Battling Heart and Stroke

Part I: The Health Benefits of Alcohol - “Eat, drink and be healthy”

Drinking alcohol has been linked to a wide range of health effects, ranging from the very good to the very bad. A post in June reported on the adverse effects of heavy drinking on cardiovascular health. On the other hand, light to moderate drinking has been shown to have long lasting beneficial effects. The only problem is how to determine the boundary between healthy and unhealthy alcohol consumption. Some researchers are concerned that recent reports about the health benefits of alcohol may mislead people to drink more than they should, thereby doing more harm than good to their health.

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What is a coronary calcium scan?

A coronary calcium scan is a diagnostic tool that looks for the calcium deposits in the walls arteries of the heart.

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In the wake of last week’s catastrophic earthquake in China, we can only imagine the trauma that the victims and their families went through - trauma that will probably stay with them for the rest of their lives. With such  trauma comes psychological stress and with increased stress comes elevated cardiovascular risk.

Several research studies have investigated the effect of acute stressors such as catastrophes and natural disasters on the cardiovascular well-being of the victims and people in the vicinity. A review article by Dr. JE Dimsdale of the University of California at San Diego shows that many of these studies observed an increased cardiovascular risk after earthquakes.

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