Heart Disease Prevention - Can High Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease?

For some peoples, too much cholesterol in the body can be unhealthy. High blood cholesterol, which does not have any signs or symptoms, can raise the risk of coronary heart disease, a condition in which plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. Find out more at:

Heart Disease Prevention - Can High Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease?

Heart Disease Prevention - Is Air Pollution A Risk Factor For Heart Disease?

Inhaling air pollutants that are poisonous, as reported by researchers for the past 30 years, can pose many health problems including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, adverse pregnancy outcomes and even death. A scientific statement by the American Heart Association (AHA), which was released in 2004 and updated in 2010, warns public the risk of air pollution… Find out more at:

Heart Disease Prevention - Is Air Pollution A Risk Factor For Heart Disease?

Can Blueberry Help Prevent Heart Disease?

Being one of the few fruits native to North America, blueberries rank only second to strawberries in popularity of berries in the United States. It also contains one of the highest amount of antioxidant among all fruits, vegetables, spices and seasonings.

Various studies have looked into blueberries for treatment of certain medical conditions like diabetes, infections, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease, though all with mixed results. There is only a few research on the effect of eating blueberries on cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and most of these have been done in animals, such as pigs and rats. Some findings have indicated that total cholesterol levels were lowered by at least 8 percent and LDL cholesterol was reduced by up to 15 percent after 8 weeks, after animals were fed a daily diet consisting of about 4 percent blueberries.

Cholesterol levels play an important role in one’s health. High level of total cholesterol levels, especially the LDL (low-density lipoprotein), can put a person at risk of developing chronic diseases including high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. 

So far, not too many studies have been conducted to examine the effect of blueberry consumption on lipids in people. These studies mainly involved healthy individuals and people with metabolic disease, and the findings did not actually show significant changes by consuming blueberries. However, it was reported by one study that drinking a one-liter mixture of freeze-dried and fresh blueberries did cut oxidized LDL by 28 percent. Oxidized LDL is a type of LDL that can promote the formation of atherosclerosis.  

In Jan 2013, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School pointed out in their paper, which was published in ‘Harvard Health Publications’, that eating more blueberries and strawberries, 3 times a week, may be a tasty way to protect the heart.

By gathering data from 93,600 women aged between 25 and 42 in the Nurses' Health Study, the researchers found that over the course of 18 years, women who ate the fewest blueberries and strawberries were at higher risk of heart attack. Those who ate the most were 34 percent less likely to have suffered a heart attack than those who ate the least of these fruits. According to them, the findings should likely apply to everyone, including men, though the study focused on young and middle-age women.

To get the heart benefits, people should eat at least 3 servings of a half cup of blueberries or strawberries each week. Blueberries and strawberries are particularly rich in chemical compounds called anthocyanins. Research suggests that anthocyanins have several effects on the body. They lower blood pressure, and they make blood vessels more elastic.

Heart Disease Prevention - Why Is Coronary Artery Disease Treated Differently Now?

Traditionally, CAD happens when there is buildup of plaque (known as atherosclerosis) in the inner walls of arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle. As atherosclerosis grows, the blood flow to the heart will be restricted and the heart will become starved of oxygen. Over time, CAD can weaken… Find out more at:

Heart Disease Prevention - Why Is Coronary Artery Disease Treated Differently Now?

Heart Disease Prevention - How Blood Vessels Can Predict One’s Health?

Scientists believe blood vessels play an important role in many health conditions. For instance, stroke and vascular dementia patients whose blood vessels are actually damaged before brain cell deficits happen. Studies have already shown it could be something that precedes neuron damage. Find out more at:

http://www.howtopreventheartdisease.com/how-blood-vessels-can-predict-one's-health.html

Metabolism Disorders Relate To Heart Disease And Stroke

Metabolism is the process one’s body uses to get or make energy from the food eaten. A metabolic disorder occurs when abnormal chemical reactions in the body disrupt the process. When this happens, one might have too much of some substances or too little of others that are required to keep one stay healthy. One can develop a metabolic disorder when some organs like liver or pancreas become diseased or do not function normally. Diabetes is a good example.

Excess abdominal fat, higher blood pressure, higher levels of insulin, glucose and triglycerides, and lower levels of the HDL (high-density lipoprotein) or the so-called good cholesterol are some of the metabolic disorders that can be found in young children, according to a study by researchers from the University of Eastern Finland.

The study, which was published on April 29, 2013 in journal ‘Circulation’, revealed that the accumulation of these metabolic risk factors in overweight children were linked to mild artery wall stiffness. The findings also indicated that of single disorders, higher levels of insulin, triglyceride and blood pressure were linked to artery wall stiffness, and boys with excess abdominal fat and higher blood pressure levels were associated with a reduced arterial dilation after maximal exercise in a bicycle test. 

Relations of overweight, impaired glucose and fat metabolism and blood pressure to artery wall stiffness and arterial dilation capacity in 173 healthy children aged between 6 and 8 years in Kuopio, eastern Finland were analyzed.

Actually, the study comprised part of the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) study, which was carried out by a research group in the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Eastern Finland. The PANIC study provides valuable information on children's physical activity, nutrition, fitness, body composition, metabolism, vascular function, learning, oral health, sleep, pain and other factors of the quality of life.

Results of the new study, which suggested that metabolic disorders developing already in childhood could cause mild arterial stiffness and impair vascular health, stressed the importance of lifestyle improvement in childhood for prevention of metabolic and vascular dysfunction leading to atherosclerotic events.

Arterial stiffness and reduced arterial dilation can predict atherosclerosis, also known as the hardening of the arteries, and in turn could weaken tissues of blood and oxygen, resulting in damage or tissue death. Atherosclerosis is a common cause of heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke.

Why People Have Hypertension?

Hypertension, more commonly known as high blood pressure, could lead to hardening of arteries (atherosclerosis) and development of heart failure. That is why it has long been regarded as a major risk factor for heart disease. According to World Health Organization (WHO), around a billion people worldwide, including more than 200 million Chinese, suffer from hypertension.

When the cause of hypertension can be identified, the condition is called secondary hypertension. Kidney disease is the highest risk factor for this type of hypertension. For majority of the hypertensive patients, the causes are not known, though several factors including smoking, high salt intake, stress, sedentary lifestyle, overweight or obese, high alcohol consumption, aging and genetics are believed to play an important role. This kind of hypertension is known as essential hypertension.

Recently, researchers from Beijing Chaoyang Hospital’s Cardiology Center identified a common virus known as human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) that could be responsible for causing hypertension. HCMV infects most adults but is repressed by the body’s immune system and rarely causes any symptoms. Their findings, which linked HCMV to essential hypertension, were published in August 2011 in the medical journal ‘Circulation’.

Such findings might present a new strategy for preventing and treating cardiovascular disease. However, the researchers pointed out that their research was still in its early stage and more tests with a wider scope of patients should be carried out. Once conclusive evidence of the relationship is obtained, better medical vaccines and remedies for hypertension could then be made available to treat millions of patients around the world.

Another recent study conducted by the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans found that hypertension plays a part in 2.3 million cardiovascular deaths in China each year. Among these victims, 1.3 million were premature deaths. This means that victims died before the age of 72 in men and 75 in women, the average lifespan in China in 2005.

Fruit Juice May Be Superior Than Fruit To Prevent Heart Disease

Fruit and vegetables should form part of everyday’s diet if one wishes to prevent heart disease and maintain a healthy body. Yet, most of the health experts would advise us not to take fruit juice because it may cause a person to gain weight.

However, a recent study by French researchers from the Universite Montpellier reported in May 2008 that grapes, apples and their juices could prevent atherosclerosis being developed in hamsters eating a high-fat diet, high-cholesterol diet.

The term atherosclerosis refers to buildup of fatty plaque deposits in the arteries that can lead to heart attacks or stroke.

The study found that fruit juices had a more powerful anti-atherosclerotic effect than the fruit itself. This is probably the first time that processing fruits can have a major impact on its health benefits.

In the study, hamsters were fed with grapes, grape juice, apples, apple juices or water, along with a diet designed to promote atherosclerosis. The aim is to investigate how juice might influence the content of phenolic compounds, which are powerful antioxidants contained in fruits. Meanwhile, a control group of animals ate normal chow.

The hamsters, which were fed with fruits, had the amount equivalent to 3 apples or 3 bunches of grapes daily for a human, while the amount of juice given to another group of hamsters was equivalent to 4 glasses daily for a person weighing 70 kilos.

The researchers noted that apples and grapes had roughly the same phenol content but the purple grape juice had 2.5 times more phenols than apple juice.

When comparing with hamsters given water, those consumed fruit or fruit juice had lower cholesterol levels, less oxidative stress, and less fat accumulation in their aorta (the main vessel supplying oxygenated blood to the body). In terms of health effects, purple grape fruit rank high, followed by purple grapes, apple juices and apples.

According to the researchers, while the amounts of phenols contained in a food have a direct effect on its antioxidant properties, other antioxidant compounds in the fruits such as Vitamin C, carotenoids could also contribute to their effects. Such findings do provide encouragement that fruit and fruit juice may have significant clinical and public health relevance.

Young Adults, Do Not Ignore High Blood Pressure!

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a disease that is not limited to only aging population. Evidence does show that there is significant number of young adults develop hypertension before the age of 35. In addition, one should not ignore the fact that a hypertensive (a person who has hypertension) is subject to a higher risk of getting heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, etc.

A recent study suggested that young adults with high blood pressure have raised their risk of developing plaque on the lining of their blood vessels, even if the blood pressure is closed to normal. The building of plaque is known as Atherosclerosis.

Accumulation of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood can lead to formation of plaque. Over time, plaque may cause the arteries to become harder and narrower. This may reduce the flow of oxygen-rich blood to various organs and other parts of the body. Once this happens, serious problems, including heart attack, stroke, or even death may be resulted.

In order to investigate the long-term effect of slightly high blood pressure, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco measured the blood pressure in 3,560 young adults who were followed from 1985 to 2005. At the end of the period, the presence of atherosclerosis in coronary arteries was determined by CT scan.

It was found that nearly 20 percent of the participants developed slightly increased blood pressure or 'pre-hypertension' before the age of 35. Pre-hypertension has something to do with atherosclerosis: the longer pre-hypertension was present, the greater was the risk and severity of atherosclerosis in middle age.

Before further data are obtained, the research team does not recommend the use of blood pressure drugs to treat pre-hypertension in young adulthood. Instead, they suggest lifestyle changes.

They also admit that optimizing blood pressure in young adults is a major challenge. However, they believe that efforts to do so is worthwhile, as this would yield substantial health benefits for individual in such way that population rates of heart disease and stroke could be reduced during middle age and beyond.

Does Baldness Mean Higher Risk of Heart Attack?

Do men with baldness have a greater chance of getting heart disease? This question has prompted a study that tracked more than 5,000 men.

Researchers from the University of Arizona in Tucson reported in April 2008 in the American Journal of Epidemiology that there is little difference in the heart attack risk between men who have full heads of hair and baldness.

In addition, hair loss and thickening of the lining of the carotid arteries (the main vessels that supply blood to the brain) are unrelated. It is known that the increase in the lining of these arteries, known as carotid intimal-medial thickness, is a warning sign of atherosclerosis.

In fact, some health experts have suggested that baldness in men is related to increased levels of the hormone androgen, and that this hormone may be responsible for the development of coronary atherosclerosis, or 'hardening of the arteries' within the heart. A previous study even suggested that vertex baldness (loss of hair at the top of the head) was strongly linked to heart attack risk.

In this study, 767 of the 5,056 male participants aged 52 to 75 had suffered a heart attack previously. About one third had little or no hair loss, 13 percent had frontal baldness, and 54 percent had vertex baldness.

Men with frontal baldness were 28 percent more likely to have had a heart attack, while those with mild vertex baldness was tied to only 2 percent greater risk of heart attack. The researchers also found that such relationship did not get stronger with baldness severity; men with moderate vertex baldness were 40 percent more likely to have a heart attack, and the risk was increased by only 18 percent for men with severe vertex baldness. In addition, there was no relationship found between any type of baldness and carotid intimal-medial thickness.

The new study shows that if the types of baldness are indeed due to high androgen levels, it is unlikely that the hormone would increase the risk of heart attack or atherosclerosis. Therefore, the researchers conclude that male pattern baldness is not a surrogate measure of an important risk factor for heart attacks or for atherosclerosis without symptoms.

Japanese Diabetes Drug Can Do A Better Job For Heart Disease!

When come to reducing the hardening of arteries, a Japanese diabetes drug known as “Actos” can do a better job than the similar drug from the West. A study conducted by Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and published on March 31, 2008 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) revealed such finding.

“Actos” is made in Japan by Takeda Laboratory. During the 18 months of clinical trials involving 543 patients in 97 clinics in North and South America, the researchers compared this drug with Amaryl, manufactured in France by Sanofi. So far, no diabetes drug has proved effective in reducing atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

Atherosclerosis is closely related to the diabetes patients. Past data has shown that 75 percent of deaths from Type-2 diabetes are actually caused by cardiovascular problems. It is known that the rate of diabetes is increasing tremendously in both developed and developing countries. Type-2 diabetes is the most common disorder in adults and it is increasingly linked to obesity.

In the study, the researchers utilized an ultra-sound scan to measure the volume of plaque found in 2 groups of patients’ arteries before and after the trials. The group that took “Actos” not only had no visible increase in arterial plaque but also showed a 0.16 percent of reduction, whereas the other group that was prescribed “Amaryl” showed a 0.73 percent growth of plaque.

Prior to this study, no diabetes therapy that could actually slow the progression of the disease. In other words, no one drug could do a better job than another could! Despite the breakthrough in treating diabetes with coronary disease as discovered in the current study, other health experts warn that “Actos” shares a common negative effect on heart failure, and other non-cardiovascular adverse effects such as bone fractures. Meanwhile, the researchers of the current study did suggest carrying out further studies before making any changes to the current treatment.

Higher Heart Disease Risk For Takers Of Oral Contraceptives!

Taking oral contraceptives is a common measure adopted by women to avoid pregnancy. But a recent study revealed that women who use oral contraceptives will subject to a higher risk of having hardened arteries being developed. It is known that hardened arteries can lead to heart attack or stroke.

The research was conducted by the University of Ghent in Belgium and presented on November 6, 2007 at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida. According to the report, women who used the hormones were more likely to have plaques, or a build-up of fatty tissue, on their arteries than women who didn't use oral contraceptives.

A total of 1,300 Belgian women between the ages of 35 and 55 were taken into the study, 81 percent of them had used oral contraceptives for an average period of 13 years. The researchers used ultrasound scans to look at the femoral artery in the leg and the carotid artery in the neck. To their surprise, they found incidence of atherosclerosis among these otherwise healthy women who had taken the pill. They also noted that the rates of the disease increased dramatically with every decade of usage, rising by between 20 and 30 per cent for every 10 years of use.

It is known that atherosclerosis, or furring of the arteries, typically occurs with age. Heart attack or stroke are some of the possible complications that occur when unstable pieces of plaque break off and block a blood vessel leading to the heart or brain.

As a matter of fact, the first generation of women who did use this form of birth control are now entering their 60s and the findings could mean that we are on the cusp of an increase in heart disease among them.

It is hoped that women should not suddenly stop taking the pills. Instead, they should look at reducing other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. They should watch their blood pressure and cholesterol levels, exercise and eat right. Meanwhile, if they can also limit their exposure to oral contraceptives, it would be good, too.