Public health officials campaigning to reduce our excessive salt consumption—Americans generally eat twice the recommended amount each day—often point out that a societal approach to change is essential, as most of the salt we consume is already in food before we even pick up the shaker. Dining out isn’t exactly a low-sodium
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A comprehensive report from the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggests that treating and preventing high blood pressure—which causes nearly half of all cases of heart failure each year in the U.S.—needs to be a higher public health priority. The report highlights some grim figures: roughly one in three American adults has high
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While some of the staples of eating healthy are pretty easy to remember—eating balanced meals that include veggies, protein and starch, and eating lots of fiber, not too much sugar and not too much fat—sometimes keeping track of all of the little ways that diet can influence our health can be a challenge. Yet, if there’s one thing
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Herbal remedies like ginkgo biloba and St. John’s wort have grown in popularity in recent years as natural treatments for everything from fatigue and depression to headache and anxiety. Yet, according to a review article published in the February 9 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, for patients taking certain
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When the diet drug Meridia was approved by the Food and Drug Administration more than a decade ago, the American Heart Association was quick to urge caution, stressing that the medication—which works in part by curbing appetite by interacting with serotonin, the neurotransmitter that helps regulate the sensation of fullness—might
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In recent years New York City has earned a reputation for ambitious—and some argue, overreaching—efforts to improve its’ citizens health. In 2006, the city’s Board of Health voted to ban trans fats in restaurant cooking. Two years later, they mandated that any restaurants with 15 or more chain locations post calorie content in their
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Girls who begin menstruating at a younger age may have a greater risk for developing heart disease later in life, according to new findings published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The study included 15,807 middle-aged and senior women, whose cardiovascular health and mortality were tracked from 1993 to 1997,
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The sudden death of 32-year-old actress Brittany Murphy from a reported cardiac arrest on Sunday morning has left her friends and loved ones scrambling for answers, and the public wondering what could have ended the former Clueless star’s life so abruptly. Initial reports suggests that Murphy died of natural causes, and an autopsy, which
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Feeling confident and secure about your body is important, and a critical part of having high self-esteem, and as the health care debate continues, advocates for “fat acceptance” are struggling to have their voices heard by lawmakers. Yet, while it is clearly true that weight isn’t the solitary indicator of health, a problem arises when
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It turns out that artherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, isn’t an entirely modern condition. In fact, evidence published in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that, as long as 3,500 years ago, well-to-do Egyptians suffered from the disease. Researchers were able to diagnose the medical malady
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A 7-year study peering into the heart health of 20,000 Canadian teens uncovered that most already have at least one major risk factor for heart disease. The findings, presented this week at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, showed that rates of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity among the sampling of the country’s 14- …
In our science-via-soundbite culture, it’s easy to glom onto health news that validates the things we love—what? coffee might prevent Alzheimer’s? pass the triple Americano—and ignore headlines that threatens to dampen the fun, such as the drawbacks of drinking.
Everyone’s heard the news that moderate drinking may thwart heart …
According to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, after surviving a heart attack, women have a slightly higher risk than men of dying in the next 30 days. The finding, researchers say, likely reflects the differences in the type of heart failure women experience, as well as the severity of the
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