Genomic Functions – Health News

Posts Tagged ‘Heart disease’

New research reveals that about 19 percent of U.S. adults between 24 and 32 have high blood pressure, but many are not aware they have this potentially fatal condition.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is associated with a number of health problems, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and kidney failure. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health U.S.. UU. Found that the risk of this condition among young adults is actually higher than previously thought. Researchers analyzed blood pressure readings of more than 14,000 young adults who were part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health Study (also known as Add Health).

The findings, published in the current online issue of the journal Epidemiology, are a departure from previous study results. At the recent National Survey of Health and Nutrition Examination (U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, NHANES), found that only 4 percent of young adults were hypertensive. Read the rest of this entry »

The idea that small babies at birth are at risk of adults with high cholesterol is applicable only for children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy. There is increasing evidence of the relationship between being born small for gestational age (SGA, for its acronym in English) and high cholesterol in adulthood, said Wen Xiaozhong, of Harvard Medical School in Boston.

But with his team wondered whether this risk is increased in certain groups of people born SGA or the lowest 10 percentile for gestational age. Could the size at birth to overcome the influence of environmental factors that trigger this condition coexisting, which generates heart disease and cerebrovascular accident (CVA)? For example, maternal smoking during pregnancy is a major determinant of SGA in developed countries.

The team studied the records of birth and cholesterol levels of 1,370 adults aged 39 on average. 25 percent (345) said he had high cholesterol (34 percent in adults born SGA and 24 percent of those born at normal size). But only in adults born SGA and whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy was high risk for high cholesterol.

After eliminating other factors that could cause confusion, participants who had been exposed to excessive smoke snuff in the womb (at least 20 cigarettes daily) were 2.5 times more likely to have high cholesterol. Read the rest of this entry »

Folic acid supplements lower the blood levels of a protein involved in heart disease, but a new study suggests that this does not translate into a reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer or death.

One in three U.S. adults said that it takes a multivitamin with folic acid. This B vitamin prevents anemia and reduces the risk of birth defects such as spina bifida. Recently, it was discovered that folic acid has another benefit: low levels of a protein produced by the body after eating meat, homocysteine, which is associated with cardiovascular and other diseases.

The relationship would suggest that the vitamin could be a powerful tool against heart disease, cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and cancer. “The homocysteine ​​hypothesis of cardiovascular disease attracted much interest because it is a protein that reduces easily supplemented with folic acid and vitamins B,” said lead researcher Dr. Robert Clarke of the University of Oxford in England.

To prove the theory, Clarke’s team collected and analyzed data from eight clinical trials with a total of 37,485 people at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. At random, half the participants received high doses of folic acid (from 0.8 to 40 mg daily), and the rest placebo pills. Read the rest of this entry »

Manage a high dose of niacin to people with heart disease who are already consuming a cholesterol-lowering statins produces no effect in preventing heart attacks and strokes (CVA), experts said on Thursday the U.S. government.

The findings come from a large clinical trial funded by the government that was halted 18 months early because there was no evidence that high doses of niacin reduced heart problems in people taking statins and whose “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, and is controlled.

The study patients were treated with Niaspan, Abbott Laboratories and the statin Zocor, Merck & Co Inc, available generically as simvastatin. The researchers noted that niacin raise levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol, but that is not heart problems traveling in less lethal or nonlethal.

“Although we did not observe the expected clinical benefit, we answered an important scientific question the treatment of cardiovascular disease,” said a statement by Dr. Susan Shurin, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of of Health (NIH). He has long known that niacin, also known as vitamin B3, raises HDL and lowers triglycerides, another type of blood fat that raises heart risks. Read the rest of this entry »