MONDAY, Sept. 9, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Could grabbing a nap once or twice a week help you live longer?

A new study reports the occasional nap appears to cut in half people's risk of heart attack, strokes and heart disease, compared with folks who never nap.

But more frequent napping provided no benefit, researchers found.

"In fact, we found that frequent nappers...

THURSDAY, Sept. 5, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Small, lasting changes in cholesterol and blood pressure levels can dramatically reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes over a lifetime, new research suggests.

The large study found that a combination of a drop in LDL cholesterol (the bad type) of 14 mg/dL and a 5 mm Hg drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressur...

THURSDAY, Sept. 5, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Vegetarianism is all the rage these days, but a new study suggests that slicing meat from your diet might raise your risk of stroke slightly.

While vegetarians had a 22% lower risk for heart disease, they had a 20% higher risk for stroke, British researchers found. Meanwhile, people who ate fish but no other meats (pescatarians) had ...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 4, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- A new study helps confirm a dismal reality: Poor Americans are more likely to die from heart failure than their richer counterparts.

The likely reasons? According to the researchers, higher obesity rates and associated increases in type 2 diabetes appear to be driving two-thirds of the trend.

"This study underscores the disparitie...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 4, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- As Hurricane Dorian rolls up the southeastern coast of the United States, most in its path worry about having enough water, food and batteries to ride the storm out.

But the American Heart Association (AHA) warns that the high stress and trauma of such an event can also trigger heart trouble, especially among heart disease and stroke patie...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 4, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Folks with peripheral artery disease (PAD) have a much lower risk of death if they take cholesterol-lowering statins as directed by their doctor, a new study reports.

About 200 million people worldwide suffer from PAD, a condition in which arteries feeding blood to the legs become clogged, researchers explained.

However, patients who ...

TUESDAY, Sept. 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- For people who are obese and have type 2 diabetes, weight-loss surgery leads to more than a slimmer figure.

It also reduces the risk of heart complications and premature death by about 40% compared to standard medical care, new research says.

The Cleveland Clinic researchers compared the impact of various types of weight-loss (ba...

TUESDAY, Sept. 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Heart disease still claims the lives of more people globally, but in more affluent nations it has now ceded its place as the leading killer to cancer, a major new report finds.

Around the world, 40% of all deaths are caused by heart disease, making it the number one global killer. That means that of the estimated 55 million people who die...

TUESDAY, Sept. 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- We tend to think of heart attacks as they're shown in movies, as massive, chest-crushing events, typically affecting older men. But that's not the only case, far from it.

Research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that, even though women get heart attacks less often than men, they have a higher percentag...

SUNDAY, Sept. 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Opening all of a person's clogged arteries after a heart attack can protect their health better than reopening only the one that caused it, a major international clinical trial has concluded.

Opening all blockages and not just the "culprit" behind the attack reduces a patient's risk of dying or having another heart ...

SATURDAY, Aug. 31, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Decades spent on couches, chairs and otherwise not exercising could mean much shorter lives, new research shows.

A Norwegian team who tracked health outcomes for more than 23,000 adults over 20 years found that those who were inactive over that time had twice the risk of a premature death, compared to those who we...

TUESDAY, Aug. 27, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Rising obesity rates, coupled with an associated jump in diabetes and high blood pressure cases, appears to be undoing decades of gains made against heart disease, a new study finds.

After 2010, the rate of deaths from heart disease continued to drop, but more slowly. Deaths from stroke leveled off, and deaths from high blood pressure ("hyper...

FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Breathing in smoggy air, especially in the colder months, may be especially taxing for the heart, new research out of Europe suggests.

Polish researchers found that high levels of air pollution were tied to spikes in procedures to open blocked heart arteries. This was especially apparent in winter, when pollution levels were highest, a new stu...

THURSDAY, Aug. 22, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Imagine a single pill loaded with a battery of heart medications that you take once a day to cut your chances of heart attack, stroke and heart failure.

A new clinical trial has turned that idea into reality.

The "polypill" reduced the risk of life-threatening heart health problems by more than one-third during a five-year period i...

TUESDAY, Aug. 20, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- When you stop smoking, your heart starts to rebound right away, but a full recovery can take as long as 15 years, a new study suggests.

"The benefit of quitting smoking cannot be overstated -- the cardiovascular system begins to recover quickly, with some physiologic changes happening within hours," said lead researcher Meredith Duncan, of th...

MONDAY, Aug. 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- There is no cure for a-fib, but the common heart disorder can be managed, an expert says.

Atrial fibrillation -- which can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications -- affects as many as 6 million people in the United States. It's more common in whites than in blacks and Hispanics, and more common among m...

MONDAY, Aug. 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- If you spend a lot of nights watching the clock instead of sleeping, new research suggests you may need to be as concerned about your heart health as you are about lost shut-eye.

People with genetic variants linked to insomnia have an increased risk of heart disease, heart failure and stroke, according to the study....

MONDAY, Aug. 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Heart experts are advising that prescription-strength fish oil pills might help lower excess levels of blood fats known as triglycerides.

The pills contain heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. When prescribed by a doctor, these meds can lower high triglyceride levels by 20%-30%, according to a new American Heart Association science advis...

FRIDAY, Aug. 16, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment of obstructive sleep apnea can ease depression in people with heart disease, according to a groundbreaking new study.

"Patients who have had a stroke or heart attack are prone to suffer from low mood and are two to three times more likely to develop clinical depression, which then further el...

THURSDAY, Aug. 15, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- If you live in a neighborhood where fast-food restaurants abound, you might be more likely to have a heart attack, new research suggests.

It turns out that heart attack rates are higher in neighborhoods with more fast-food joints, the Australian study found.

For every additional fast-food outlet in a neighborhood, there were four a...

THURSDAY, Aug. 15, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- High blood pressure can be a killer. But a new study finds that more than half of younger patients -- those under 65 -- who are prescribed high blood pressure meds either stop taking them within a few months or don't take them as prescribed.

But stopping treatment can prove dangerous, even for the relatively young, the study's lead author w...

MONDAY, Aug. 12, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- A kind, understanding doctor could spell the difference between life or death for diabetes patients, a new study suggests.

British researchers found that patients had a lower risk of early death if their primary care doctor exhibited empathy.

The study included 628 patients in the U.K. with type 2 diabetes. A year after their diagnos...

MONDAY, Aug. 12, 2019 (American Heart Association News) -- In March 2017, Mary Smith took an afternoon off work to visit her daughter and 2-week-old grandson Brody at their Minneapolis suburb home.

Smith brought in groceries for dinner and carried a mobile crib up the stairs from the car. She was in the entryway when she found herself out of breath.

She collapsed, making a...

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Pile those vegetables and fruits high when you sit down to eat, and your heart will thank you.

A diet rich in plant-based foods translated into fewer heart problems in a new study.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data collected from more than 10,000 middle-aged U.S. adults who were followed from 1987 through 2016. None had...

THURSDAY, Aug. 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Autopsies have uncovered new insight into how the illegal drug methamphetamine harms the heart.

Preliminary findings presented Thursday at an American Heart Association meeting, in Boston, suggest that meth triggers a buildup of tough protein fibers known as collagen in the heart muscle.

Previous autopsy studies have noted injury t...

MONDAY, July 29, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- As far as scientists know, humans are the only species that get heart attacks linked to clogged arteries.

Now, new research suggests that just one DNA change occurring 2 to 3 million years ago may be to blame.

The finding might give insight into how to prevent and treat the attacks, according to researchers at the University of Calif...

THURSDAY, July 25, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Despite improved air quality since the 1990s, pollution still causes lung disease, heart attacks and strokes that kill more than 30,000 Americans each year, a new study estimates.

Researchers looked at concentrations of fine pollution particles known as PM2.5 across the country from 1999 to 2015. These tiny particles -- 30 times smaller than...

TUESDAY, July 23, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Heart attacks, strokes and other heart problems are more likely in high-risk patients denied access to cutting-edge cholesterol-busting drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors, a new study reports.

Patients are 16% more likely to have a heart-related health crisis if their PCSK9 prescription is rejected than if it is covered and filled for a year, ac...

TUESDAY, July 23, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Taking testosterone might sound like a good idea for an older man, but a new study suggests the treatment might be bad news for his heart.

Men who took it showed a slightly increased risk of heart attack and stroke in the first few years.

"Our findings show that the use of [testosterone therapy] was associated with an increased risk...

THURSDAY, July 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- When it comes to blood pressure readings, the "top" number seems to grab all the attention.

But a large, new study confirms that both numbers are, in fact, critical in determining the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Blood pressure measurements are given as a "top" and "bottom" number. The first reflects systolic blood pressure, th...

WEDNESDAY, July 17, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- "Broken heart syndrome" may harm more than just the heart, new research suggests.

While the extreme stress of losing a loved one has been linked to heart troubles in prior research, a new study found that one in six people with broken heart syndrome also had cancer. Even worse, they were less likely to survive their cancer five years after ...

THURSDAY, July 11, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Cardiac arrest is rare in children. But a new study finds that if it does happen, kids are less likely to get life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if they're black and living in a poor neighborhood.

In fact, these kids were much less likely to receive CPR from a bystander than white children living in any type of neighborhood, th...

THURSDAY, July 11, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Ultramarathons are grueling races that typically range anywhere from 30 to 100 miles, but new research suggests that even these distances don't tax the heart unduly.

"The good news is that while experienced runners pushed their heart limits during the ultramarathon, they did not show evidence of cardiac risk assessed through elevated biomark...

TUESDAY, July 9, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- The popularity of heart-healthy whole grains is on the rise among Americans, but levels are still far below those recommended by nutritionists, a new report shows.

Overall, whole grains -- products with 100% whole grains or made with whole grain flour -- made up almost 16% of total grain intake on any given day in 2016.

That'...

TUESDAY, July 9, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Many more U.S. hospital patients suffer cardiac arrest than previously thought, a new study reveals.

Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops beating. It differs from a heart attack, in which blood flow to the heart is blocked.

This new analysis concluded that there are about 38% more adult cases and 18% more cases in child...

MONDAY, July 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration might soon revoke soy's longstanding claim to boost cardiovascular health.

But now comes long-term research that appears to bolster the notion that soy does indeed do a heart good.

Canadian researchers pored over the results of 46 separate trials. Their conclusion: "These data strongly support th...