Harvard Heart Letter articles from November 2006

Harvard Heart Letter archives from November 2006

Putting activity in your day.
November 1, 2006... Daily activities like gardening or taking the stairs are good for your heart, lengthen life, and keep you mobile. Few of us take advantage of the closest thing we have to a magic bullet -- exercise -- for preventing or controlling heart...

Simplicity still rules for heart disease forecast.
November 1, 2006... New heart disease tests add little to the predictive power of blood pressure, cholesterol, and other traditional risk factors. One of the $64,000 questions in cardiology today is, "What is the best way to predict who is likely to have a...

Take it with a grain of salt.(salt and health)
November 1, 2006... Cutting back on our most common seasoning is a necessity for some people, but not for everyone. "The history of the Americas is one of constant warfare over salt." -- Mark Kurlansky Salt: A World History Battles for the control of...

Heart Beat; Baby, it's cold outside.(heart disease deaths rise in winter)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Winter is a tough time for the heart. For some reason, heart attacks and sudden deaths related to heart disease seem to happen more frequently during the winter than in any other season. In northern latitudes, the winter peak has been blamed on...

Heart Beat; Getting away from secondhand smoke.(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Technology can't help you avoid secondhand smoke. The only way you can steer clear of its harmful effects -- and there are many -- is to keep away from smokers. So says the Surgeon General's report, "The Health Consequences of Involuntary...

Heart Beat; Take aspirin before ibuprofen, not after.(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... If you take aspirin for your heart and ibuprofen for your aches and pains, try to take the aspirin first each day. That's what the FDA is recommending in a warning to consumers and health care professionals. In 2003 we highlighted research...

Heart Beat; Portion distortion.(smaller portions and weight loss)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... If you are trying to lose weight, let your eyes do some of the work. The Ebbinghaus-Titchener size-contrast optical illusion might help you choose smaller portions that can nudge your weight in the right direction. In the illusion,...

Heart Beat; Spicy medicine, or just spice?(cinnamon and blood sugar, LDL, and triglyceride lowering)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... An announcement in 2003 by Pakistani and American researchers certainly added some spice to controlling cholesterol and blood sugar. Their study of 60 people with type 2 diabetes showed that taking capsules of powdered cinnamon lowered blood...

In Brief.(blood pressure and high cholesterol treatment)(seat belt pad eases pacemaker irritation)(saturated fat and blood vessel physiology)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Blood pressure and cholesterol. High blood pressure and high cholesterol tend to travel together -- about half of Americans aged 60 and older have both. But 2 in 3 aren't being treated for these problems and a whopping 9 in 10 don't have both...

Ask the doctor; What is vasospastic angina?
November 1, 2006... Q. I sometimes get excruciating chest pain out of the blue -- almost never when I am exercising or doing something physical -- that gradually goes away by itself. My doctor calls it vasospastic angina. Can you give me more information? A....