The heart is a hollow, muscular organ in vertebrates, responsible for pumping blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions. The term cardiac, as in cardiology, means – related to the heart – and comes from the Greek word, kardia, for heart.
Plant-based, low-carb diet (Eco Atkins diet) may promote weight loss and improve cholesterol levels – Overweight individuals who ate a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet high in plant-based proteins for four weeks lost weight and experienced improvements in blood cholesterol levels and other heart disease risk factors.
LSUHSC researchers first to document early signs for diabetes in kids as young as 7 – Research conducted under the direction of Melinda Sothern, PhD, Professor and Director of Health Promotion at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, showing early signs of diabetes in healthy children as young as seven years old will be presented at the American Diabetes Association 2009 Annual Scientific Session Meeting in New Orleans.
Death rates same for diabetes and heart disease patients receiving drug therapy or surgery. – There is no difference in mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes and stable heart disease who received prompt bypass surgery or angioplasty compared to drug therapy alone, according to a landmark study focused exclusively on patients with both conditions.
Embracing your primitive nature can help in fight against depression – KU researcher finds primitive lifestyle elements ease depression. – He doesn’t care for the term “caveman therapy.” But Stephen Ilardi, associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Kansas, has turned to our hunter-gatherer ancestors for clues about how to best combat major depressive disorder.
Myocardial infarction patients are experiencing onerous fatigue four months after the infarction. – Half of all patients who undergo myocardial infarction are experiencing onerous fatigue four months after the infarction. The patients who are most fatigued are those who perceive the infarction as a sign of chronic illness, those who experience the illness as difficult to control, and those who believe that the illness has a large impact on their life.
High blood pressure patients with related and non-related co-existing medical conditions were more likely to receive overall good quality care . – Contrary to some previous indications, sicker high blood pressure patients are more likely to receive high-quality care than those with fewer medical needs, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Certain drug-coated stents may be safe, effective option for elderly patients – Stents coated with the drug paclitaxel may be a safe, effective treatment option for coronary artery disease (CAD) patients age 70 and older and shouldn’t be withheld due to advanced patient age, according to a study reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.
Large, long-term study shows Avandia has no increased overall cardiovascular risk compared to other commonly used diabetes medicines – Clinical trial results presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting show that overall rates of cardiovascular hospitalization and cardiovascular death are similar in patients taking Avandia (rosiglitazone) compared to those receiving metformin and sulfonylurea.
Rolofylline Did Not Demonstrate Efficacy for Acute Heart Failure in Clinical Trial – Merck’s experimental heart failure drug rolofylline failed to meet the goals in a clinical trial, failing to improve patients. Merck won’t seek approval this year for this heart failure drug rolofylline after preliminary results.
New system monitors fetal heartbeat — Noninvasive technique could prevent complications. – Tiny fluctuations in a fetus’s heartbeat can indicate distress, but currently there is no way to detect such subtle variations except during labor, when it could be too late to prevent serious or even fatal complications.
WHO urged governments to require that all tobacco packages include pictorial warnings to show the sickness and suffering caused by tobacco use. – Warnings on tobacco product packaging increase public awareness of the serious health risks of tobacco use. Images are a particularly powerful and cost-effective vehicle for communicating the risks.
Vaccine shows therapeutic promise against advanced melanoma – A vaccine for one of the most lethal cancers, advanced melanoma, has shown improved response rates and progression-free survival for patients when combined with the immunotherapy drug, Interleukin-2, according to researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
