Heart Beat

A woman’s chances of surviving a heart attack are about a third of those faced by a man, according to a major new study. Experts said the problem was that many people regarded heart disease as largely a male problem. The latest findings were reported to the first conference of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association [...]

August 15 – Blood type is linked to risk of heart disease, researchers say today – but a nurse says people should not be alarmed. Those with blood type O, the commonest type, have the lowest risk, say Dr Lu Qi of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA, and colleagues. The team used [...]

August 14 – Middle-aged gardening and housework all help to make the heart stronger, British researchers reported last night. A ten-year study by University College London, England, found that leisure time activities such as vigorous gardening, housework and home maintenance, as well as sports, are important to health. Writing in Circulation, Dr Mark Hamer, of [...]

July 10 – Spending too much time sitting down in front of the television or at work may shorten life, according to research published today. US researchers found that Americans could add two years to their life by limiting their daily time sitting down to three hours. Cutting it to two hours could add another [...]

People who take calcium supplements to strengthen their bones need to be careful they do not put their hearts at risk, researchers warned today. Consuming “moderate” amounts of calcium is linked to a reduced risk of heart attack – but not high amounts, according to the Swiss study. Those who take regular supplements faced an 86 [...]

Heart attack symptoms in women can easily be overlooked – because they frequently do not suffer chest pain, researchers warned last night. Experts called for greater “vigilance” of the risk to women. This trend is confirmed in a study published yesterday (February 21) in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Women are generally older [...]

February 9 – Families sometimes wonder why their men seem prone to heart disease – and new research today suggests the answer is genetic. British scientists have found a heart disease gene on the male Y chromosome, it was announced. Researchers found British men with this variant gene face a 50 per cent increased risk [...]

January 30 – Measuring blood pressure in both arms could help detect risk of heart disease, British researchers reported today. A new analysis suggests doctors could look for differences in blood pressure between left and right arms to detect hardening of the arteries. The study shows the technique is most effective at spotting peripheral vascular [...]

January 25 – New research, published today, contradicts the widespread advice to avoid fried foods in order to protect the heart. Professor Pilar Guallar-Castillon, of the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, and her team looked at the risk in 40,757 adults who were followed for about 11 years. All participants were free of heart disease [...]

People who fail to brush their teeth increase their risk of developing heart disease, researchers warned today. The risk of disease is increased by as much as 70 per cent in people who do not manage to get a brush around the mouth twice a day, according to an analysis in Scotland, UK. Bad hygiene in [...]