Heart Disease News, Articles & Information

Women with an under-active thyroid, a condition known as hypothyroidism, are at a greater risk of heart disease according to a recent study published in the April 28 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. The results of the study indicated that even women with low, but clinically normal thyroid function, are at an increased risk of heart disease.

The study, conducted by Norwegian researchers, involved the study of around 25,000 people from Norway who were initially free of heart disease, diabetes, and thyroid problems.

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Women with a normal body mass index (BMI) but a waist size greater than 88 cm (35 inches) have three times the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than women with a waist size less than 88 cm according to a recent study published online in the journal Circulation in March of this year.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School in Boston analyzed 44,636 women who were part of of the Nurses Health Study. At the beginning of the study in 1976, the average age of the women was 50. The participants were followed up every two years for the duration of the 16 year study.

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Vitamin D deficiency may be associated with more than a two-fold increase in coronary heart disease risk according to a recent study funded by the American Heart Association.

The researchers looked at data from 1,739 offspring of the Framingham Heart Study with an average age of 59 years. The participants had their blood levels of Vitamin D recorded in 1996, as well as their blood pressures, current smoking habits, diabetes status, cholesterol levels, and physical activity levels.

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While most people know that cigarette smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer cancer, what many people don’t know is that most premature deaths due to smoking are actually due to coronary heart disease rather than lung cancer. It is estimated that 20% of all deaths from heart disease are attributable to cigarette smoking.

Smoking has many effects on the body that lead to increased coronary heart disease risk. First, toxic substances in cigarettes such as carbon-monoxide, nicotine, and aromatic hydrocarbons lead to inflammation of the arteries and blood vessels in the body.

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A new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Northern Carolina and published in the journal Dynamic Medicine, has found that young adults with metabolic syndrome are much more likely to have had been physically inactive and had poor aerobic fitness levels as children.

The data from the study came from children aged 7-10 years who were part of the Cardiovascular Health in Children and Youth Study, a follow up of the participants was conducted 7 years later when the individuals were aged between 14 and 17 years.

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According to several recent studies, both waist size and the waist to hip ratio may be better indicators of heart disease risk than the traditional Body Mass Index (BMI).

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that people aim for a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 however most Americans have a BMI well above this range.

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Recent scientific evidence has shown that a person’s emotional state can have a significant effect on their likelihood of developing coronary heart disease.

Emotions such as anger, hostility, stress, and happiness all play a role in either reducing or increasing heart disease risk. Researchers believe that in individuals that have none of the traditional risk factors associated with heart disease, emotions may be responsible for as many as 50% of heart attacks.

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Several studies have shown an association between baldness and an increased risk of heart disease. Furthermore, known heart disease risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure appear to interact strongly with the presence of baldness in men, further raising the probability of heart problems.

One of these studies, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2000, involved 22,071 male doctors from the United States who were part of the Physicians Health Study. Over half the respondents reported some hair loss by the age of 45 with a third reporting some degree of hair loss on the top of the head.

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Homocysteine is an amino acid that is becoming an increasingly important risk factor for coronary heart disease and strokes. Homocysteine is believed to degrade and inhibit the formation of the major components of arteries - collagen, elastin & proteoglycans leading to increased rates of arterial decline and conditions such as atherosclerosis

Several studies have demonstrated the link between elevated homocysteine levels and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The Hordaland homocysteine study is a Norwegian study involving over 18,000 individuals.

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Cholesterol is a lipid that can be both manufactured by the body and ingested in food. It should be noted that dietary cholesterol is not the same as cholesterol found in the blood (serum cholesterol) and that dietary cholesterol often has little impact on the levels of cholesterol in the blood.

Are high levels of cholesterol in the blood harmful? In short, yes, a number of studies have found a correlation between coronary heart disease and high levels of serum cholesterol.

The graph below shows the combined results of three Finnish studies from 1972, 1977 and 1982 for men aged between 30 and 59.

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A British study has found that stressed workers are significantly more likely to develop coronary heart disease.

The research, conducted at the University College London (UCL), was published in January in the European Heart Journal. The study suggested that stressed workers may be up to 68 percent more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than other workers. The research was conducted using data from the Whitehall II study which began in 1985 and involves more than 10,000 workers from London, England.

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People with higher blood sugar levels , particularly women, run a greater risk of developing heart disease according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The study, which included over 4,000 men and women from the Framingham Heart Study, found that women with high fasting glucose levels are much more likely to develop heart disease, even if they do not have diabetes. In contrast, fasting glucose levels did not influence heart disease risk in non-diabetic men.

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A recent American study published in the Journal of Circulation Research has suggested that very fine particles emitted from vehicles triggers an inflammatory response in the arteries which in turn leads to atherosclerosis and an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The five week study involved exposing mice to ultra-fine particles sourced from a Los Angeles freeway. These mice experienced a 55% increase in the formation of atherosclerotic lesions when compared to mice breathing filtered air free of the particles.

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Women who use calcium supplements may be at an increased risk of heart problems in later life according to a recent New Zealand study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) this month.

Researchers from the Department of Medicine at the University of Auckland followed 1471 healthy post-menopausal women, all over the age of 55, for a period of five years. Half the group took a calcium supplement which contained 1 gram (0.04 ounces) of calcium while the other half received a placebo.

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