Heart Health Archive

New findings may help allay fears about sports-related heart death.

Rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease vary among people of different backgrounds.

Summer's heat, humidity, and smog may be tough for people at risk of heart disease.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) not only saves lives, it may also help survivors of cardiac arrest recover well enough to return to work, according to a study in the May 12, 2015, issue of Circulation.

Researchers studied more than 4,300 people in Denmark who were employed before they suffered a cardiac arrest. In cardiac arrest, the heart suddenly stops working. More than 75% of survivors who had a cardiac arrest outside a hospital were able to return to work in a median time of four months. Those who received CPR from a bystander were nearly 40% more likely go back to work compared with those who didn't get CPR. The chest compressions given during CPR keep blood circulating to the brain, minimizing brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen.

Some research has suggested that older people who take blood pressure medications may be prone to falls, perhaps because the drugs make them dizzy or lightheaded when they stand up. But a new study in the May 2015 Hypertension found no increased risk of falls in people taking blood pressure drugs.

For the study, nearly 600 people with chronic high blood pressure reported their falls to researchers via mail-in postcards and phone calls. Almost half of the participants, whose average age was 78, reported one or more falls during the yearlong study. Neither standard nor high doses of blood pressure drugs were linked to falls. In fact, people who took two commonly prescribed types of blood pressure medications—ACE inhibitors and calcium-channel blockers—had a lower rate of falling compared with people not taking those drugs. Given the known benefits of treating high blood pressure in older people, the authors say, withholding blood pressure medication for fear of causing a fall may not make sense.

Unless you have symptoms of a heart problem, taking a cautionary look under the hood is unlikely to help—and could even be harmful.

Serious health problems are uncommon after drugs or surgery to treat chronic heartburn, according to a recent study in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Many men take acid-reducing drugs called proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), such as omeprazole (Prilosec, others) and lansoprazole (Prevacid), for chronic heartburn. One alternative is a surgical procedure to tighten the entrance to the stomach and prevent acidic stomach contents from backing up into the esophagus.

The new study drew on findings from two different clinical trials that tracked the health of people treated with either drugs or surgery. One trial involved about 300 people who were followed for up to 12 years; the other involved about 500 people who were followed for five years.

Many previous studies of adults of all ages have found that "moderate" drinking—one or two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women—seems to protect against getting heart disease. A recent Harvard study challenges this notion, at least among older adults. The findings, published in the June 2015 issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, suggest that even moderate amounts of alcohol are associated with heart damage among adults older than age 65. Researchers correlated weekly alcohol consumption among more than 4,400 seniors (average age 76) with the size, structure, and motion of the heart. The more people drank, the more researchers saw changes on images showing the heart's structure and function. This could mean that any alcohol intake may put older adults at a higher risk of developing heart problems, such as cardiomyopathy (which can lead to heart failure), a condition long associated with heavy drinking.

Image: Thinkstock

Salt is essential to the body. The sodium in salt helps transmit nerve impulses and contract muscle fibers. It also works with potassium to balance fluid levels in in the body. But you need only a tiny amount of salt to do this — less than one-tenth of a teaspoon per day. The average American gets nearly 20 times that much.

The body can generally rid itself of excess sodium. In some people, though, consuming extra sodium makes the body hold on to water. This increases the amount of fluid flowing through blood vessels, which can increase blood pressure.