medicalcondition:heart attacks

Liquid used in e-cigarettes damages cells crucial for a healthy heart - EHN
▻https://www.ehn.org/vaping-hurts-your-heart-2638041485.html

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The flavors used in e-cigarettes—especially menthol and cinnamon—damage blood vessel cells and such impacts increase heart disease risk, according to a new study.

The study, published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is the latest to link e-cigarettes, or vaping — which has been touted as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes—to heart problems. It is the first study to test how e-liquids affect the endothelial cells that line the interior of blood vessels. These cells are crucial in delivering the blood supply to the bodies’ tissues and sending cells to promote healthy blood vessels, tissue growth and repair.

E-cigarettes are small devices that heat up liquids (usually propylene glycol or glycerol) to deliver as aerosol (vape) mixture of nicotine and flavors.

The study comes as e-cigarette use continues to rise. Roughly 1 in 20 U.S. adults now use e-cigarettes but the real growth is happening among youth: use among U.S. high school students went from 11.7 percent in 2017 to 20.8 percent in 2018, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In addition, about 4.9 percent of middle school students use e-cigarettes, the FDA found.

The study was limited in that the e-liquids weren’t heated, which could alter how the exposed cells react. The research, however, is just the latest linking e-cigarettes to heart impacts.

In March, researchers presented a study of nearly 100,000 Americans that found e-cigarette users are more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes compared to non-users.

Another large national study in January of 400,000 Americans reported e-cigarette users have a 70 percent higher risk of stroke and a 60 percent higher risk of heart attack, when compared to non-users.

With use rising, health groups continue to push for more strict regulation. A judge this month ordered the FDA to review all U.S. e-cigarette products.

The ruling was a response to a federal lawsuit filed by health groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, that alleged the FDA hasn’t adequately regulated e-cigarettes and is leaving a generation of U.S kids on the path to nicotine addiction.

#Tabac #E_cigarettes #Vaping #Santé_publique

A Wake Up Call to Hit the Sack | The Tyee
▻https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2018/11/05/Why-We-Sleep-Science-Sleep-Dreams

For a day or two after the end of daylight saving time, emergency rooms all over North America are a little less stressed. Very predictably, they have to deal with fewer heart attacks and fewer auto-accident injuries, because people will have had an extra hour of sleep on Nov. 4.

(...) heart attacks and auto accidents spike just after daylight saving starts in the spring, and everyone is short an hour of sleep. We are indeed killing ourselves by not getting enough sleep

#sommeil #santé

Harvard Calls for Retraction of Dozens of Studies by Noted Cardiologist - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/health/piero-anversa-fraud-retractions.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/10/15/science/15RETRACTIONS1/15FRAUD1-facebookJumbo.jpg

A prominent cardiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston fabricated or falsified data in 31 published studies that should be retracted, officials at the institutions have concluded.

The cardiologist, Dr. Piero Anversa, produced research suggesting that damaged heart muscle could be regenerated with stem cells, a type of cell that can transform itself into a variety of other cells.

Although other laboratories could not reproduce his findings, the work led to the formation of start-up companies to develop new treatments for heart attacks and stroke, and inspired a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health.

“A couple of papers may be alarming, but 31 additional papers in question is almost unheard-of,” said Benoit Bruneau, associate director of cardiovascular research at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. “It is a lab’s almost entire body of work, and therefore almost an entire field of research, put into question.”

#Fraude_scientifique #Conflits_intérêt #Science

Global cost of obesity-related illness to hit $1.2tn a year from 2025 | Society | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/10/treating-obesity-related-illness-will-cost-12tn-a-year-from-2025-expert

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The cost of treating ill health caused by obesity around the world will top $1.2tn every year from 2025 unless more is done to check the rapidly worsening epidemic, according to new expert estimates.

Obesity and smoking are the two main drivers behind the soaring numbers of cancers, heart attacks, strokes and diabetes worldwide, grouped together officially as non-communicable diseases. They are the biggest killers of the modern world.
Supersize us: upselling is fuelling the obesity epidemic, warns report
Read more

#santé #obésité

Is fat bad for you ? — Quartz
▻https://qz.com/969095/is-fat-bad-for-you
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/look-at-all-that-good-fat-edit.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=16

In all the studies they could find, lowering fat levels in diets failed to reduce heart attacks, strokes, or other kinds of heart disease. Although cholesterol from fats is bad, it’s been overly vilified.

(…) The authors of the review don’t specifically say why there’s been a reporting bias around the risk of cholesterol, fats, and heart health. But they do make a point to say there’s “no business model or market” for promoting good diet and exercise.
The global market for statins, the drugs that lower LDL cholesterol, was $20.5 billion in 2011.

#pharma #gras #cœur #santé

Heartburn Drugs Linked to Heart Attacks - NYTimes.com
▻http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/gastric-reflux-drugs-linked-to-heart-attacks

Previous studies have found that P.P.I.’s are associated with poor outcomes for people with heart disease, probably because of an interaction with clopidogrel, a drug commonly prescribed after a heart attack. This new study examines the heart attack risk in otherwise healthy people.

The researchers used data-mining, a mathematical method of looking at trends in large amounts of data, to analyze the use of the drugs over time. Evidence that they were increasing the risk for heart attack was clear as early as 2000.

“This is the kind of analysis now possible because electronic medical records are widely available,” said the lead author, Nigam H. Shah, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford. “It’s a benefit of the electronic records system that people are always talking about.”

There was no association of heart attack with another class of drugs used to treat gastric reflux, H2 blockers like Zantac, Tagamet and Pepcid. The researchers suggest that P.P.I.’s promote inflammation and clots by interfering with the actions of protective enzymes.

A significant limitation of the study, in PLOS One, is that P.P.I. usage may be a marker of a sicker patient population, more subject to heart disease in any case.

#IPP #santé

Study Finds Alternative to Statins in Preventing Heart Attacks and Strokes
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/health/study-finds-alternative-to-statins-in-preventing-heart-attacks-and-strokes.

L’étude citée n’avait pas pour objet de prouver que le produit testé (Ezetimibe) pouvait constituer un substitut aux statines contrairement à ce qu’affirme le titre de l’article (qui prend bien soin de donner le nom commercial du produit)

L’élément interessant, lu en fin d’article, est que l’Ezetimibe avait été jusque là promu et commercialisé (30 milliards USD de ventes) sans preuve réelle de son efficacité :

“Now we have the result,” Dr. Nissen said. “They were successful, and that’s great. But at this point, it really doesn’t matter. They made their $30 billion.” The drug will be available as a generic in 2016, Merck says.

The fact that the drug was promoted and sold for so many years without evidence that it helped was inexcusable, Dr. Krumholz said.

“The fact that the trial exists says there was uncertainty,” Dr. Krumholz said. “The company and the investigators and the scientific community were uncertain about it. This is a cautionary tale,” he added. “The results could easily have gone the other way.”

Exclusif : au moins 44 morts parmi les « esclaves » de la coupe du Monde au Qatar | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves?CMP=twt_gu

According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.

The investigation also reveals:

• Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project.

• Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away.

• Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the status of illegal aliens.

• Some labourers say they have been denied access to free drinking water in the desert heat.

• About 30 Nepalese sought refuge at their embassy in Doha to escape the brutal conditions of their employment.

En français : ►http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2013/09/26/des-esclaves-nepalais-morts-au-qatar-sur-les-chantiers-de-la-coupe-du-monde_

Stopping heart attacks with light: Optogenetics researchers see opsins as a way to move beyond defibrillators and pacemakers.
▻http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/08/30/stopping_heart_attacks_with_light_optogenetics_researchers_see_opsins_as.html

Future Heart Attack Treatments Will Use Light, Not Volts, to Keep Your Heart Beating
By Jason Bittel | Posted Friday, Aug. 30, 2013, at 4:44 PM

In this illustration, the “optrode” at left delivers blue light to the heart via a fiber-optic tip. At right, a heart cell (large red oval) contains an implanted light-sensitive “opsin” protein (blue oval) that works alongside the heart’s own proteins (yellow ovals). This teamwork allows the cell to convert light energy into an electric kick that triggers a healthy heartbeat.
Graphic courtesy of Patrick M. Boyle
Electricity is as blunt a tool as we have in our medical arsenal. Whether it’s an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator paddles on the chest—CLEAR!—using electricity to kick-start a heart feels like getting kicked by a Clydesdale. We use it because it works, but we can’t stop all those volts from ripping through surrounding flesh and bone. Scientists call this a global electrical response, and it does a number on the human body, from killing cells to disrupting the heart’s normal rat-a-tat rhythm. And that’s why a team at Johns Hopkins University is experimenting with a lighter approach.

Study Points to New Culprit in Heart Disease - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/study-points-to-new-culprit-in-heart-disease.html?src=me

Chez les mangeurs de viande rouge les graisses saturées et le cholestérol ne contribueraient que de façon mineure au risque accru de maladie cardiaque, le vrai coupable étant un produit chimique qui est produit par des bactéries dans le tube digestif à partir de la carnitine de la viande (l’ingestion de pilules contenant de la carnitine a le même effet) puis est transformé par le foie en un autre produit chimique appelé TMAO qui pénètre dans le sang et augmente le risque de maladie cardiaque.

Ces bactéries, qui restent à découvrir, seraient en quantité bien moindre chez les végétariens et végétaliens.

...the investigators’ extensive experiments in both humans and animals, published Sunday in Nature Medicine, have persuaded scientists not connected with the study to seriously consider this new theory of why red meat eaten too often might be bad for people.

(...)

... the study’s findings indicated that the often-noticed association between red meat consumption and heart disease risk might be related to more than just the saturated fat and cholesterol in red meats like beef and pork.

Dr. Hazen began his research five years ago with a scientific fishing expedition. He directs a study of patients who come to the Cleveland Clinic for evaluations. Over the years, there have been 10,000. All were at risk for heart disease and agreed to provide blood samples and to be followed so the researchers would know if any patient had a heart attack or died of heart disease in the three years after the first visit. Those samples enabled him to look for small molecules in the blood to see whether any were associated with heart attacks or deaths.

That study and a series of additional experiments led to the discovery that a red meat substance no one had suspected — carnitine — seemed to be a culprit. Carnitine is found in red meat and gets its name from the Latin word carnis, the root of carnivore, Dr. Hazen said. It is also found in other foods, he noted, including fish and chicken and even dairy products, but in smaller amounts. Red meat, he said, is the major source, and for many people who eat a lot of red meat, it may be a concern.

The researchers found that carnitine was not dangerous by itself. Instead, the problem arose when it was metabolized by bacteria in the intestines and ended up as TMAO in the blood.

That led to [a] steak-eating study. It turned out that within a couple of hours of a regular meat-eater having a steak, TMAO levels in the blood soared.

But the outcome was quite different when a vegan ate a steak. Researchers had hypothesized that vegans would not have as many of the gut bacteria needed to make TMAO, and indeed virtually no TMAO appeared in the vegan’s blood after he consumed a steak.

“We did not expect to see such a dramatic difference,” Dr. Hazen said.

Then researchers gave meat eaters doses of antibiotics to wipe out almost all of their gut bacteria. After that, they no longer had TMAO in their blood either after consuming red meat or carnitine pills. That meant, he said, that the effect really was because of gut bacteria.

Researchers then tried to determine whether people with high blood carnitine or TMAO levels were at higher heart disease risk. They analyzed blood from more than 2,500 people, asking if carnitine or TMAO levels predicted heart attacks independently of traditional risk factors like smoking, high cholesterol and blood pressure. Both carnitine and TMAO did. But upon further analysis, they discovered that the effect was solely because of TMAO.

The researchers’ theory, based on their laboratory studies, is that TMAO enables cholesterol to get into artery walls and also prevents the body from excreting excess cholesterol.

But what is it about carnitine that bacteria like? The answer, Dr. Hazen said, is that bacteria use it as a fuel.

He said he worries about carnitine-containing energy drinks. Carnitine often is added to the drinks on the assumption that is will speed fat metabolism and increase a person’s energy level, Dr. Hazen said.

Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and a past president of the American Heart Association, worried about how carnitine might be affecting body builders and athletes who often take it because they believe it builds muscle.

Those supplements, Dr. Hazen said, “are scary, especially for our kids.”

Mediterranean Diet Can Cut Heart Disease, Study Finds - NYTimes.com

Pour éviter la crise cardiaque, adoptez le régime alimentaire méditerranéen (huile d’olive, etc...)

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/health/mediterranean-diet-can-cut-heart-disease-study-finds.html?nl=todaysheadline

About 30 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease can be prevented in people at high risk if they switch to a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables, and even drink wine with meals, a large and rigorous new study has found.

#méditerranée #alimentation

Heart attacks among non-smokers fall by a QUARTER after ban stubs out passive smoking | Mail Online
►http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2194688/Heart-attacks-non-smokers-fall-QUARTER-ban-stubs-passive-smoking.html

A study in Germany found that the number of heart attacks in one city dropped by 26 per cent among non-smokers just two years after the ban came in.

comme quoi le tabagisme passif c’était pas de la connerie

#santé #tabac

100-Year Old Wonder Drug Now Shown To Prevent Cancer and Heart Attacks | Singularity Hub
►http://singularityhub.com/2012/03/22/100-year-old-wonder-drug-now-shown-to-prevent-cancer-and-heart-attac

For years, research has shown that aspirin is beneficial in preventing heart attacks. Now new studies support its ability to prevent #cancer as well

#cardiologie #santé #aspirine