CVD News Watch for the Weekend August 15
Looking forward to your second Olympics weekend? Be aware, though, that watching stressful sports events might just not be good for your heart. Happy reading!
Archive for the Healthcare category
Emergency care for stroke victims: it all depends on how you arrive and where you go
My husband and I watched “The Namesake” the other day and I remember that scene where the father Ashoke presented himself at the ER and had to stand in line for a long time, leading to his death due to a heart attack. Unfortunately, this scenario does not only happen in movies but in real life as well. In a CVD news item last week, I cited that the average waiting time in an ER is almost an hour - 60 minutes which can make the difference between recovery and disability, between life and death.
This study reported in the journal Stroke looked at 15,117 stroke victims from 46 hospitals listed in the North Carolina Stroke Registry (January 2005 to April 2008) and the findings are as follows: More →
CVD News Watch for the Weekend, August 1
It’s Friday again and I am bringing you good and not-so-good news from the CVD front.
CVD biotech watch
Statins for my kids?!!!
Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a revision of a policy statement from 1 January 1998 regarding lipid screening in children.
The new guidelines recommend early cholesterol screening of children and adolescents with a family history of high cholesterol or cardiovascular disease as well as children who are significantly overweight. Lipid screening should start as early as 2 years old, should be repeated 3 to 5 years later, and shouldn’t be put off beyond the 10th year of a child’s life.
Keep your teeth clean, keep your heart healthy
The purpose of toothbrushing is to clean our teeth. And we do achieve this goal when we perform this routine task 2 to 3 times a day. But what we don’t know is that during toothbrushing, we are also introducing bacteria into our bloodstream, probably through breaks and cuts in our gums.
A recent article in the journal Circulation reported that good dental hygiene is important in the prevention of heart valve infection.
There’s no place like home: home monitoring program for cardiovascular patients
Is home monitoring by patients with heart disease and/or hypertension a feasible alternative? According to experts and results of recent studies, there’s actually no place like home for monitoring cardiovascular patients.
Stroke rates: Europe wins over US
When it comes to stroke rates, Europeans are way better off than Americans, according to a Dutch study.
The researchers looked at data from 2004 on 13,667 Americans and 30,120 Europeans from 11 countries. Their analysis shows that American men have 61% higher likelihood of suffering from stroke than their European counterparts. Also, American women were almost twice more likely to suffer from stroke than European women. This difference in stroke rates in the two sides of the Atlantic is most evident among the poor segment of the two regions’ population but less visible among the rich. More →
Raquel Billiones has a PhD in Biology and has over 15 years experience as a researcher, scientific English teacher, and medical writer. Since 2006, she has been a freelance WAHM specializing in medical writing and scientific documentation. 
