The truth about women and heart disease
Filed under: Women Heart Health
Although breast cancer seems to be getting a lot more press lately, the biggest threat to women's health today is actually heart disease. And although men are more often thought of when picturing a heart attack victim, the truth is women are actually more likely to both have heart disease and they're more likely to die from a heart attack in the weeks immediately following than men are. The Mayo Clinic has a handy quiz for women regarding the truth on a variety of health topics, heart disease and breast cancer included, and it's interesting to read the explanations after you take it because some of the answers are surprising!
The Biggest Loser Season 3
Sign up right away to take part in the NBC phenomenon that’s inspired millions to make their weight loss dreams reality! Season 3 of The Biggest Loser airs September 20th with a two-hour premiere. Bob Harper and new trainer Kim Lyons help out fifty contestants from each of the fifty states to duke it out [...]
The Biggest Loser Season 3
Sign up right away to take part in the NBC phenomenon that’s inspired millions to make their weight loss dreams reality! Season 3 of The Biggest Loser airs September 20th with a two-hour premiere. Bob Harper and new trainer Kim Lyons help out fifty contestants from each of the fifty states to duke it out [...]
The Biggest Loser Season 3
Sign up right away to take part in the NBC phenomenon that’s inspired millions to make their weight loss dreams reality! Season 3 of The Biggest Loser airs September 20th with a two-hour premiere. Bob Harper and new trainer Kim Lyons help out fifty contestants from each of the fifty states to duke it out [...]
The Biggest Loser Season 3
Sign up right away to take part in the NBC phenomenon that’s inspired millions to make their weight loss dreams reality! Season 3 of The Biggest Loser airs September 20th with a two-hour premiere. Bob Harper and new trainer Kim Lyons help out fifty contestants from each of the fifty states to duke it out [...]
Taking care of women's hearts
Filed under: Heart Centers Online, Research, Women Heart Health
As you may know, The Cardio Blog is being retired today. It's been an honor to write for this blog, and I hope that the information we brought to you was useful and informative. Since this will be my last post for The Cardio Blog, I thought I'd write about a topic that is near and dear to my heart (pun, lamely, intended): women's heart health. We've seen it in the headlines again and again -- women, and often their doctors, don't always prioritize their health, and this seems to be especially an issue when it comes to heart health. But the fact is that heart disease is public enemy number one for women, and we all need to better understand and deal with our risk factors.
So I'll leave you with this post from Her Daily News. In it, they talk about Heart Truth, the National Institute of Health's campaign to bring heart education to women. They also include a checklist of questions to take to your doctor, as well as a list to help you understand your own risk. Do yourself -- and your heart -- a favor today and read through the questions to determine if you need to do more to protect your health.
Thanks for reading The Cardio Blog, and don't forget to come visit us at That's Fit for all of the latest news in health and fitness!
Getting drunk increases women's heart attack risk
Filed under: Prevention, Research, Women Heart Health
When it comes to alcohol and heart attacks, it appears that moderation wins again. That news comes out of the University at Buffalo, New York, where researchers found that women who got drunk once a month or more sharply increased their risk of heart attack.What's interesting is that women who drink actually seem to have a decreased risk of suffering a heart attack, when compared to women who don't drink at all. But being intoxicated -- or drinking enough alcohol to slur your speech and change your behavior -- appears to reverse that benefit. And, according to the study, being drunk even infrequently is enough to put you at risk.
So the final word, according to Dr. Joan M. Dorn is:
"...if you don't drink, don't start, but if you're concerned about heart health, light to moderate consumption does appear to lower risk, but there's an upper limit."
Heart x-ray linked to risk of cancer
Filed under: Women Heart Health, Children Heart Health
When a doctor wants to see inside a heart, one option is to use a procedure called computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography, which can identify problems inside the heart and arteries without making a cut. But the use of the higher radiation procedure on certain patients is being questioned. By taking what they know about certain kinds of radiation, researchers were able to predict the risk of developing cancer for various groups of people. What they found was that women who underwent the procedure were especially at risk, because the breasts may be damaged by the x-ray. Young women, especially, had an increased chance of developing cancer, because their is a longer period of time in front of them for cancer to develop. There are other procedures that can help make a diagnosis of a heart condition if a patient falls into a high-risk group, so it's likely that doctors will start weeding out who gets this kind of heart x-ray and who doesn't.
Heart disease data may not be gender-specific
Filed under: Research, Women Heart Health, Men Heart Health
We've all heard the expression: There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. I always do my best to remember these very words as I research articles for this blog. As I've pointed out several times, there seems to be a great deal of contradictory information circulating the research field, lending credibility to the aforesaid statement regarding statistics. Understandably, research methods, treatment models, and everything else in between can be the cause of the paucity of irrefutable evidence these days. But, there's simply no excuse for overlooking something as simple as dividing test results by gender. Now being quite honest, I'm not really all up in arms about the whole thing. The Mayo Clinic, however, seems a bit ticked.
According to their own study, the Mayo Clinic determined that it is very rare that researchers will produce a sex-based analysis of their findings. In a review of 64 cardiovascular clinic trials published from July 1 through December 31, 2004, only 153 of the publications provided sex-specific reporting. This is especially dangerous when dealing with diseases that tend to affect one sex more than the other, which is the case with heart disease. Being the number one threat to a woman's health, it is imperative that they know whether published data is skewed in any way by gender involvement.
The researchers from the Mayo Clinic suggest that when female patients are recommended a certain treatment or test, they should ask whether women were included in the research. And, if so (and if known), what percentage of the sample group did they represent.
[RESEARCH] Social inequalities in self reported health in early old age: follow-up of prospective cohort study
Objective To describe differences in trajectories of self reported health in an ageing cohort according to occupational grade.
Design Prospective cohort study of office based British civil servants (1985-2004).
Participants 10 308 men and women aged 35-55 at baseline, employed in 20 London civil service departments (the Whitehall II study); follow-up was an average of 18 years.
Main outcome measures Physical component and mental component scores on SR-36 measured on five occasions.
Results Physical health deteriorated more rapidly with age among men and women from the lower occupational grades. The average gap in physical component scores between a high and low grade civil servant at age 56 was 1.60 and this gap increased by 1 over 20 years. The average physical health of a 70 year old man or woman who was in a high grade position was similar to the physical health of a person from a low grade around eight years younger. In mid-life, this gap was only 4.5 years. Although mental health improved with age, the rate of improvement is slower for men and women in the lower grades.
Conclusions Social inequalities in self reported health increase in early old age. People from lower occupational grades age faster in terms of a quicker deterioration in physical health compared with people from higher grades. This widening gap suggests that health inequalities will become an increasingly important public health issue, especially as the population ages.