Health System and chairman of the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heat Attack Trial (ALLHAT), which has examined the comparative value of different blood pressure-lowering medications. More than 33,000 patients with high blood pressure were randomly assigned to take either a diuretic (chlorthalidone) or one of two newer drugs, a calcium channel blocker (amlodipine) or an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril)"

The European Society of Cardiology chooses venues for its 2013 and 2014 Congresses

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has announced that it has chosen the venues for the 2013 and 2014 editions of its flagship annual event, the ESC Congress. Amsterdam and Barcelona respectively have been selected as the host cities after a rigorous evaluation process. The 2013 event will be held between 31 August and 4 September at the RAI Centre, while the 2014 event will be held between 30 August and 3 September at the FIRA de Barcelona

Obese visit GP more often than smokers, researchers say

"Overweight people are more likely to make frequent trips to their GP than smokers or those who are generally unfit, say Dutch researchers. The findings cannot be explained by overweight people having a higher risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, the analysis showed. Rising rates of obesity means nurses may have to take some of the pressure off doctors, they said. The research is published in Family Practice" - BBC

Medical researchers at U of Alberta discover potential treatment for pulmonary hypertension (Canada)

Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta are one step closer to a treatment for a deadly disease. Pulmonary arterial hypertension, which is high blood pressure in the lungs, currently has only a few treatment options but most cases lead to premature death. It is caused by a cancer-like excessive growth of cells in the wall of the lung blood vessels. It causes the lumen, the path where blood travels, to constrict putting pressure on the right ventricle of the heart which eventually leads to heart failure. Evangelos Michelakis, his graduate student Gopinath Sutendra and a group of collaborators have found that this excessive cell growth can be reversed by targeting the mitochondria of the cell, which control metabolism of the cell and initiate cell death - Science Centric

'Give out statins with junk food' (UK)

Fast food outlets should consider handing out cholesterol-lowering drugs to combat the effects of fatty food, say UK researchers. Taking a statin pill every day would offset the harm caused by a daily cheeseburger and milkshake, the Imperial College London team said. It would only cost 5p a customer - similar to a sachet of ketchup. But the British Heart Foundation warned an unhealthy diet does more harm than just raising cholesterol. Writing in the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr Darrel Francis and colleagues said it was about reducing harm in the same way that people who smoke are encouraged to use filters and those who drive are told to wear seatbelts. They took data from trials of almost 43,000 people to calculate whether the statins could override the effects of eating a junk food diet - BBC

Healthy Heart Recipe Finder - British Heart Foundation iPhone app

Healthy Heart Recipe Finder - British Heart Foundation iPhone app:

* Choose from over 100 recipes from all over the world, with new recipes added regularly
* Use your iPhone in the supermarket with the app’s handy shopping list feature
* Email recipes to your friends
* Rate recipes, and save your favourites for later.
* Get inspired - have the random recipe selector choose for you.