And speaking of the flu . . . In case you need to be convinced to cough into your sleeve, watch this NPR film featuring the amazing medical animation talent of David Bolinski illustrating how influenza affects your body – and then forward this link to everybody you know. While you’re at it, consider NPR’s alternatives to shaking hands during the flu season too!
What do you think? Share your opinion below.
Sweden is apparently the place to be if you are a twin. This country boasts the world’s largest Twin Registry, following over 70,000 pairs of twins born before 1985, with ongoing new studies of younger twins starting when they reach the age of nine.
Right now, over 30 ongoing research projects based on the Twin Registry cover a wide range of topics like aging, dementia, allergy, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Researchers are also looking at the effects of gender differences on health and life situations.
And the Swedish Twin Registry was recently part of a groundbreaking study to determine whether the risk for hip fracture is increased in people who have cardiovascular disease. (more…)
People with heart disease have a harder time coping with the flu than people without heart disease. This is because the influenza virus produces significant stress on the cardiovascular system – breathing difficulty, changes in blood pressure, rapid heart rate, and even direct effects on the heart - that make this illness particularly difficult and even dangerous for anyone who has heart disease.
That’s why I went for my H1N1 flu vaccine this morning at my local health clinic. In fact, I had two flu shots today, one in each arm: one for the pandemic H1N1 influenza, and one for Influenza A&B, the ‘normal’ seasonal flu. Luckily, I was assessed as a high priority flu shot recipient because I’m under the age of 65 with a heart condition – just barely ahead of the NHL’s Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs hockey teams whose players are apparently (who knew?) in a very high risk group, too, right up there with heart attack survivors.
Whoever we are, getting hit by H1N1 is no picnic, as described in this love letter from your flu bug:
“I want you.
I shall seek and find you.
I shall take you to bed and have my way with you.
I will make you ache, shake and sweat till you moan and groan.
I will make you beg for mercy.
I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I’m finished with you, and you will be weak for days.”
All my love, H1N1
The strongest evidence for protection from a flu shot in those with heart disease comes from the Flu Vaccination in Acute Coronary Syndromes study. Researchers followed patients who had been hospitalized for either a heart attack or a planned angioplasty, half of whom were randomly assigned to receive a flu vaccine and half remained unvaccinated. Over the next year, twice as many of the unvaccinated group (23%) died of heart disease, had a non-fatal heart attack, or developed severe ischemia (insufficient blood supply to the heart tissue), compared with those who were vaccinated (11%). (more…)
Dr. Mehmet Oz knows all too well what makes people—and their hearts—tick. He’s director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital and professor of surgery at Columbia University in New York City.
As a cardiologist, Dr. Oz suggests that we use these seven tips to find the joy in adopting heart-healthy lifestyle changes – and making them fun. “You absolutely can prevent and virtually reverse heart disease by making these sensible lifestyle changes,” he said in an interview with Heart Healthy Living magazine this month. Read these seven tips!
Depression can strike up to 65% of heart patients following a cardiac event, yet fewer than 10% are appropriately diagnosed For those in that 10% group, encouraging research in the past has suggested that taking an omega-3 fish oil supplement along with an anti-depressant drug may boost the clinical effectiveness of that drug for heart patients suffering from depression. But a new study led by Dr. Robert Carney of Washington University reveals “disappointing” results that failed to show any improvement in symptoms by adding omega-3 to a heart patient’s anti-depressant medications.
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in certain types of fish, nuts, and vegetable oils. Although they are believed to have positive cardiovascular effects, they did not help alleviate depression among the heart patients in this study.
Keep in mind, however, that when Dr. Carney expresses his disappointment and his high hopes in future studies for a more positive outcome when adding omega-3 to anti-depressant meds he is speaking as the lead author of a study in which the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline supported his research. The world’s biggest drug company Pfizer supplied the sertraline (Zoloft), the anti-depressant studied alongside the supplement. (more…)
One of the most surprising additions to the daily morning routine since my heart attack has been the fistful of pills that I now take every day.
It can be a confusing mix of medications, each for a different purpose, and each with different benefits and side effects. Here’s just a sampling of some of the more common meds that my own doctors have prescribed for me. (more…)
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