
Tag Archives: Heart Failure
Health Studies: Women’s Blood Vessels Age Faster Than Men’s, Increasing Heart Disease Risks
From a Cedars-Sinai.org online release:
“Our data showed that rates of accelerating blood pressure elevation were significantly higher in women than men, starting earlier in life,” said Cheng, the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Health, who also serves as director of Cardiovascular Population Sciences at the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center. “This means that if we define the hypertension threshold the exact same way, a 30-year old woman with high blood pressure is probably at higher risk for cardiovascular disease than a man with high blood pressure at the same age.”

(January 15, 2020) – New research from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai showed for the first time that women’s blood vessels – including both large and small arteries – age at a faster rate than men’s. The findings, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Cardiology, could help to explain why women tend to develop different types of cardiovascular disease and with different timing than men.
Health: Heart Disease, Stroke Deaths Are Rising, Even In Healthy States
From a Wall Street Journal online article (01/14/20):
Americans are dying of heart disease and strokes at a rising rate in middle age, normally considered the prime years of life. An analysis of U.S. mortality statistics by The Wall Street Journal shows the problem is geographically widespread.
Death rates from cardiovascular disease among people between the ages of 45 and 64 are rising in cities all across the country, including in some of the most unlikely places.
In the Journal’s analysis, three metro areas east of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains—Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Greeley—recorded some of the biggest increases. Death rates in each rose almost 25%. The three cities boast robust access to exercise and health care. There are bike trails, good heart-disease treatment-and-prevention programs and nearby skiing and hiking.

Aortic Stenosis: Early Aortic-Valve Replacement Surgery Lowers Mortality

CONCLUSIONS
Among asymptomatic patients with very severe aortic stenosis, the incidence of the composite of operative mortality or death from cardiovascular causes during the follow-up period was significantly lower among those who underwent early aortic-valve replacement surgery than among those who received conservative care.
Health Studies: NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) Increase Heart Failure Risk For Arthritis Patients
From a Harvard Medical School release:
Researchers matched 7,743 people with osteoarthritis with 23,229 healthy people who rarely or never took NSAIDs. People with osteoarthritis had a 42% higher risk of heart failure and a 17% higher risk of coronary artery disease compared with healthy people. After controlling for a range of factors that contribute to heart disease (including high body mass index, high blood pressure, and diabetes), they concluded that 41% of the increased risk of heart disease related to osteoarthritis was due to the use of NSAIDs.
To manage the painful joint disease known as osteoarthritis, people often take ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox). But these and related drugs — known as NSAIDs — may account for the higher rates of heart disease seen in people with osteoarthritis, a new study suggests.
To read more: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/pain-relievers-a-cause-of-higher-heart-risk-among-people-with-arthritis
Studies: Surging Number Of Deaths From Heart Failure Tied To Aging Population, Obesity Rates
From a Wall Street Journal online article:
The rapid aging of the population, together with high rates of obesity and diabetes in all ages, are pushing both the rate and number of deaths from heart failure higher, the study said. Most deaths from heart failure occur in older Americans, but they are rising in adults under 65, too, the study showed.
The findings help explain why a decadeslong decline in the death rate from cardiovascular disease has slowed substantially since 2011 and started rising in middle-aged people, helping drive down U.S. life expectancy.
Deaths from heart failure, one of the nation’s biggest killers, are surging as the population ages and the health of younger generations worsens.
The death rate from the chronic, debilitating condition rose 20.7% between 2011 and 2017 and is likely to keep climbing sharply, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Cardiology.
To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/heart-failure-deaths-rise-contributing-to-worsening-life-expectancy-11572411901