Natural therapy: Heart

Showing posts with label Heart. Show all posts

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Olive Oil Demands Get Higher in India With the Hypertension and Heart Disease Cases

Imports of olive oil in India surged by 66 percent to 11,916.76 tonnes in the financial year ended March 31, 2013, according to Indian Olive Association data.

"Main driving factor for olive oil demands in India is health-related problems like increasing cases of diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases," V N Dalmia, president of the Indian Olive Association, told IANS.

He said in 2012-13, growth in import of olive oil was the highest in India among the major economies, followed by Japan with 29 percent, China 17 percent and Brazil 16 percent.

Olive oil is considered good for health as it contains low saturated fat and high percentage of mono-unsaturated fat that help in reducing the risk of heart diseases, diabetes and hypertension. In addition, the high anti-oxidants in olive oil fight cancer and increase life expectancy.

Dalmia said rising purchasing power and growing awareness among common people have boosted demands for olive oil, mainly in urban areas.

Imports of olive oil have increased sharply in India in the past few years. It had jumped by 42 percent in 2011-12 and by 49 percent in the previous year.

Dalmia said imports surged by 66.36 percent in 2012-13 year-on-year, which is a record high.

Imports have jumped despite a sharp jump in prices. "Prices of olive oil have jumped by almost 40 percent in producing countries. It is now at a record high," said Dalmia, who is also chairman of Dalmia Continental, one of the biggest importers of olive oil in India.

Spain and Italy together supply over 90 percent of India's olive oil import. Of the total imports, 59.18 percent came from Spain in 2012-13, while 31.26 percent came from Italy.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), heart diseases would be the single largest killer in India by 2015.

India has the largest number of cardiac patients, with an estimated over 100 million people or nearly 10 percent of the total population affected.

India also has the second largest number of diabetes patients with an estimated 61 million people affected. Nearly 140 million people in India have high blood pressure, which is 14 percent of the world's total such patients.

Dalmia said considering the enormity of these health-related problems, the demands for olive oil would remain strong in India in the coming years.

According to the Indian Olive Association, imports of olive oil is estimated to increase by an average 40 percent annually over the next five years.

Dalmia said growth may drop in the current financial year due to high prices and a sharp depreciation in the value of the rupee that has made imports costlier. "Our import cost has gone up by almost 50 percent in the past one year due to increase in prices in the producing countries and rupee depreciation," he said.

The Indian rupee has depreciated by almost 10 percent since the beginning of this year. It hit a record low of 60.76 against a dollar last week.

Dalmia said nearly one-fifth of olive oil in India is used for massage and external use and the rest for cooking.

Source-IANS

View the original article here

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Young Professionals Falling Prey to Heart Attacks, Say Experts

According to the India Today-Saffolalife Study conducted on 46,000 urban Indians, 78 percent of those aged between 30 and 34 run the risk of a heart attack, Kanchan Naikawadi, Director, Indus Health Plus (P) Ltd. said.

In last few months, 30-year-old TV actor Abir Goswami and 20-plus Kannada actor Hemanth died of a heart attack.

There is no specific profession that leads to a higher number of heart diseases, but professionals who tend to sit for most of the time are more likely to suffer from such diseases, informs Naikawadi.

"Those from the IT and BPO sector fall under this category. With most of the work happening from desk and minimal physical activity being involved, the chances of risk in such professions are higher," Naikawadi told IANS.

Ravindra L. Kulkarni, cardiologist and co-founder of Just For Hearts, too felt that although every profession contributes to stress, employees of IT companies are more stressed out owing to long working hours, graveyard shifts and unhealthy eating habits.

There are other unhealthy lifestyle practices that cause early heart attacks.

"I have observed that smoking is the biggest risk factor for heart attacks among youngsters. No physical exercise and alcohol intake further increase the risk. High cholesterol levels, diabetes and hypertension are also some of the factors," Amar Singhal, head of department, interventional cardiologist, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, told IANS.

Heart disease, which was earlier associated with older men, is also becoming common among women.

Kulkarni said that till women reach menopause, they are protected against it. But, it has been found that across the globe, approximately 8.6 million women die every year due to heart attacks. He attributed it to changes in lifestyle.

To prevent a heart attack, certain physical signs should not be ignored.

If you are suddenly running out of breath and there is no one around you to lend a helping hand, panic. Try to calm down. Sit whereever you are and take deep breaths, said Naikawadi and gave more tips to avoid a larger problem.

"If you are wearing any tight clothes, loosen them. Get your hands on an asprin tablet and make sure that you chew it well. Tt will work faster," she said.

"Make sure that you are not surrounded by a crowd that adds to the feeling of being restless. Drink something refreshing and if you are outside, look for a place with shade. If you feel it could be a heart attack, call for emergency medical help," Naikawadi added.

Naikawadi informed that according to a WHO report, four people die of heart attack every minute in India and the age group is mainly between 30-50.

A sudden heart attack is not uncommon, so it is advisable to check your family history and consult doctors. Under the scenario, regular checkups are must for everyone.

"However, the only way to find out about any such condition is to go for regular preventive health checkups starting early in life, especially individuals with a family history and high risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes," Naikawadi advised.

A heart attack happens when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart gets blocked. In such cases angioplasty, which costs around Rs.2 lakh, could be the ideal remedy.

"Emergency angiogram is done and the blockage causing the heart attack is diagnosed. The blockage is removed and a stent is placed across the area," explained Karthik Vasudevan, Interventional cardiologist at Bangalore's Columbia Asia Referral Hospital.

To keep your heart strong after an attack, Singhal suggested strictly following a healthy diet and, regularly exercising without exerting and regular checkups.

Last but not least, do not ignore any chest pain.

Source-IANS

View the original article here

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Keeping Blood Pressure and Cholesterol in Check Could Cut Heart Disease Risk by Half: Study

by Rukmani Krishna on? July 04, 2013 at 1:11 PM Heart Disease News A new research has claimed that controlling your high blood pressure and high cholesterol simultaneously could decrease your risk of attaining heart disease by half or more. Keeping Blood Pressure and Cholesterol in Check Could Cut Heart Disease Risk by Half: Study
Brent M. Egan, M.D., lead study author and a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C, said that undertreated high blood pressure and cholesterol affect millions of Americans - posing a major public health threat.

He said that the reality is that they know more than enough to prevent 75 percent of heart disease and strokes, but people not doing everything that they can do or even do it at a reasonable level.

Egan asserted that some gradual improvements have been made over the years, but there is still a lot of progress to be made.

The findings are based on data of more than 17,000 American adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys during in 1988-94, 1999-2004 and 2005-10.

In addition to reviewing patients' blood pressure and cholesterol levels, researchers considered race, age, insurance status, whether patients smoked, had diabetes, had diagnosed heart disease and/or chronic kidney disease, and if they visited a doctor every year.

Egan also said that if patients' cholesterol tests show a good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level, which is the healthy, protective cholesterol, then the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) number might get overlooked.

He explained that not all HDL is equally protective and some people with a normal HDL are at high risk and in those patients, there might be a false sense of assurance that cholesterol really isn't a problem.

He added that LDL and non-HDL readings are the ones to really watch and patients seeing their doctors for BP treatment should ask about their LDL and non-HDL levels and make sure both are under control at the same time.

The research has been published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Source-ANI

var xmlHttpvar imgpath,imagefunction RefreshImage(ImageId){image=document.getElementById(ImageId);//alert(ImageId);xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/captcha.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();imgpath=url;xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReg;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReg(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){image.src = imgpath;}}function RequestCode(){xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/reqimgvalue.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReq;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReq(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){var seccode=xmlHttp.responseText;if(seccode==document.getElementById("scode").value){//alert(seccode + "same value");}else{document.getElementById("scode").value=xmlHttp.responseText;}}}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttpNew=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttpNew=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttpNew;}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttp=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttp;}

function fnsearch(){day1 = document.search.SelDay.value;month1 = document.search.SelMonth.value;year1 = document.search.SelYear.value;tmpdate=month1+"/"+day1+"/"+year1 fromdate=new Date(year1,month1-1,day1)if (!((fromdate.getDate()==day1)&&(fromdate.getMonth()+1==month1)&&(fromdate.getFullYear()==year1))){alert("Please Select a valid Date")document.search.SelDay.focus();return false;}tmpcatid=document.search.ncategoryid.value;tmpkeyword=document.search.keyword.value;document.search.action="http://www.medindia.net/news/newsday_list.asp?ddate="+tmpdate+"&ncategoryid=" +tmpcatid +"&keyword=" +tmpkeywordreturn true;}News Categories:?? Latest Health News Popular News AIDS/HIV News Alcohol & Drug Abuse News Alternative Medicine News Anti-Aging News Bird Flu News Cancer News Celebrity Health News Chikungunya News Child Health News Cholesterol News Clinical Trials News Corporate News Dengue News Dental News Diabetes News Diet & Nutrition News Drug News Education News Environmental Health General News Genetics & Stem Cells News Health Insurance News Heart Disease News Hospital News Hypertension News Indian Health News Lifestyle News Medical Gadgets Medical PDA News Medico Legal News Men?s Health News Mental Health News News on IT in Healthcare Nursing Profession News Obesity News Organ Donation News Research News Respiratory Disease News Senior Health News Sexual Health News Tropical Disease News Weight Loss Women Health News

View the original article here

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Study Sheds Light on Smoking Cessation, Weight Gain, and Subsequent Heart Disease Risk

"Cigarette smoking is an important cause of cardiovascular disease, and smoking cessation reduces the risk. However, weight gain after smoking cessation may increase the risk of diabetes and weaken the benefit of quitting," write Juhua Luo, Ph.D., of the Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington, Ind., and colleagues.

As reported in a Research Letter, the authors used data from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) to assess the association between smoking cessation, weight gain, and subsequent coronary heart disease (CHD) risk among postmenopausal women with and without diabetes. In the WHI, 161,808 postmenopausal women 50 through 79 years of age were recruited from 40 sites between 1993 and 1998 and followed up every 6 to 12 months. Women without known cancer or cardiovascular disease at baseline or CHD at year 3 were followed up until CHD diagnosis, date of death, loss to follow-up, or September 30, 2010, whichever occurred first.

Of 104,391 women followed up, 3,381 developed CHD, during an average of 8.8 years. The researchers found that smoking cessation was associated with a lower risk of CHD among postmenopausal women with and without diabetes. Weight gain following smoking cessation weakened this association, especially for women with diabetes who gained 11 lbs. or more, although power was limited in this subgroup due to the small number of cases.

Source-Eurekalert

View the original article here

Friday, June 28, 2013

Common Antidepressants Could Double Risk of Babies Being Born With Heart Defect

by Sheela Philomena on? June 25, 2013 at 12:40 PM Drug News Popular antidepressants in early pregnancy could double the risk of babies being born with a heart defect, warns expert. Common Antidepressants Could Double Risk of Babies Being Born With Heart Defect<br /><br />
Professor Stephen Pilling of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), said that evidence suggests that there is a risk associated with the Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), the BBC reported.

He said that a lot of effort is put in to dissuade women from smoking or drinking alcohol during pregnancy, however, its not the same with antidepressant medication, which may be carrying similar - if not greater - risks.

Pilling said that the guidance is now going be re-written to take in to account evidence that the SSRI antidepressants, as a group, are associated to heart defects in babies.

He asserted that the risk of a child being born with a heart defect is around two in 100; but the new evidence shows that if the mother took an SSRI during early pregnancy the risk raises to around four in 100.

Source-ANI

View the original article here

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Device as Thin as Skin to Track Heart Health

The devices could one day be used to continuously track heart health and provide doctors a safer method of measuring a key vital sign for newborn and other high-risk surgery patients.

"The pulse is related to the condition of the artery and the condition of the heart," Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford, whose lab develops artificial skin-like materials.

To make the heart monitor both sensitive and small, Bao's team uses a thin middle layer of rubber covered with tiny pyramid bumps. Each mold-made pyramid is only a few microns across - smaller than a human red blood cell.

When pressure is put on the device, the pyramids deform slightly, changing the size of the gap between the two halves of the device. This change in separation causes a measurable change in the electromagnetic field and the current flow in the device.

The more pressure placed on the monitor, the more the pyramids deform and the larger the change in the electromagnetic field. Using many of these sensors on a prosthetic limb could act like an electronic skin, creating an artificial sense of touch.

When the sensor is placed on someone's wrist using an adhesive bandage, the sensor can measure that person's pulse wave as it reverberates through the body.

The device is so sensitive that it can detect more than just the two peaks of a pulse wave. When engineers looked at the wave drawn by their device, they noticed small bumps in the tail of the pulse wave invisible to conventional sensors.

Bao said she believes these fluctuations could potentially be used for more detailed diagnostics in the future.

"In theory, this kind of sensor can be used to measure blood pressure. Once you have it calibrated, you can use the signal of your pulse to calculate your blood pressure," said Gregor Schwartz, a post-doctoral fellow and a physicist for the project.

This non-invasive method of monitoring heart health could replace devices inserted directly into an artery, called intravascular catheters. These catheters create a high risk of infection, making them impractical for newborns and high-risk patients.

Thus, an external monitor like Bao's could provide doctors a safer way to gather information about the heart, especially during infant surgeries.

Bao's team is working with other Stanford researchers to make the device completely wireless. Using wireless communication, doctors could receive a patient's minute-by-minute heart status via cell phone, all thanks to a device as thick as a human hair.

The team published its work in the May 12 edition of Nature Communications.

Source-ANI

View the original article here

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Mild Hypothyroidism Raises Mortality Risk in Heart Patients

Hypothyroidism occurs when an underactive thyroid does not produce enough hormones. More than 9.5 million people nationwide have hypothyroidism. People who have thyroid function at the low end of the normal range have subclinical hypothyroidism, also called mild hypothyroidism.

"Our data suggest that mild hypothyroidism may, in fact, be harmful in specific populations, including people with heart failure," said Connie Rhee, MD, MSc, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "A 'one-size-fits-all' approach may not be appropriate for assessing risk and determining whether treatment is required for subclinical hypothyroidism."

The retrospective cohort study used data from 14,130 participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Using laboratory data, researchers identified 749 participants with hypothyroidism, including 691 with the subclinical form.

Researchers found the condition can have varying impacts on diverse racial and ethnic groups.

"This study is the first to show that African-Americans who have hypothyroidism face a greater risk of death than patients of other racial and ethnic groups," Rhee said. "This elevated risk exists despite the fact that hypothyroidism is less common in the African-American population compared to other groups. More research is needed to confirm these findings and to determine the underlying reasons why hypothyroidism has a differential impact on people of different race and ethnicity."

Source-Eurekalert

View the original article here

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Variation Seen Among Outpatient Practices in Control of Heart Disease Risk Factors

Researchers compared electronic health records of 115,737 patients in 18 primary care and cardiology practices participating in The Guideline Advantage?, a collaboration of the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association that aims to reduce risks for chronic diseases. They found: The percentage of people whose hypertension was under control (less than 140/90 mm Hg) ranged from 58.7 percent to 75.1 percent. The percentage of diabetic patients with cholesterol under control ("bad" low density lipoprotein cholesterol under 100 mg/dL) ranged from 53.8 percent to 100 percent. The percentage of patients screened for smoking, and receiving a tobacco cessation intervention, ranged from 53.8 percent to 86.1 percent.

"Previously, we've focused on improving the quality of inpatient hospital care and haven't explored enough how to improve outpatient care," said Zubin Eapen, M.D., the study's lead author and an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "This baseline snapshot lets us see just how much progress could be made in preventing or managing diseases."

"It's eye-opening for practices to see how much better or worse they're doing than their peers on nationally derived measures of quality. They can learn to improve in collaboration with others instead of alone," he said.

Source-Eurekalert

View the original article here

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

High Protein Diet May Not be Very Effective in Reducing Body Weight and Risk of Heart Disease

The recent study published in the BioMed Central Nutrition Journal, aimed at identifying the long-term benefits of low protein diet and high protein diet in reducing body weight and risk of heart disease.

Researchers systematically reviewed 15 long term randomized control studies that compared low and high protein diets, low in fat, and estimated the dietary effects on weight, waist circumference, fat mass, total body cholesterol, LDL and HDL cholesterol, triacylglycerols, blood pressure, C-reactive protein (CRP), fasting glucose, fasting insulin and glycosylated hemoglobin.

Primary analysis of the findings revealed that a decrease in fasting insulin and an increase in good cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) were significant with high protein diets. However, with further analysis, the increase in HDL levels was attributed to the high fat content in the diet rather than the protein content.

The analysts note that the findings of the studies do not reveal any significant benefits of high protein diet on the biomarkers for obesity, heart disease and blood sugar level.

Hence, the authors opine that further research is required before high protein diets are recommended as a control measure for obesity and heart disease.

Reference:

Long-term effects of low-fat diets either low or high in protein on cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis; Lukas et al; BMC Nutrition Journal 2013.

Source-Medindia

View the original article here

DM

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Friday, June 28, 2013

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Tuesday, May 14, 2013