Therapist Unlimited Blog

A recent study has shown that a healthy body and lifestyles keep professional athletes notably football players and even ordinary men free from heart disease after their retirement from the game or work.
Based on the research, compared to other men in a similar age range, retired National Football League players had a significantly lower prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, sedentary lifestyles and metabolic syndrome.
"Despite their large body size, retired NFL players do not have a greater prevalence of heart disease risk factors when compared to the general population,"
said Dr. Alice Chang, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and the study’s lead author. "In fact, other factors such as age and high
cholesterol levels were better predictors for heart disease than the body size of the former athletes in our study."
When body mass index (BMI) standards are applied, more than half of all professional football players are considered overweight or obese, which is
considered an indicator for heart disease risk. Dr. Chang said although a majority of these players are not as fit and active after retirement, they still
had fewer risk factors for heart disease than men of the same age and body size from the Dallas Heart Study, a groundbreaking investigation of
cardiovascular disease that involves thousands of Dallas County residents.
 

Retirees who wish to be free from heart disease should keep their body healthy through exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

Staying physically fit earlier in life might have offset the risks associated with a large body size, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Benjamin Levine,
a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern, and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine a joint program of UT
Southwestern and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
The study examined 150 former pro athletes and 150 normal counterparts from the Dallas Heart Study with an average age of 55. The median BMI for both
groups was higher than 31, which is considered to be in the obese range.
Retired NFL players didn’t get a totally clean bill of health, however. As a group they were found to have developed similar amounts of coronary
atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) as the group of non athletes. Although they were less likely to have diabetes, they had higher rates of
pre-diabetes, high fasting blood-sugar numbers that increase their risk for developing diabetes in the future.
The study authors’ scientific investigation with a high-profile group could have far-reaching implications. More than 60 percent of offensive and defensive
linemen at the high-school level, they note, also can be characterized through BMI as overweight or obese.
"The good news is that as long as you remain active and fit, even with a larger body, you can lower your risk for heart disease," Dr. Chang said. "The bad
news is that being a professional athlete doesn’t eliminate your risk for developing heart disease later in life. Even professional athletes may be at risk
for developing heart disease as they age."
Professional athletes should continue exercise regimens after their professional careers are over, Dr. Chang said. For the public at large, the study
reaffirms that exercise is an important way to decrease the risk for heart disease, Dr. Chang said.
Other UT Southwestern researchers who contributed to the study include Dr. Song Zhang, assistant professor of clinical sciences; and Amit Patel,
fourth-year medical student. Researchers from the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, the University of Washington, Emory University School of Medicine, the Baptist Cardiac and Vascular Institute, and the Living Heart Foundation also contributed to the study.

A recent medical study has shown that mangosteen juice has anti-inflammatory properties which could prove to be valuable in preventing the development of heart disease and diabetes in obese patients.
Based on the study, medical experts discovered that the juice of the exotic ’superfruit’ can lower levels of C-reactive protein.
To get the data,Dr. Jay Udani, M.D. from Medicus Research, California, worked with a team of researchers to carry out a randomized, double-blind placebo controlled trial.
He said, "For people drinking over half a liter of mangosteen juice a day, the degree of reduction in CRP levels was statistically significant a reduction of 1.33mg/L compared to an increase of 0.9mg/L in the placebo group".

Mangosteen Juice offers rewards to obese persons against heart disease and diabetes.

Inflammation, as measured here by CRP, is a predictor of cardiovascular disease and a precursor of metabolic syndrome.
Reducing inflammation in obese people is a treatment goal, and a natural treatment may be preferable to other treatments which may carry the risk of side effect. According to Udani, "Further studies with a larger population are required to confirm and further define the benefits of this juice, which was safe at all dosages tested".

 

Here is a piece of good news to all those patients suffering from heart disease and cancer.
A recent medical research has shown that eating soybeans could cure and prevent heart ailments and cancer.
According to the study, soybeans contain high levels of several health-beneficial compounds including tocopherols, which have antioxidant properties.
These molecules can be used in the development of functional foods, which have specific health-beneficial properties and can be used in the treatment or prevention of diseases.
Tocopherols exist in four forms (a, ß, ?, and d) of which tocopherol is found in greatest concentration in soybeans.
However, a-tocopherol has the greatest antioxidant activity, and is the form converted to vitamin E in the human body. Thus, most interest for soybean tocopherols resides in a-tocopherol; however, certain health-properties have also been attributed to other tocopherol forms and interest for these remains. It has been suggested that all tocopherols could play a role in cardiovascular diseases and cancer prevention.
Although few studies have determined soybean tocopherols concentration in a range of genotypes or environments, none has investigated differences among several early-maturing genotypes grown in multiple environments.

Eating soybeans in a regular basis could keep you away from heart disease and cancer.

Such study allows for the determination of the tocopherols concentration range found in soybean, but also to determine how genotypes perform and compare to each other in contrasting environments. Such information is vital for both plant breeders and agricultural producers.
Researchers at McGill University, the Centre de Recherche sur les Grains, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Quebec have investigated tocopherols concentration and stability, with an emphasis on a-tocopherol, among early-maturing genotypes grown in multiple environments, and determined the relationship between tocopherols concentration and other important seed characteristics.
Their study was funded by research grants from the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries, et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Results from the study are published in the September-October issue of Agronomy Journal. The research was also presented in Beijing, China at the 8th World Soybean Research Conference in August 2009.
Philippe Seguin, who led the study, stated "The large variation observed among genotypes for a-tocopherol, the relatively high stability of genotypes performance across environments, and the lack of negative correlation with other important seed characteristics suggest that selection for high a-tocopherol will be possible. Such characteristics will also help in the development of functional foods, which requires consistency in concentrations of health-beneficial compounds." Research is ongoing to identify factors affecting soybean tocopherols concentration.
Preliminary results suggest that both specific environmental factors and management practices, such as seeding date, could significantly affect concentrations.
Getting a better understanding of factors affecting soybean tocopherols concentration will help in the development of a new value-added use for soybean and thus to diversify markets for soybean producers.

A popular saying state that the eyes is the windows to the soul.
But recent medical research has shown that eyes is more than just a window for the soul since it can also offer important clues  to your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Researchers of the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) are currently doing an extensive study to prove that blood vessels in the retina at the back of the eye reflect changes in blood vessels in other parts of the body, especially the brain, kidneys and heart.
The team of medical experts believed that that blood vessels in the retina can be photographed and the images analysed by a computer to accurately determine a person’s risk of heart attack or stroke cardiovascular diseases that change the appearance of blood vessels in the eye.
Lead CERA researcher, Professor Tien Wong, explained through their study they wish to show that that combining this non-invasive retinal scan with the results from current risk assessment methods will improve precision and reliability in predicting cardiovascular disease.
Wong and his team has taken thousands of eye images and created a program that recognises common features of conditions that cause damage to be seen on the retina.

Your eyes is not only the window of the soul but also an indicator if a man suffers from a form of heart disease.

Once a person has symptoms of cardiovascular disease, damage has already been done to the body. So finding and treating high risk people early, even before they have symptoms, could minimise blood vessel damage and potentially avoid heart attack or stroke.
At present, doctors estimate a person’s statistical chance of developing cardiovascular disease by looking at individual factors such as whether they smoke, their family history, weight, blood cholesterol and blood pressure. Once you get symptoms, more extensive and sometimes invasive tests, such as angiogram are needed to confirm the result and assess severity of damage to the arteries of the heart or elsewhere.
Professor Wong said, "Results from the retinal scan would be delivered to GPs for a better picture of their patient’s health.
Dr. Christine Bennett, chair of the MBF Foundation Steering Committee and Bupa Chief Medical Officer*, went on to say, "This early assessment of the likelihood that a person will develop diseases like heart disease, stroke or even type 2 diabetes has the potential to significantly improve quality of life, reduce hospitalisations and the 50,000 deaths each year caused by cardiovascular disease."
Once a person knows their risk they may be able to delay the onset of developing cardiovascular disease by modifying their lifestyle accordingly.
"We know that smoking, too much alcohol, inactivity and poor nutrition are bad for our health but seeing the evidence not with, but in, your own eyes could be the wake-up call that triggers change," Bennett said.
 

Medical experts has advised pregnant women to avoid taking antidepressants during their pregnancy since doing so could put their babies at risk for having heart defects.
According to the latest medical study, it was discovered that depression affects up to 20% of pregnant women and the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during
pregnancy is common and increasing.
However, experts explained medical treatment must balance the health of the mother with potential adverse effects to the developing baby.
Until 2005, most studies of SSRIs found no link with major malformations, but recent studies have indicated an increased prevalence of congenital heart defects. This led to a warning by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2005 about the use of the drug paroxetine during pregnancy.
So a team of researchers investigated the association between SSRIs taken in the first trimester of pregnancy and major malformations in over 400,000 children born in Denmark between 1996 and 2003.
Potential confounding factors, including maternal age and smoking, were taken into account.
However, an increased risk of septal heart malformations was found for children of women who used the drugs sertraline and citalopram, but not fluoxetine.

Taking antidepressants during pregnancy is deadly for babies.

Exposure to more than one type of SSRI was associated with a four-fold increase in septal heart defects, suggesting that simultaneous use of different SSRIs or a change in type of SSRI during early pregnancy may be problematic, say the authors.
Putting these figures into context, the authors show that the absolute differences in heart defects were low. For example, septal heart defects occurred in 2,315 (0.5%) of unexposed children, 12 (0.9%) of SSRI exposed children, and 4 (2.1%) of children exposed to more than one type of SSRI.
The number needed to harm was 246 for women using one type of SSRI in early pregnancy. In other words, one child for every 246 children exposed was likely to suffer a septal heart defect. The corresponding number needed to harm for children of women using more than one type of SSRI was 62.
Future studies, with much larger sample sizes, are needed to further investigate potential associations with more severe malformations, conclude the authors.
These results suggest that the absolute risk for individual pregnant women is very low, says Professor Christina Chambers from the University of California San Diego, USA, in an accompanying editorial. She urges both doctors and patients to carefully weigh-up the small risks associated with SSRIs against those linked with undertreatment or no treatment.
 

Two new studies have found that the number of heart attacks has fallen by up to a third in countries where bans on smoking in public places have been introduced.
Smoking in pubs, restaurants and other public spaces was banned in England and Wales in July 2007, a year after similar laws were introduced in Scotland.
The Scottish ban led to a 14 per cent fall in the number of people being admitted to
hospital with a heart attack the following year.
Libby Dowling, Care Advisor at Diabetes UK, said: "Diabetes UK supports the smoking ban and we are pleased to hear that it may reduce the number of heart attacks by more than a third in countries where it is implemented.

Studies has recently shown that smoking ban is effective in keeping humans free from any form of heart disease.

Dowling revealed people with diabetes are at increased risk.
He said smoking is harmful to everyone’s health, and in particular to the 2.5 million people with diabetes in the UK.
He added people with the condition are already at increased risk of heart disease, stroke and other circulatory problems.
Moreover, Dowling said smoking doubles the risk of these problems.
Dowling encourage those people with diabetes to give up smoking to protect their health.

If it can be avoided people should avoid breathing regularly polluted air in thier surroundings since doing so could lead you to suffer from heart disease.
According to the study made by the researchers at the University of Michican they found out that the very air we breathe can be an invisible catalyst to heart disease.
The researchers warned their study have shown that inhaling air pollution over just two hours caused a significant increase in diastolic blood pressure, the lower number on blood pressure readings.
Based on the latest medical data, nearly one in three Americans suffer from hypertension, a significant health problem that can lead to heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and other life-threatening problems.
Robert D. Brook, M.D., lead researchers and vascular medicine physician at the U-M Cardiovascular Center revealed although this increase in diastolic blood pressure may pose little health risk to healthy people, in people with underlying coronary artery disease this small increase may actually be able to a trigger heart attack or stroke.
To get the data they are looking for, eighty-three people in Ann Arbor and Toronto were utilized in testing and breathed air pollution, concentrated by a mobile air quality research facility, that was similar to what would be found in an urban environment near a roadway.

To avoid chances of suffering from heart disease better avoid constant air pollution exposure now.

Robert Bard, M.S., overall research project manager explained they looked in the participants blood vessels and then their responses before and after breathing high levels of air pollution.
The researchers revealed ozone gases, a well-known component of air pollution, were not the biggest culprit.
The researchers said small microscopic particles about a 10th of the diameter of a human hair caused the rise in blood pressure and impaired blood vessel function, tests
showed.
The blood pressure increase was rapid and occurred within two hours, while the impairment in blood vessel function occurred later but lasted as long as 24 hours.
It’s believed these fine particles deposit deep into the lungs and certain components may gain entrance to the blood stream, or cause an inflammatory response throughout the body.
There is also evidence that functions in the body’s nervous system are also disrupted.
It is said that the new research is the latest in the relatively new field of Environmental Cardiology which looks at the association between air pollution and heart disease.
Brook says that at the very least the findings support efforts to maintain current ambient air quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
He said there are practical ways to avoid exposure to high levels of air pollution, such as avoiding unnecessary travel or commutes and not exercising during rush hour, or near busy roadways.
He added in modern society, the burning of fossil fuels is the primary source for air pollution.
The researcher cited if air pollution levels are forecasted to be high, those with heart disease, diabetes or lung disease should avoid unnecessary outdoor activity.
 

Those people who have large thighs around the world better start rejoicing now.
A recent research has shown that individuals whose thighs are wider than 60cm have a lesser risk of premature death and heart disease.
Lead author, Professor Berit Heitmann, based at Copenhagen University Hospital, says the research may help GPs identify patients who are at an increased risk of early death and developing heart disease.
Heitmann revealed while several studies have already demonstrated that being either very overweight or underweight are related to premature death and disease, this is the first to investigate the implications of thigh size on health.
Almost 3000 individuals took part in the study in Denmark this included 1463 men and 1380 women.
Participants were examined in 1987/88 for height, weight, thigh, hip and waist circumference and body composition.
They were then followed up for 10 years for incidence of heart disease and 12.5 years for total number of deaths.
 

Those who have large thighs have lesser chance of suffering from heart disease and experiencing early death.
 

During the follow-up period 257 men and 155 women died, also 263 men and 140 women experienced cardiovascular disease and 103 men and 34 women suffered from heart disease.
When assessing the results, the authors found that the survivors had higher fat-free thigh circumference levels.
The relationship between thigh size and early death and disease was found after taking body fat and other high risk factors (such as smoking and high cholesterol) into account.
The researchers therefore suggest that the risk from narrow thighs could be associated with too little muscle mass in the region.
This is problematic because it may lead to low insulin sensitivity and type 2 diabetes and, in the long run, heart disease, they explain.
Moreover, the researchers conclude that the study "found that the risk of having small thighs was associated with development of cardiovascular morbidity and early mortality.
This increased risk was found independent of abdominal and general obesity, lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure and lipids related to early cardio vascular morbidity and
mortality".
The researchers believe that doctors could use thigh size as an early marker for at risk patients and suggest that individuals increase lower body exercise in order to increase the size of the their thighs if necessary.
Further research would be needed, however, to assess whether this approach was worthwhile.

Here is a piece of good news to all those patients suffering from heart failure.
A recent research has shown that a therapy called cardiac resynchronization can significantly delay the progression of heart failure.
Based on the research the treatment reduced the risk of serious heart failure events by 41 percent.
Dr. David Wilber, a co-author of the study and director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Loyola University Chicago
Stritch School of Medicine revealed the research has shown that for the first time, the onset of heart failure symptoms and hospitalization for heart failure can be delayed with pacing therapy.
According to researchers, a device implanted in the upper chest delivers electrical impulses that help synchronize contractions of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber.
Some 1,820 patients from 110 centers in the United States, Canada and Europe participated in the study.
The researchers revealed all patients in the trial had been diagnosed with early stage, mild heart failure (Class 1 and Class 2 on the New York Heart Association classification system).
The study’s principle investigator is Dr. Arthur Moss of the University of Rochester
Medical Center.
Patients were randomly assigned to two groups. A control group received an implanted defibrillator, and a second group received a defibrillator plus cardiac resychronization. (A defibrillator is a device that shocks the heart back to a normal rhythm if the patient experiences a life-threatening irregular heartbeat.)

Those persons suffering from heart failure can now use cardiac resynchronization as treatment for their medical condition.
 

Compared with the control group, the cardiac resychronization group had a significantly improved heart-pumping efficiency and a 41 percent lower risk of heart-failure events that required hospitalization or outpatient treatment with intravenous drugs.
Loyola heart failure patient Rosemary Jakubowski of Elmwood Park, Il. said that before she received cardiac resychronization, she had experienced significant fatigue.
Since receiving cardiac resychronization, Jakubowski has been taking kickboxing and swim aerobics classes, without fatigue.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved cardiac resychronization for patients with Class 3 (moderate) and Class 4 (severe) heart failure. Such patients experience marked limitations in physical activity or are unable to do any physical activity at all without discomfort.
Wilber said the study has shown that certain patients with early-stage, mild heart failure also can benefit from cardiac resychronization.

 

Medical experts are urging people around the world to eat less read meat to prevent cancer, heart attacks and global warming.
Based on the study conducted by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research it is said that an ideal red meat consumption for every person is 500 grams every week.
Researchers revealed cardiovascular disease and cancer are two human diseases caused by similar factors influencing climate change.
Others are the infectious disease influenza and salmonella, which are also related to animal elevation (zoonoses).
Further examples not specifically related to agriculture, are respiratory diseases resulting from the burning of fossil and other fuels for transport and heating.
Studies have shown that a different group of diseases cannot be said to share the causes of global warming.
Instead they are caused by, or exacerbated by global warming.

Those who want to avoid cancer, heart attacks and global warming better start eating less red meat now.

Examples are thermal stress, accidental and intentional injuries, and malnutrition or famine, all of which are expected to occur more frequently as the planet warms up and the climate becomes less stable. Health care systems all over the world will have to adapt to these changes.
According to recent data it was also discovered that human disease and global warming are therefore related in several ways, and the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as
national medical associations, have adopted policies to take these interrelationships into account.
In contrast, professional societies within cardiovascular medicine and research have not yet addressed the relationships of
climate change to cardiovascular disease, but they should consider doing so for at least two reasons.
The first is the relationship already described: risk of cardiovascular disease can be reduced by interventions which also reduce the risk of climate change. For example recommendations could be given regarding the consumption of red meat such as those already made by oncology institutions.
The second is advocacy. Physicians and biomedical researchers have the training to understand the physics, chemistry and statistics used in the climatological research that has demonstrated the gravity of the climate problem.Sea levels were for example, at least 15 to 25 meters higher than they are now when the earth’s atmosphere last had the same CO2 capacity as now (about 387 parts per million) which was three million years ago. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are currently rising at 2 ppm / year.