Cardiovascular Disease

For the first time, researchers have shown that erectile dysfunction is a strong predictor of the likelihood that men will die of heart disease. Men who suffer from the problem, which some consider more an emotional than a physical issue, are twice as likely to succumb to cardiovascular disease or heart attacks as those who do not have the problem, German researchers reported Monday in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Assn. Researchers have known for years that there is a link between erectile dysfunction, commonly abbreviated as ED, and heart disease, said Dr. Sahil Parikh, an interventional cardiologist from University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland who was not involved in the study.

Sexual activity is safe for many people who have experienced heart problems or stroke, experts said Thursday in a statement containing recommendations for safe sexual activity. The report, issued by a panel of major medical organizations, notes that the question of resuming sexual activity after cardiovascular events is a major issue for patients. "Sexual counseling of cardiovascular disease patients and their partners is an important component of recovery; unfortunately, it is rarely provided," the authors wrote.

Watching television for hour upon hour obviously isn't the best way to spend leisure time -- inactivity has been linked to obesity and heart disease. But a new study quantifies TV viewing's effect on risk of death. Researchers found that each hour a day spent watching TV was linked with an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, an 11% greater risk of all causes of death, and a 9% increased risk of death from cancer. The study, released Monday in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Assn.

Men who don't have children may be at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, a study finds. The study, released Monday in the journal Human Reproduction , followed 137,903 male married or previously married AARP members for an average of about 10 years. At the beginning of the study, the participants, whose average age was about 63, had no history of heart disease, and 92% had fathered at least one child. Half had three or more children. During the course of the study, 3,082 men died due to cardiovascular causes.

Scientists have linked cardiovascular disease to an age-related breakdown of telomeres, repetitive strings of DNA on the ends of chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, a bit of the telomere is lost. Ultimately, when all the telomere is gone, the cells are unable to divide. Previous research has shown that cancer cells are able to prevent the telomeres from being shortened, and are thus able to continue dividing indefinitely. A team from Geron Corp.

It turned a whole town into a research lab. It was the first to show the world that high cholesterol and obesity put people at risk for heart disease -- the first, in fact, to coin the very term "risk factor. " And it still hasn't run out of juice. The longest-running heart health study in the world, the 60-year-old Framingham Heart Study, continues to mine its vast data set for causes or signs of heart trouble. Before Framingham, which began recruiting subjects in the Massachusetts town in 1948, heart disease was something that just happened.

Nearly half of all adult Americans have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, all conditions that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, researchers from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. One in eight Americans has at least two of the conditions and one in 33 has all three, sharply increasing their risk. Of those with at least one condition, 15% have not been diagnosed, according to the report released online. "The number that really surprises me is the penetration of these conditions into the U.S. population," said Dr. Clyde Yancy of Baylor University Medical Center, president of the American Heart Assn.

One in 10 women ages 45 to 64 has some form of cardiovascular disease, according to statistics compiled this year by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Other numbers: * At about 500,000 deaths a year, cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause of death for women in the United States. * Cardiovascular disease, including stroke (also called a "brain attack") and heart attack, claims more women than the number who die from the next 16 causes of death combined.

The link between diabetes and heart disease is well-known -- diabetics are two to four times more likely to have cardiovascular disease than nondiabetics, and two-thirds will die of an early heart attack or stroke. But the link itself is poorly understood. "A person with diabetes and no cardiovascular history has the same risk of having a heart attack as a person who has had a prior heart attack," said Dr. Ruchi Mathur, an endocrinologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Awareness of women's heart health has improved over the last 30 years, but cardiovascular disease still causes a woman to die every minute, reports an article in the journal Circulation   detailing the American Heart Assn.'s new cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines for women.   Many of the guidelines, which were released on Tuesday, are familiar.  To minimize risk, women should avoid smoking; should exercise regularly; should eat a diet packed with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish; should keep to a healthy body weight and should treat their heart disease once they know they have it. Doctors are also urged to screen patients for depression, because people who are receiving treatment for depression are more likely to follow medical advice than those who aren't.

A healthier lifestyle may go a long way in reducing the risk of erectile dysfunction, a study finds, while another paper discovers that men who have the condition may also have a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. A meta-analysis published online Monday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine looked at how lifestyle changes and medication to treat cardiovascular risks affected erectile dysfunction. In six studies that included 640 participants, four dealt with lifestyle changes, and two with the use of statins.

A 50-year-old with Type 2 diabetes will lose an average of six years of life as a result of the disease, only one less than would be lost by a long-term smoker of the same age, researchers reported Wednesday. He or she is more than twice as likely to die of cardiovascular disease as someone without diabetes and 25% more likely to die of cancer, according to the report, an international study of more than 820,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine. People with Type 2 diabetes are also more likely to die from kidney disease, liver disease, pneumonia, infectious diseases and even intentional self-harm, according to the study, which was conducted by the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, based at the University of Cambridge in England.

A 50-year-old with Type 2 diabetes will lose an average of six years of life as a result of the disease, only one less than would be lost by a long-term smoker of the same age, researchers reported Wednesday. He or she is more than twice as likely to die of cardiovascular disease as someone without diabetes and 25% more likely to die of cancer, according to the report, an international study of more than 820,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine. People with Type 2 diabetes are also more likely to die from kidney disease, liver disease, pneumonia, infectious diseases and even intentional self-harm, according to the study, which was conducted by the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, based at the University of Cambridge in England.

Awareness of women's heart health has improved over the last 30 years, but cardiovascular disease still causes a woman to die every minute, reports an article in the journal Circulation   detailing the American Heart Assn.'s new cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines for women.   Many of the guidelines, which were released on Tuesday, are familiar.  To minimize risk, women should avoid smoking; should exercise regularly; should eat a diet packed with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish; should keep to a healthy body weight and should treat their heart disease once they know they have it. Doctors are also urged to screen patients for depression, because people who are receiving treatment for depression are more likely to follow medical advice than those who aren't.

There's a new forecast of the cost to treat heart disease in the U.S. over the next 20 years -- and it isn't pretty. According to a study published Monday in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Assn. , the annual cost to treat heart disease -- including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and other conditions -- will triple by 2030, from $273 billion to $818 billion (in 2008 dollars). U.S. medical expenditures are already the highest in the world, hitting 15% of gross domestic product in 2008, the authors reported.

Measuring children's waist circumference may be the best way to predict their risk later on for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a study finds. Researchers compared different testing methods for body composition among a group of 2,188 Australians who were followed for an average 20 years from childhood. Initial tests were done when the study participants were between the ages of 7 and 15 and included calculating body mass index (a measurement of height and weight), measuring waist and hip circumferences and doing skin-fold measures.

Sexual activity is safe for many people who have experienced heart problems or stroke, experts said Thursday in a statement containing recommendations for safe sexual activity. The report, issued by a panel of major medical organizations, notes that the question of resuming sexual activity after cardiovascular events is a major issue for patients. "Sexual counseling of cardiovascular disease patients and their partners is an important component of recovery; unfortunately, it is rarely provided," the authors wrote.

The differences in men and women's hearts may not be limited to problems of the small and large arteries. Sudden cardiac arrest and how it's predicted may play out differently by gender as well. In the U.S., sudden cardiac arrest claims around 250,000 lives each year, which is about 30% of the total deaths from cardiovascular disease. In sudden cardiac arrest, the heart's electrical activity becomes disrupted or chaotic, preventing the organ from beating. Without immediate treatment by an external defibrillator or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the victim will die; the mortality rate is 95%. In a heart attack, blood flow to the heart muscle is restricted, causing damage to the muscle.

The prescription diet drug sibutramine, sold under the brand name Meridia, should be taken off the market because it raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes in some patients, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine said Wednesday. Those risks, published in January on a government clinical-trials website and now in full in the journal, outweigh the modest benefits of the medication, said Dr. Gregory D. Curfman, the journal's executive editor and lead author of an editorial that accompanied the study.

Flawed relationships may cause more than drama — a new study finds that people who feel anxious about relationships or avoid them could be predisposed to certain health problems. The study, published in the July issue of the journal Health Psychology looked at data on 5,645 people who took part in the nationally represented survey of adults ages 18 to 60. Participants were surveyed about their relationships to determine if they had secure attachments (being comfortable depending on others and being close to others)