Heart & Circulation, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2005

Good-Hearted Women Fail to Deal with Bad Hearts

The legend of the hard-hearted woman has gone to our heads, and that’s probably bad for everyone’s health. Women with heart disease discount the severity of their problem compared to men with the exact same cardiac symptoms and conditions, new research shows. Among surveys given to 490 patients treated for...

Jun 30, 2006

Living Alone Raises Risk of Heart Attack

Living alone can be deadly, a new study shows. People who live by themselves are at twice the risk of serious heart problems compared to those who have a partner. Researchers studied records of 138,000 adults aged 30 to 69 in Denmark. Of the group, 646 suffered a heart attack...

Feb 28, 2006

Marital Spats Raise Risk of Heart Attack

Fighting with the one you love can leave you broken-hearted, a feeling that now appears to be more than just figurative. Marital spats and dominating behavior are related to hardening of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. Clogged arteries raise the risk of a heart attack. A...

Feb 28, 2006

Blood Cells Change Shape to Fit Through Tiny Vessels

Human red blood cells rushing through the body to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the organs are forced to squeeze through smaller and smaller blood vessels. A new study has discovered how exactly the teeny hat-shaped cells deform themselves to fit through these micro-tunnels. The research could...

Jan 31, 2007

Top 10 amazing facts about your heart

Matters of the Heart (Image credit: Credit: Dreamstime)Matters of the heart have baffled humans since the dawn of time, with sonnets and entire books devoted to the meaning of love. Now scientists are finding that the blood pump in your chest is just as complex. You can't live or love...

Oct 31, 2008

Icy Slush Chills Blood to Save Lives

A bio-compatible ice slurry created by scientists in the Nuclear Engineering Division at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory can be injected directly into the body. The ice slurry can be used to lower the temperature of an organ, reducing its need for oxygen, giving doctors extra time...

May 31, 2008

How Stress and Diet Cause Heart Attacks

Word of Tim Russert's death at 58 shocked many Americans today, and behind the grief came nagging questions about heart attacks, like the one that struck the newsman, and anxiety about how they kill. Russert's death came in a week when the government reported U.S. life expectancy had risen to...

Mar 31, 2011

Exercise During Pregnancy Benefits Baby's Heart

Exercise during pregnancy benefits not just the mother's heart, but her baby's heart as well, a new study finds. The results show regular exercise during pregnancy lowers the heart rate of the fetus, and this effect persists for a month after the baby is born. A low heart rate indicates...

Feb 28, 2011

Warmer Weather May Be Linked to Worsened Heart Health

Rising temperatures and pollution levels may act together to worsen heart health, a new study suggests. The results show high temperatures in the summer months in a U.S. city are associated with a decrease in heart-rate variability, or how regular the time between heartbeats is, which acts as a measure...

Feb 28, 2011

Had a Recent Heart Attack? Hold Off on Nonemergency Surgery

Patients who've had a heart attack may want to wait at least eight weeks before undergoing nonemergency surgery, a new study says. That's longer than what is currently recommended by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, both of which advise patients to delay surgery until four...

Sep 30, 2013

DIY Projects Linked with Lower Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke

For older adults, gardening and do-it-yourself home activities like fixing up the house may cut the risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study from Sweden suggests. In the study, adults ages 60 and over who engaged in high levels of home and garden activities were 27 percent less...

Dec 31, 2012

Erectile Dysfunction Raises Risk of Hospitalization for Heart Woes

The more severe a man's erectile dysfunction is, the greater his risk of being hospitalized for heart problems, a new Australian study finds. Among men in the study who had no history of heart disease, those with moderate erectile dysfunction (ED) were 23 percent more likely to be hospitalized for...

Nov 30, 2014

Tech that Checks Your Vital Signs Could Find What Docs Miss

The cause of a stroke can sometimes be a mystery. And people may suffer a stroke and never know it; for example, a person who goes to the hospital because they fainted may appear normal on every test, and have a heart that beats like a clock. That's partly because...

Oct 31, 2014

Salt Sensor Helps People Improve Diet

CHICAGO — A small device that detects the amount of salt in food could help people with heart disease lower the amount of salt in their diet to improve their heart health, a new study shows. The patients in the study who used the device reduced their daily salt intake...

Oct 31, 2014

'InsideTracker' Review: Can a Commercial Blood Test Make You Healthier?

InsideTracker is a service that analyzes your blood for various biomarkers — from sugar and cholesterol levels to liver enzymes — and tells you how you are faring in terms of health and fitness. The service does not intend to find disease, so users with an off-the-chart blood sugar level...