Battling Heart and Stroke

Earlier this week, the British House of Commons voted by a large majority the amendments for Human Fertilization and Embryonic Research Act which allows scientists to produce human-animal hybrid embryos for stem cell research.

It is the belief of many scientists, lawmakers, as well as patients that the key to future therapies that can cure diseases - from cardiovascular disorders to cancer - lie in stem cell research.

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Hello and welcome to Battling Heart and Stroke.

I deem it best that we get to know a little bit about our body and body organs before we move on to topics of battling heart diseases and stroke.

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I`m glad to be here at Battling Heart and Stroke. And I`m here for professional as well as for personal reasons.

Professionally, I`ve worked on different writing projects on cardiovascular disorders, ranging from clinical and regulatory documents to web and print articles for patients and consumers. I definitely find this field of medicine pretty interesting.

I`m also quite involved with cardiovascular issues on a personal level. I had a heart condition myself way back as a consequence of Graves` disease and hyperthyroidism. I had to go through the whole battery of tests – from ultrasound to 48-hour continuous ECG. In the end it wasn`t anything serious and the problems resolved with treatments but the experience was enough to make me take heart and stroke issues seriously.

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By Michael Sheridan

Heart disease is the western world’s biggest killer. It is closely followed by stroke. In fact overall around 90% of westerners have at least one modifiable risk factor for heart, stroke and vascular diseases and 25% have three or more risk factors.

In Australia, for example, a country where sport is practically a religion, over 60% of the adult population is overweight, 51% have high levels of cholesterol, 30% have high blood pressure and a staggering 8% have diabetes.

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By Jeffrey Hauser

Let’s face it. You only have one crack at life, so why take stupid chances? Most people would want to live a long and productive time, yet they attempt to sabotage themselves at every turn. It happens in a variety of ways, many of which most of us don’t even realize. Here are just a few that come to mind.

(1) How often do you floss? If you don’t you are running the risk of a heart attack or contracting heart disease. There is considerable research that bacteria in dental plaque can prompt blood to clot. And the lesions brought about by gum disease can provide a route for germs to enter the bloodstream. So this would lead to the conclusion that keeping your teeth plaque-free would help against heart attack, and that would be through the result of better flossing. In addition, for several years a number of studies have suggested that people with mouth infections run a higher risk of heart disease. Dr A Bazile and colleagues from the Department of Periodontics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland found precisely that in their research presented in the June, 2002 Journal of Periodontology.

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