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The technique, which involves a simple injection, could aid the recovery of hundreds of thousands of heart failure patients - and could even consign heart transplants to history. Researchers hope to increase levels of SERCA2a, a protein in heart muscle cells that plays an important role in heart muscle contraction The technique, which involves a simple injection, could aid the recovery of hundreds of thousands of heart failure patients. Heart transplants could even be consigned to history thanks to a trial by Imperial College, London, which aims to show for the first time that gene therapy could repair failing organs....

Researchers at the Medical College of Qingdao University in Qingdao, China, saw a 32% decrease of stroke risk with every 200 grams of fruit consumed each day, and an 11% decrease for every 200 g of vegetables eaten daily. High fruit and vegetable intake can lower blood pressure and improve microvascular function, the researchers said in the study, which was published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

Those who love rib-eye steaks and double-cream Brie will feel better about their guilty pleasures after reading Nina Teicholz’s article in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, “The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease.” She writes, for example: Too much whole-grain oatmeal for breakfast and whole-grain pasta for dinner, with fruit snacks in between, add up to a less healthy diet than one of eggs and bacon, followed by fish. Gary Taubes covered some of the same ground in his excellent 2008 book, Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health. Taubes argued...

"Saturated fat does not cause heart disease"—or so concluded a big study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. How could this be? The very cornerstone of dietary advice for generations has been that the saturated fats in butter, cheese and red meat should be avoided because they clog our arteries. The new study's conclusion shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with modern nutritional science, however. The fact is, there has never been solid evidence for the idea that these fats cause disease. We only believe this to be the case because nutrition policy has been derailed over the...

In a group of studies published Sunday in the journals Science and Nature Medicine, researchers say old mice who were infused with the blood of spry younger mice showed clear improvements in memory, sensory function, strength and endurance. Researchers say a specific protein, found in the blood of mice and humans, appears to be at the root of this rejuvenation. They say they hope to test the protein's effect on humans in clinical trials in the next few years.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University may be one step closer to eradicating debilitating heart diseases in humans, particularly those caused by excessive buildup of cholesterol.

According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million children and adults in the United States–8.3% of the population–have diabetes (90-95% are type 2). This includes 18.8 million who are diagnosed and 7 million who are “undiagnosed.” And, if that weren’t bad enough, the ADA estimates that there are also 79 million so-called “prediabetics” in this country. Much more statistical information–and some elucidation of the dubious methodology behind it is available here. Why dubious? At best, these widely touted statistics are pedal to the metal extrapolations from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, which examines “a nationally representative sample of...

Women who drink the most diet sodas may also be more likely to develop heart disease and even to die, according to a new study published Saturday. Researchers found women who drank two or more diet drinks a day were 30 percent more likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular "event," and 50 percent more likely to die, than women who rarely touch such drinks. The findings, being presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, don't suggest that the drinks themselves are killers. But women who toss back too many diet sodas may be trying...

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Heart Foundation have found there is actually no evidence that confirms changing the type of fat you eat from "bad" saturated to "healthier" polyunsaturated cuts heart risk. The researchers analysed data from 72 unique studies with over 600,000 participants from 18 nations and found total saturated fatty acid, whether measured in the diet or in the bloodstream as a biomarker, was not associated with coronary disease risk in the observational studies.

Sudden bursts of anger may trigger heart attacks, strokes or other cardiovascular events within two hours of a flare-up, a team of U.S. researchers suggest. In a new study published in The European Heart Journal, researchers examined studies that spanned amore-than-18-year period from experts in the medical field. The Harvard School of Public Health team found that cardiovascular events can be triggered by psychological stress, such as an angry outburst, which has “shown to increase heart rate and blood pressure, and vascular resistance.” And people who are obese, smokers, or have a history of heart disease are more susceptible to...

Obesity comes with a number of life threatening risks. The condition, for instance, is linked to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and even cancer. However, loneliness is a more threatening killer than obesity, at least among elderly people. The researchers also found that extreme loneliness increases an older person's risks of early death by 14 percent which means that loneliness has a double the impact on early death as obesity. Cacioppo explained that chronic loneliness is associated with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which raises risks of strokes and heart attacks. It is also linked with high blood pressure and...

Vitamin D ...the researchers found that adults who took vitamin D supplements daily lived longer than those who didn't. Probiotics ...they're useful in very specific circumstances, but it's not necessary to continually take them on a daily basis. Zinc ...the mineral significantly reduced the duration of the cold, and also made symptoms less severe. Niacin ...Also known as vitamin B3, niacin is talked up as a cure for all sorts of conditions (including high cholesterol, Alzheimer's, diabetes and headaches) but in most of these cases, a prescription-strength dose of niacin has been needed to show a clear result. At over-the-counter...

INDIANAPOLIS – The American Heart Association, through its Go Red For Women movement, urges everyone to support the fight against heart disease by wearing red on National Wear Red Day – Friday, Feb. 7. American Heart Month is in February, a perfect time to focus on the prevalence of heart disease, America’s No. 1 killer.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)I have seen the future — your future if you’re rich enough or brave enough to embrace it — and I have to tell you, it’s weird. Imagine this: it’s 2025 and you’re getting on, feeling your knees a bit. You’re bending over one day to pick up junk mail when you feel a terrible pain in your chest. You call 999 and within the hour (in this ideal world) you’re in hospital under the knife. But this isn’t heart surgery you’re having, it’s bottom surgery: the doctor’s taking a chunk of fat from your bum. Have they made a...

Processed food NOT fat is the real cause of heart disease, claims heart surgeon who says a diet of natural food can even reverse the illness Dr. Dwight Lundell admits prescribing cholesterol-lowering medications, and a low-fat, high-simple carbohydrate diet for two-and-a-half decades was misguided 'These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible,' he writes in an essay that has ignited the Internet He vlaims these foods actively destroy the walls of our blood vessels by causing chronic inflammation, which in turn causes heart disease The cardiac surgeon recommends only eating foods your grandmother, or great-grandmother, would recognise An Arizona...

Baby Boomers might not be aware of the harm to their health that could come from high levels of copper and iron in the blood stream. Of course, that's because you haven't seen any public health messages and probably haven't been warned by your doctor that you could be ingesting either of the two from unknown sources that can put you at risk for a variety of common health problems that we shrug off as inevitable with aging. Iron is necessary to carry oxygen throughout the body. Copper helps our body use iron, protects our nerve cells and is important...

If you’re already holding your first coffee of the morning, you might want to put it down, because drinking four cups a day could raise your risk of dying young, researchers warn—but only if you’re under 55. They found that consuming 28 cups of coffee a week increases the chances of premature death in younger people by half. … The risk of death from all causes rose by 56 percent for men and women younger than 55 who drank more than 28 cups of coffee a week, said a report in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. … Recent research has...

Some people harbor a strain of bacteria that chews through cardiac medication The next time you pop a pill, know that the microbes in your gut might get to it before you do. Some people harbor a strain of bacteria that inactivates a common cardiac drug, a finding that could explain why people have different reactions to some medications. “Microbes have long been known to ‘steal’ drugs by converting them into inactive forms,” says Peter Turnbaugh of Harvard University, who led the study. But picking out the specific culprits among the gut’s throngs of bacterial suspects has been a challenge...

Country singer, Randy Travis is in critical condition after being admitted to a Texas hospital on Sunday, July 7, 2013 for viral cardiomyopathy, reports USA Today. Cardiomyopathy is a weakening of the heart muscles, and can be genetic, but also can be caused by a virus, or can even be a result of another medical condition. So what is cardiomyopathy – specifically, what is viral cardiomyopathy – and what are some of the possible treatments that Randy Travis may have to undergo for recovery? What is Cardiomyopathy? Cardiomyopathy is a disease that makes the heart to become enlarged, thick, or...

Too much coffee can lead to weight gain and other health problems, even if drinkers stick to decaffeinated, according to research. Experts warned that drinking five or more cups a day increased the amount of fat stored in the abdomen. It was revealed that even a “moderate intake” of coffee in the average day could also lead to problems such as increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. Repeated studies in the past have shown that coffee can have benefits for regular drinkers, including lowing the chances of a stroke and certain forms of cancer. …