If you think that cancer is the number one killer, you would be right. Certainly, there is a lot of information in the media about this devastating disease. You may be surprised to learn, though, that cancer has only recently made it to the top of the list of causes of death. Heart disease was the reigning number one killer for a many years, and is still a very serious health concern. What is Heart Disease? Heart disease is not a single medical condition, but rather a term that describes several conditions that have a negative effect on the heart muscle and how it functions. Factors that Contribute to Heart Disease A number of factors have a hand in your likelihood of developing heart disease. Genetics You have absolutely no control over your family history, but it is a major heart...

Women who go through menopause in their mid-forties are at increased risk of various heart disease, according to researchers. The results, which were released at a meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego, indicate that going through menopause before age 46 may put a woman at double the risk for a heart attack or stroke later on in life. Taking hormone replacement therapy doesn’t lower the risk for women who go through the change of life early. Taking artificial hormones was recommended as a way to reduce the risk of developing heart disease in menopausal women. A woman who knows she is at higher risk for cardiac issues can take steps to monitor her health more closely, such as eating well and getting regular exercise. She can also get her blood pressure and cholesterol checked ...

Taking readily available pain medications can increase the risk of heart disease in healthy people, according to Danish researchers. Ibuprofen is commonly used for headaches, reducing fever, muscle aches, menstrual cramps and other kinds of pain. The packaging warns against stomach upset for people who take it, but perhaps the manufacturer should be indicating that more serious health problems can result from its use. These non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, known as NSAIDS, are also available as prescription-strength drugs used to treat mild to moderate pain, as well as arthritis. The Danish study looked at medical records of more than one million people between 1997 and 2005. The average age of the patients studied was 39 years of age. People who took high does of ibuprofen (which wa...

As a child, you were probably told that you should brush your teeth at least twice a day. Not only will doing to give you a nice smile, but it can lower your risk of developing heart disease. Researchers have already connected the dots between gum disease and inflammation in other parts of the body, including the heart. The results of study published in the online version of the British Medical Journal points to good oral hygiene as a way to lower the risk of heart disease. The researchers collected data from 1,100 adults in Scotland for analysis. The participants who reported brushing their teeth less often than twice a day had a 70 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who brushed more often. The risk factor was adjusted after taking other risk factors for the disease, includin...

If the Easter Bunny dropped off some chocolate treats for you this past weekend, don’t worry about indulging in this most crave-worthy food. The results of a German study indicate that eating the sweet stuff may help to lower the risk of developing heart disease. The study followed approximately 20,000 participants between the ages of 35-65. Each person’s blood pressure was checked, and their height and weight were noted. They were also asked to complete a questionnaire with questions about their health. Questions About Chocolate The study participants were asked how often they ate a 50 gram bar of chocolate. The entire group of participants weren’t asked whether they usually ate milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate, but a smaller sampling of 1,568 participan...

Lowering consumption of saturated fats is supposed to help protect against heart disease. Saturated fats are animal fats, and are found in red meat, bacon, butter, cheese and other foods. If your goal is to lower your risk of heart disease by cutting back on saturated fats, be careful what you replace them with. If you replace saturated fats in your diet with carbohydrates, you will not significantly lower your risk of developing heart disease. A much better, and healthier, strategy is to make a point of eating more polyunsaturated fats by increasing your intake of fish, vegetable oils and nuts. This strategy can help to lower your risk by up to a very impressive 19 percent. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, co-director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Brigham and Women’s Hosp...

Does the amount of gray matter that a person has influence their risk of  heart disease? According to the results of a study conducted by Britain’s Medical Research Council (BMRC), having a low IQ is strongly linked to heart disease. Surprisingly, the results indicate that a person’s level of intelligence is second only to smoking when it comes to risk factors for the No. 1 killer of North Americans. The study, which was published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention, followed 1,145 men and women over a 20-year period. All of the participants are currently in their mid-fifties. According to the BMRC study, the top five risk factors for heart disease are: Smoking IQ Low Income High Blood Pressure Lack of Physical Activity These results are very interesting, to...

February is not only Valentine’s Day month, but it has also been declared Women’s Heart Disease Awareness Month. Since the risk of breast cancer is in the media often, you may be thinking that it is the Number 1 killer for women, but that is not true. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people in North America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 631,636 people died from this condition in 2006. About half of them were women. Whether you choose to wear red on Friday (February 5) to show your support for women and heart disease in this way, there are things you can do to lower your risk of being another statistic. I know it’s not New Year’s Day, but why don’t you make a resolution to start taking better care of your heart, st...

We all know by now that smoking increases the risk of heart disease. Despite the warnings that we have heard, kicking the cigarette habit can be challenging for many people. It’s not a question of lack of will power; the problem stems from the fact that nicotine is a highly-addictive substance. The cravings that a person who tries to quit smoking goes through are very real, and many people who manage to give up cigarettes find that they gain weight afterward. This may be caused by the fact that food tastes better after giving up the habit or perhaps the ex-smoker eats more in an effort to keep their mouth busy without lighting up again. Whatever the reason, gaining weight after giving up smoking may mean trading one risk factor for heart disease for another. Being overweight increase...

Do you remember your mother telling you that watching too much television wasn’t good for you? It appears as thought Mom may have been on to something. A group of researchers from Australia have found that every hour that a person spends watching TV increases a person’s chance of dying from cardiovascular disease by 18 percent! TV watching isn’t the problem, exactly. It’s the act of sitting down to watch it that’s to blame. Many people spend their lives moving from one chair to another instead of having a healthy, active lifestyle. The conclusion the researchers came to was that too much sitting is not good for one’s health. If you ever needed a reason to switch off the television and get off the couch, you’ve got one now. Instead of watching telev...