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Science Daily — Rush University Medical Center is one of the first medical centers in the country, and currently the only site in Illinois, participating in a novel clinical trial to determine if a subject’s own stem cells can treat a form of severe coronary artery disease. The Autologous Cellular Therapy CD34-Chronic Myocardial Ischemia (ACT34-CMI) Trial is the first human, Phase II adult stem cell therapy study in the U.S. designed to investigate the efficacy, tolerability, and safety of blood-derived selected CD34+ stem cells to improve symptoms and clinical outcomes in subjects with chronic myocardial ischemia (CMI), a severe form...

A groundbreaking study of 1,946 male veterans of World War II and Korea suggests that vets with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are at greater risk of heart attacks as they age. The new study is the first to document a link between PTSD symptoms and future heart disease, and joins existing evidence that vets with PTSD also have more autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and psoriasis. A second study, funded by the Army, found that soldiers returning from combat in Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder reported worse physical health, more doctor visits and more missed workdays. The Army study...

Pfizer announced last night that it had discontinued research on its most important experimental drug, a treatment for heart disease. The decision is a stunning development that is likely to seriously damage the company’s prospects through the next decades. Preliminary research found that the drug, torcetrapib, appeared to be linked with deaths and heart problems in the patients who were taking it. For people with heart disease, Pfizer’s decision to stop the trial represents the failure of a drug that many cardiologists had viewed as a potentially major advance in efforts to reduce heart attacks and strokes. Torcetrapib is designed...

Scientists have shown that cells in the heart's outer layer can migrate deeper into a failing organ to carry out essential repairs.   The migration of progenitor cells is controlled by a protein called thymosin beta 4, already known to help reduce muscle cell loss after a heart attack.   The discovery opens up the possibility of using the protein to develop more effective treatments for heart disease.   The University College London (UCL) study appears in the journal Nature. Finding out how this protein helps to heal the heart offers enormous potential in fighting heart disease Professor Colin Blakemore Medical Research Council...

More Benefits of Dark Chocolate Discovered Date Published: Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that eating even small quantities of high-quality dark chocolate every day can greatly lower your risk of stroke and heart attack. According to the report, the chemicals in dark chocolate help to reduce the speed of blood clotting by limiting the clumping of blood platelets. Dr. Diane Becker reported the findings this week in Chicago at the annual American Heart Association meeting.The study was initially designed to test the effects of aspirin on blood clotting, but too many of BeckerÂ’s subjects had...

Nov 8, 11:19 PM EST Low-Carb Diet Doesn't Raise Heart Risk By LINDA A. JOHNSON Associated Press Writer Eating a low-carb, high-fat diet for years doesn't raise the risk of heart disease, a long-term study suggests, easing fears that the popular Atkins diet and similar regimens might set people up for eventual heart attacks. The study of thousands of women over two decades found that those who got lots of their carbohydrates from refined sugars and highly processed foods nearly doubled their risk of heart disease.At the same time, those who ate a low-carb diet but got more of...

/begin my translationNew Drugs Tested In Russia On Those With Kim Jong-il's Health Profile A lawmaker at Intelligence Committee, "told by the intelligence chief" (Seoul = Yonhap News) Kim Nam-kwon = It is claimed that new drugs are being tested in Russia on those who are of the same age, physique, and physiology as Kim Jong-il, whose health is allegedly in trouble recently. A lawmaker at Intelligence Committee of National Assembly (S. Korea) claimed during a telephone conversation with Yonhap News on Sept. 10, "National Intelligence Service Chief Kim Seung-kyu said so recently at the full meeting of Intelligence Committee." The lawmaker explained, "NIS Chief Kim told us that...

(BETHESDA, MD) – Left ventricular function and exercise capacity increased, while the area of heart muscle damage shrank, in 18 patients given infusions of their own bone marrow stem cells up to eight years after a heart attack, according to a new study in the Nov. 1, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "This new therapy is able to treat until now irreversible heart complaints and function disturbances in patients with chronic coronary artery disease after myocardial infarction, even many years after heart attack. Therefore there is hope for this large amount of patients with...

Stem cells derived from human heart tissue develop into multicellular, spherical structures called cardiospheres that express the normal properties of primitive heart tissue, smooth muscle and blood vessel cells, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers. In a related study, cells grown in the laboratory from these cardiospheres and injected into the hearts of mice following a lab-induced heart attack migrated straight to damaged tissue and regenerated, improving the organ's ability to pump blood throughout the animal's body. Results from both studies are to be presented Nov. 14 at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions in Dallas. "The...

When Dr. Christian Barnard performed the world's first successful heart transplant back in 1967, he reached a new peak of human scientific achievement. However, almost 40 years later, the criteria for receiving a new heart is quite stringent, and heart transplants are granted to those patients who have the highest chance for recovery. For thousands of elderly or gravely ill patients with damaged hearts, a transplant is not an option. Now Israeli researchers are at the forefront of research which could one day make heart transplants obsolete - using stem cell technology, they're developing a way to use the blood...

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel DALLAS - Heart attack patients who were treated with their own stem cells a few days after being hospitalized had significantly improved heart pumping ability, according to the largest, most rigorous clinical trial to date of the controversial therapy. The improvement seen with stem cells was better than with the best drugs now available and it appears the therapy actually repaired damage done during heart attacks, said lead author Volker Schachinger, a cardiologist at J.W. Goethe University and the Third Medical Clinic of Cardiology in Frankfurt, Germany. "It opens up a completely new way of treating heart...

Adult stem-cell research may lead one day to cures for terminal and debilitating diseases "I hope we will always be guided by both intellect and heart, by both our capabilities and our conscience." -President George W. Bush1 Few areas of scientific study hold as much potential as adult stem-cell research. This research is already generating medical breakthroughs and treatments for debilitating diseases and disabilities, such as spinal cord injuries, sickle cell anemia and Parkinson's. Indeed, scientists laud stem-cell treatments as the "miracle cure" of the 21st century. Unlike so many areas of biotechnology, adult stem cells do not spark a...

HONOLULU - Legendary Hawaiian crooner Don Ho says he could barely walk, let alone sing, and would have been a "goner" without an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart earlier this month in Thailand. Ho, known for his signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," said he hopes to return to the stage soon. "I'm feeling terrific, 100 percent better," Ho told The Associated Press in one of his first interviews since surgery Dec. 6. "I'm ready to go, but I've got to listen to the doctors. "When they say my heart is strong enough to get excited, I'm on." The...

Getting rid of that spare tire around your middle could help your heart in more ways than you might expect, according to a San Diego biotechnology company.   Cytori Therapeutics has developed a machine that pulls stem cells and other regenerative cells out of fat so they can be re-injected into the body to repair tissue damaged by heart attack or disease.  Several studies, including some in which Cytori scientists have participated, have shown that stem cells and other regenerative material from fat can help build blood supply and restore blood flow to cardiac muscle that has been damaged by a...

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor July 12, 2004 Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Two new studies are providing further argument that embryonic stem cell research is unnecessary because adult stem cells are not only more ethical, but more effective as well. Researchers at the Tufts-New England Medical Center reported last week that that unborn children may be giving their mothers the gift of life. As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers have uncovered evidence that fetal stem cells may be migrating from the developing unborn child to diseased tissue and organs in the mother's body. Evidence...

ERUSALEM - After 61 years of pumping blood, Marie Carty's heart was failing her. Months earlier she had given up her two-mile walk on the boardwalk of her New Jersey hometown along the Atlantic Ocean. She could barely make it from the parking lot to the view of the water. Although Carty knew she needed a new heart, she was afraid hers wouldn't last during the long wait for a transplant. Desperate for an alternative, Carty found the Israeli-Thai company Theravitae, which has begun performing an experimental procedure that multiplies stem cells taken from a patient's own blood and injects...

Adult Stem Cells Improve Cardiac Function and Blood Flow in Patients With Heart Disease, New Study Finds NOGA(R) Cardiac Navigation System from Biologics Delivery Systems Group, Cordis Corporation, Helped Researchers Deliver Stem Cells to the Heart ATLANTA, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Bone marrow-derived adult stem cells administered within the heart (intramyocardial) and coronary artery (intracoronary) tissues of heart disease patients improved patients' heart function and blood flow, according to a pilot study presented during a poster session at the 2006 American College of Cardiology Scientific Session. The study also found that patients who received more stem cells experienced a higher...

Experimental treatment makes 70-year-old a poster boy for science Mike Swendseid seemingly had run out of options in battling heart disease. The Grand Forks man had angioplasty. He underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery. Inside him were four wires, two stents, a pacemaker and a defibrillator. "After the last stent, doctors told me there was nothing more they could do for Mike," said his wife, Marion. But, as science progressed, there was something. In January, the 70-year-old Swendseid became a recipient of experimental stem cell treatment at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, which is part of Abbott Northwestern Hospital. The treatment uses Swendseid's...

A neurologist from Washington, D.C., an autonomic nervous system specialist from Philadelphia and a neuron-psychologist and psycho-pharmacologist -- both from Manhattan -- have spent a lot of time with Steven Domalewski lately.  They, and others, have been at his bedside in a Paterson hospital, using cutting-edge treatments while trying to bring the 12-year-old pitcher out of a coma."He's progressing at a really good rate," Dr. Philip De Fina said Friday. "He has definitely improved. His alertness has improved. His dad has been feeding him little bits of Italian ice, and he's breathing very well on his own."  De Fina...

Having a drink or two each day appears to be better for the heart than having a drink just now and then, at least for middle-aged men, a Danish study finds. Men who drank moderately each day had a 41 percent lower risk of heart disease than abstainers, while the risk was only 7 percent lower for those who drank on no more than one day a week, the researchers found. The team found no such benefit to daily drinking for women, however. "This is one more study suggesting that a modest to moderate amount of alcohol in the world...

Immortality is within our grasp . . . In Fantastic Voyage, high-tech visionary Ray Kurzweil teams up with life-extension expert Terry Grossman, M.D., to consider the awesome benefits to human health and longevity promised by the leading edge of medical science--and what you can do today to take full advantage of these startling advances. Citing extensive research findings that sound as radical as the most speculative science fiction, Kurzweil and Grossman offer a program designed to slow aging and disease processes to such a degree that you should be in good health and good spirits when the more extreme...

Eliminating the threat of secondhand smoke would prevent more than 228,000 new cases of heart disease and 119,000 heart-related deaths over the next 25 years, according to a new study. Using a model to estimate the impact of eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke on heart disease, researchers found stopping secondhand smoke would quickly reduce the number of heart-related deaths. This effect would increase over time, adding up to hundreds of thousands of preventable heart attacks and other problems. National surveys suggest that 4 percent to 17 percent of the nonsmoking population (depending on age and sex) are exposed to secondhand...

<p>Last Friday mom went in for a routine heart catherization for clogged arteries. The doctor, in his infinite wisdom, decided that she had to have an immediate triple bypass. She recovered, as expected, the next day. Then, on Monday, she has fluid build up around the heart and coded. Her brain was deprived of oxygen for too long and she is now effectively brain dead. She will be taken off of life support tomorrow.</p>

Put a cork in it Alcohol may not be so good for you Cindy E. Harnett, CanWest News Service Published: Friday, March 31, 2006 VICTORIA - People who have been drinking red wine in an attempt to stave off heart disease may be disheartened by the results of a University of Victoria study that suggests alcohol likely offers little protection against illness. "Apologies. It must be so confusing," Dr. Tim Stockwell, director of the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C., said, referring to a study that contradicts research that says moderate drinking helps prevent heart disease.

Stem cell injections might someday be used to treat a debilitating cardiovascular condition called peripheral arterial disease (PAD), researchers say. People with PAD have poor blood circulation -- especially in the legs -- and can suffer sores, ulcers and even amputations. PAD is caused by a clogging and hardening of the arteries, and patients may need surgical procedures such as angioplasty or an artery bypass graft to widen narrowed blood vessels. However, as many as 12 percent of PAD patients can't have these surgical procedures. That's why researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis are investigating the...

Eating less fat late in life failed to lower the risk of cancer and heart disease among older women, disappointing news for those who expected greater benefits from a healthy diet. Even so, scientists say the results from the government study of 48,835 women don't mean dieters should just throw up their hands and eat cake. The eight-year study showed no difference in the rate of breast cancer, colon cancer and heart disease among those who ate lower-fat diets and those who didn't. The research involved postmenopausal women who either cut overall fat consumption and increased vegetables, fruits and grains,...

Women are more likely than men to have a hidden type of coronary disease in which their heart muscle is starved for oxygen even though their coronary arteries look clear and free of blockages on X-rays, doctors are reporting. The condition, which may affect three million American women, greatly increases the risk of a heart attack. Its main symptom is chest pain or discomfort. In many women, the pain occurs but nothing shows up on an angiogram, a test in which dye is injected into the coronary arteries and they are X-rayed in a search for blockages, so doctors conclude...

In 1980, a man from a small town called Limone Sul Garda in northern Italy went to a doctor for some problem, not heart related. Testing of his blood showed very high levels of triglycerides, and very low levels of HDL, the good form of cholesterol. By all rights, the man should have either been dead from, or in imminent danger of a heart attack. But his arteries were clear. Analysis of his blood showed he had a very special form of Lipoprotein, a type of HDL. And further work with this particular type of Lipoprotein revealed astounding results. In...

WASHINGTON - Roll over oats: Breakfast cereals and other foods that contain barley also will be able to start claiming they can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The disease kills 500,000 Americans a year. Labels on whole barley and dry milled barley products, including flakes, grits, flour and meal, are expected to start making the claim, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday in announcing its ruling. The claim is identical to that already made on many oat products. The FDA estimates a quarter of the hot breakfast cereals, and another 5 percent of the cold cereals, sold...

BALTIMORE - Just when we thought we couldn't get any fatter, a new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight. Even if you are one of the lucky few who made it to middle age without getting fat, don't congratulate yourself — keep watching that waistline. Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight problem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quarter of the men...

HOUSTON (Sept. 16, 2005) - Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have found that human fat cells produce a protein that is linked to both inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. They say the discovery, reported in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, goes a long way to explain why people who are overweight generally have higher levels of the molecule, known as C-reactive protein (CRP), which is now used diagnostically to predict future cardiovascular events. And they also report...

Giving heart-attack patients a dose of "super aspirin" before rather than during a procedure to restore blood flow to the heart could save tens of thousands of lives a year, new research suggests. In a major international study presented yesterday at a meeting here of the European Society of Cardiology, scientists found that giving heart attack victims the drug Plavix when they arrive at the emergency room almost halved the risk of a stroke, a repeated heart attack or death within the first month after angioplasty. Angioplasty, a procedure where doctors thread a needle through the blood vessels and implant...

Researchers discover thyroid, heart failure connection Researchers at The University of South Dakota School of Medicine believe they are on the verge of changing the way physicians view the treatment of heart disease. Along with several colleagues, A. Martin Gerdes, director of the School of Medicine's Cardiovascular Research Institute in Sioux Falls, has recently published groundbreaking research in a nationally recognized medical journal for establishing a connection between low functioning thyroid glands and the development of heart disease. Although treatment on human patients may be some time away, the team is excited at the prospect of standing on the cutting...

Research Presented at American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session Reports D-Ribose Improves Ventilatory Efficiency in Congestive Heart Failure Patients MINNEAPOLIS, Mar. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- MINNEAPOLIS, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Ventilatory efficiency is recognized as an important predictor of survival and disease progression among patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Thus, improving ventilatory efficiency in this population is of prime importance. A research report presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session 2005 in Orlando, Florida, suggests that D-Ribose can play a significant role in this key pursuit.It is well accepted that failing hearts are energy starved...

Journal Report 02/07/2005Two drugs with FDA warnings may benefit some heart failure patients  DALLAS, Feb. 8 – Two drugs that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns against using in many heart failure patients may benefit some people with diabetes who have heart failure, according to an observational study in today’s Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.“Our study found that patients with heart failure and diabetes who were prescribed one or both of two types of diabetes drugs — metformin and thiazolidinediones — had lower death rates than those who did not receive these drugs,” said lead author Frederick...

Sudden emotional stress - from grief, fear, anger or shock - can cause heart failure, in a little known and poorly understood syndrome that seems to affect primarily women, researchers are reporting today. The victims are generally healthy, with no history of heart disease. A death in the family, an armed robbery, a car accident, a biopsy procedure and a surprise party were among the events that sent 18 women and one man to coronary care units in Baltimore with chest pains and weakening of the heart, according to an article in The New England Journal of Medicine. Most were...

Brushing your teeth could reduce the risk of having a stroke or heart attack, a study has suggested. A team from Columbia University found people with gum disease were more likely to suffer from atherosclerosis - a narrowing of blood vessels. The condition can precede a stroke or heart attack. The British Dental Association said the research, published in the journal Circulation underlined the importance of looking after dental health. The Columbia researchers looked at levels of bacteria in the mouths of 657 people who had no history of stroke or myocardial infarction (heart attack). The researchers also measured the...

Two national health organizations are teaming up in an Orwellian effort to pander to women and mislead the American public about the threat of heart disease. First, for those of us who care about such things, the facts. According to the latest government report, men die an average of 5.4 years before women. The main reason for that disparity in life expectancy is heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women alike. But men’s risk of dying from heart disease is far greater than women’s – about 50% higher. These are the actual numbers from...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Viagra may aid in the treatment of enlarged hearts that can result from high blood pressure, tests on animals indicate. Plans are under way for a trial to determine if similar results occur in humans given the drug widely used to treat erectile dysfunction. The drug, known generically as sildenafil citrate, blocked and even reversed some of the heart enlargement in mice with blood pressure stress, said researchers led by Dr. David A. Kass of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Vitamin K is absolutely essential to build strong bones -- and it is proven to prevent heart disease. For several years, compelling evidence has shown that most people don't get enough vitamin K to protect their health through the foods they eat.Green leafy vegetables supply almost half of the vitamin K for the majority of Americans. Most foods considered rich in vitamin K have shown to have less vitamin K than previously thought. Despite this vital information, the majority of multi-vitamins don't contain any vitamin K at all -- and those that do don't contain enough.Recent research supporting vitamin...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is considering whether a drug for a serious chronic condition - high cholesterol - should sit on drugstore shelves alongside medicines for headaches, allergies and athlete's foot. Supporters say making a low-dose cholesterol medicine available without a doctor's prescription would help get needed treatment to millions of Americans who are at risk of heart disease. "There's a huge treatment gap," said Jerry Hansen, vice president of marketing at Johnson & Johnson-Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co., a joint venture that is asking the Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell a low-dose version of Mevacor over...

How Fish Oil Protects Your Heart   While there are many (unnecessary) pharmacological treatments for the prevention and management of coronary heart disease, both health professionals as well as the public believe simple dietary interventions may prove to be more beneficial. Specifically, omega-3 fatty acids from fish and fish oils can protect against cardiovascular disease.Omega-3 Protects Your HeartFollowing are just some of the benefits omega-3 has to offer: Antiarrhythmic: counteracting or preventing cardiac arrhythmia Antithrombotic: tending to prevent thrombosis (a blood clot within a blood vessel) Antiatherosclerotic: preventing fatty deposits and fibrosis of the inner layer of the arteries...

The evidence has gotten much stronger that a substance known as C-reactive protein may be every bit as important as cholesterol in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. Back in 2002, a thought-provoking study found that a blood test for C-reactive protein, called CRP, was actually better than the standard cholesterol test at predicting the risk of a heart attack or a stroke. Now two studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine have shown that drugs that reduce the levels of that protein in patients with severe heart disease can slow the progression of atherosclerosis and prevent...

When Richard Newton read in a magazine last year that high levels of a protein called CRP were as powerful as high cholesterol in predicting heart disease risk, he went to his doctor to be tested. Mr. Newton, a 60-year-old retired electrician in Lynnfield, Mass., assumed that his level of CRP (the letters stand for C-reactive protein) would be low, just like his cholesterol level. His overall health was good. He did not take any prescription drugs and had normal blood pressure. And although he smoked, he was not overweight and he exercised every day, playing tennis or spending an...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A diet rich in whole grains does seem to lower a man's risk of developing heart disease, with the bran component of grains playing a key role, a large study suggests. Researchers found that among nearly 43,000 middle-aged and older men, those who ate the most whole grains -- such as oatmeal, brown rice and some breakfast cereals -- were less likely than men with the lowest consumption to develop coronary heart disease over 14 years. When the investigators looked at two of the major components of whole grains, bran emerged as the lead player....

Reducing the levels of a protein secreted by the body during inflammation may be as powerful in slowing heart disease and preventing heart attacks and deaths as lowering cholesterol, two teams of researchers are reporting. The studies, published in Thursday's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, provide the strongest evidence yet for the role of the protein, known as CRP for C-reactive protein, in heart disease. The participants were patients with severe heart disease who were taking high doses of statin drugs, which lower both cholesterol and CRP. Lower CRP levels, the researchers found, were linked to a...

[An Israeli] company, CardioMeter, has developed an innovative diagnostic tool, also called CardioMeter, which can evaluate a person's cardiovascular system in minutes, and assess the risk of a cardiovascular event such as a stroke or heart attack. The test, which takes just 90 seconds, is non-invasive and completely painless, and tests the functionality of three main physiological functions of a patient's cardiovascular system - arterial flow, which gives an indication of how well blood is flowing through the arteries; autonomic nervous system, which gives a picture of how the heart's control system is functioning; and arterial stiffness, which shows the...

RESEARCHERS last week described a new drug, called BiDil, that sharply reduces death from heart disease among African-Americans. That sounds like unalloyed good news, especially because African-Americans have been underrepresented in previous drug trials and because there is already an important class of heart drug that does not work as well in blacks as it does in whites. But not everyone is cheering unreservedly. Many people, including some African-Americans, have long been uneasy with the concept of race-based medicine, in part from fear that it may legitimize less benign ideas about race. Marketing BiDil as a drug for blacks is...

a response to moore's abomination of a montage

Consuming moderate-to-high amounts of coffee is associated with increased levels of several inflammatory markers, a finding that could help explain previous reports linking the beverage to heart disease. Ongoing, low-level inflammation is thought to be an underlying factor in the development of heart disease. The latest findings, which appear in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, are based on a study of about 3000 subjects with no history of cardiovascular disease. A food-frequency questionnaire was used to assess coffee intake, and blood samples were tested for levels of various compounds that are known to promote, or are a marker of,...