Tag Archives: heart attack

One Big Problem with High-Protein Diets: Eating Mostly Meat Shortens Life Span

Almost all of today’s most popular diets are low-carb, high-protein. Atkins has been big for decades; Paleo is an ever-expanding movement, thanks in part to its following of cross-fit fans; and other plans like Dukan, Medifast, and Southbeach aren’t got anywhere anytime soon. But, while this eating formula may result in noticeable weight loss for most folks, a new study, profiled in a Huffington Post article, suggests high-protein diets may also shorten your life. That’s a pretty big deal.

protein

Here’s what we know:

  • Diets that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates help the body shed fat. There are two main reasons for this: Protein is harder for the body to digest than other nutrients so you automatically burn extra calories as you digest and metabolize it. Also, proteins are more filling than many other types of food. Eat a bowl of pasta and you may be hungry again within the hour. Eat a chicken breast and you may forget to eat your snack.  (more…)
Posted on March 6, 2024 by Jessica Cassity

Hold the Salt: Harvard Study Attributes 1 in 10 U.S. Deaths to High Sodium Consumption

  • A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health suggests 1 in 10 U.S. deaths is linked to salt consumption, with one in three deaths due to excessive sodium consumption occurring before the age of 70. This is compared to earlier studies that claimed sugar was more dangerous, with sugary drinks causing nearly 25,000 U.S. deaths per year.
  • “The burden of sodium is much higher than the burden of sugar-sweetened beverages. That’s because sugar-sweetened beverages are just one type of food that people can avoid, whereas sodium is in everything,” said Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, author of both the salt and sugar studies.
  • The research is based on 247 surveys looking at sodium intake and 107 clinical trials measuring how salt affects blood pressure, and specifically how blood pressure attributes to cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke.
  • Bread and cheese are the top two source of sodium in the U.S., making sodium a sneaky ingredient that nearly everyone consumes daily, likely in too great of quantities. (more…)
Posted on March 22, 2024 by Dana

Rosie O’Donnell Becomes the Face of Heart Attack Advocacy

On the Dr. Oz show October 25, Rosie O’Donnell gave her first interview since her recent heart attack. She talked about how she ignored all of the classic signs of a heart attack and that it’s a miracle she is still alive.

“I did not call 911, and I should have. And I’ve come to find out that 50% of women, while having heart attacks and suspecting they’re having heart attacks, do not call 911. And it was the stupidest decision I ever made in my life,” O’Donnell said in the interview.

One the day of her heart attack, she describes having pain in both of her arms and chest and feeling fatigued. However, O’Donnell went about her day with her family, chalking up the symptoms to other causes. Even when her son told her she “looked like a ghost,” she continued with her routine until the next day, when she visited a cardiologist. He told her that her left artery was 99 percent blocked and immediately booked her into the hospital for a procedure to insert a stent.  (more…)

Posted on October 25, 2023 by SarahS

Cardiovascular Disease Remains Number 1 Killer in U.S. as Medication Compliance Staggers

With serious health problems like obesity and type 2 diabetes on the rise in the U.S., the number one cause of death in our nation remains cardiovascular disease from heart attack and stroke. This is typically a result of atherosclerosis, which is a condition in which the walls of the artery become diseased and block blood flow to the heart.

According to recent calculations, half of all adult Americans have abnormal lipids, or cholesterol levels. As for what the best solution is, Dr. Eliot Brinton – director of the National Lipid Association – suggests that while cholesterol medications, or statins, are the most common answer, many patients are hesitant to comply.

In fact, recent studies indicate that nearly 75 percent of new statin users stop therapy by the end of the first year. This is especially concerning considering statin adherence often leads to an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes that contribute to the rising costs of heart disease, which is expected to reach $818 billion by 2030.

According to Brinton, statins are the number one class of drugs in the U.S. in terms of cost and sales. “We use statins because they are very affective at lowering levels of the bad cholesterol and reduce cardiovascular events by one-third.” (more…)

Posted on September 19, 2023 by Dana

Hypertension the “Silent Killer” is on the Rise, CDC Reports

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new information regarding our nation’s health. According to new estimates, almost 54 percent of Americans diagnosed with hypertension don’t have the condition under control despite the majority receiving healthcare. 

As reported by Health.org, to gather this information the CDC analyzed the nation’s blood pressure health using data from a National Health Examination Survey taken between 2003 and 2024.

As a result, the CDC estimates that the prevalence of hypertension among adults at that time was more than 30 percent, or nearly 67 million Americans. Additionally, of the 53 percent who didn’t have their blood pressure in control, 39 percent were unaware they had hypertension, 16 percent knew but took no medicine to treat the condition, and 45 percent were taking medications that were not bettering the condition.

Why is this news concerning? CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden has deemed hypertension “public-health enemy number two,” only behind tobacco use.

To have hypertension means to have elevated or high blood pressure. A disease often known as the “silent killer” due to it being asymptomatic, hypertension typically leads to fatal stroke or heart attack. High blood pressure is defined as having a consistently elevated arterial blood pressure. Furthermore, obesity has been strongly associated with hypertension and heart disease.

Financially speaking, the CDC estimates that high blood pressure costs our nation close to $130 million a year in healthcare bills. And certainly more concerning, Frieden points out, is the fact that hypertension claims approximately 1,000 lives a day. (more…)

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Dana

No Plan Presented in Massachusetts Health Director’s Desire to Lower State’s Obesity Rates

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new frightening statistics for the obesity rates across the country. Obesity rates in America are climbing rapidly, with an estimated 35.7% of the adult population classified as such. The South has the highest obesity rate and the Midwest is right behind them. Citizens living in Northeast and West have the lowest obesity rates.

As reported by BizJournal.com, Massachusetts is the third lowest obesity rate state. However, Massachusetts should not celebrate their bronze medal in these results. Massachusetts may have a low obesity rate compared to 47 states, but that does not mean there isn’t a problem internally with the state. One-third of Massachusetts children and two-thirds of the adult population are either obese or overweight.

Cheryl Bartlett, director of the Massachusetts Bureau of Community Health and Prevention, speaks out on the state’s health issue. “On a national level, (Massachusetts) looks pretty good. But we’ve got a long way to go.” Bartlett and her organization have a goal for the state of Massachusetts. They want to see obesity levels decrease by 5% within the next 15 years. Plus, a reduction in type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol cases. However, no specific plan to reach that was shared. (more…)

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Samantha

The Big Business of the Heart Disease Industry: How to Unmedicate Ourselves

By Karen Sherwood for Nutritious America

The scenario is all too familiar.

1. Walk into the doctor’s office with an ailment.

2. Medication is prescribed within 10 minutes.

3. Six months later return to the doctor to receive yet another medication to help relieve the symptoms/side effects of the first medication.

The sequence repeats itself until the medicine cabinet is filled with a confusing myriad of prescription cocktails that oftentimes only provide short-term relief, yet somehow manages to deplete the body of vital nutrition.

Yep, it’s “business as usual” in the world of Western medicine because the truth is, poly-pharmacy makes money. Unfortunately, the dangerous effects of these aggressively-prescribed drugs are creeping up on us. (more…)

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Nutritious_America

Women Less Likely to Get Immediate Heart Attack Treatment

A new study of over one million patients has been released showing women are less likely to get immediate treatment for a heart attack. The study of the Journal of the American Medical Association was authored by John Canto of the Watson Clinic and Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Florida. This study also revealed that women are more likely to die in the hospital from a heart attack than men with rates of 15 percent of women and 10 percent of men.

Some of the treatments available that can stop a heart attack if quickly detected include balloon insertions to open the arteries, bypass surgery or even drugs that dissolve clots. The reason for these staggering statistics is that female patients very often do not recognize the symptoms they experience when having a heart attack. While about 31 percent of men never experience the classic symptoms of a heart attack like chest pain or pressure, that number is increased to 42 percent for women. The lack of classic symptoms is even more common in women under the age of 55. Many women go to the hospital with symptoms like nausea, feelings of fatigue, back or jaw pain, vomiting or even sweating and are misdiagnosed and sent home when they are actually having a heart attack.  (more…)

Posted on February 25, 2024 by Descygna

Heart Break Can Lead to Heart Attack

When someone you love dies, you know that you will grieve, but did you know that your risk of experiencing a heart attack goes up 21 times as well? People have spoken of dying of a broken heart for years, knowing intuitively what research is now confirming. The New York Times reported on a study in Circulation that where nearly 2,000 participants who had experienced a myocardial infarction, commonly referred to as a heart attack, were interviewed about the loss of loved ones and the recency of those losses. They were also asked questions about their overall health and other risk factors to make sure all other variables were controlled. While your risk for a heart attack will decline over time, it remains higher for at least a month and is six times higher than normal in the first week after the loss of a loved one. If you have other risk factors for heart attack you are even more vulnerable.

Risk factors include age (45 or older for men and 55 or older for women), smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, family history, physical in activity, obesity, stress, and use of stimulant drugs. The loss of a loved one is one of the most stressful events a person will experience, so it is not surprising that it could result in such a drastic health crisis. Grieving and all the tasks and events included in the rituals of saying goodbye can lead people to miss meals, experience insomnia, avoid workouts, isolate themselves, and miss medications. None of these things are good for your physical health or your mental health. Yet, such a drastic and extended increase in risk for heart attack cannot be explained simply by these behavior changes. In addition, the emotions of depression, anxiety, and anger, all common during grief, can be accompanied by an increased heart rate.

(more…)

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

TLC Diet Best for Lowering Cholesterol

U.S. News & World Report just added diets to its year-end best-of list. The number one spot for this year is held by the DASH diet. While that may be getting much of the publicity, right behind it at number two is another catchy-sounding plan: the TLC diet.

One thing both diets have in common is they were created by divisions of the National Institutes of Health, with the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet (TLC) being created by the NIH’s National Cholesterol Education Program.

Since government health agencies aren’t in the business of creating or endorsing fad diets, you can expect a no-frills approach. And since this one was created by a program related to cholesterol, healthy levels of cholesterol are a central goal.

Endorsed by the American Heart Association, the TLC diet can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by minimizing fat, particularly the saturated variety found in meat, fried foods and whole-milk dairy. These foods increase your levels of LDL, or bad, cholesterol and your risk for a heart attack or stroke. (more…)

Posted on January 10, 2024 by Jason

Gastric Bypass Surgery Cuts Death Risk

There may be some negative preconceived ideas about weight loss surgery, the thinking being that it’s an easy way out or that it’s giving up on yourself. No matter what your views are on the subject, there’s one thing for sure: it saves lives.

According to a new study from Sweden, obese people who have gastric bypass surgery performed are less likely to die from heart attack and stroke than those who take part in conventional treatment for their weight issues. The 4,000 Swedish patients who participated in the lengthy study were recruited between 1987 and 2001.

One of three weight loss surgeries were performed: They either had gastric bypass, banding, or vertical banded gastroplasty. Taken together, they all lost between 16 and 23 percent of their body weight over the time of the study. (more…)

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Jason