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People who suffer heart attacks are at increased risk of having a second and potentially fatal occurrence because of the damage the heart attack does to cardiac muscle tissue. Now scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed a new biomaterial - an injectable hydrogel  - that can repair the damage from heart attacks, and help promote the growth of new heart tissue.   Millions of people around the world suffer heart attacks every year and survive. These traumatic events occur when blood supply to the heart muscles is somehow blocked, robbing them of oxygen and causing them...

Comment Now Follow Comments Earlier today I summarized the important new PREDIMED study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing the cardiovascular benefits of the Mediterranean diet. This study– a rare and much welcome instance of a large randomized controlled study of a diet powered to reach conclusions about important cardiovascular endpoints– has been widely praised and will undoubtedly have a major effect in the field of nutrition and will influence lots of people to adopt some form of a Mediterranean diet. The study’s major potential weakness appears to be that the control group didn’t get a fair...

However, study found those serving in Afghanistan, Iraq still had beginnings of heart diseaseHealthDay ReporterWEDNESDAY, Dec. 26 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. service members who died in Iraq and Afghanistan had been healthier than troops in previous wars, military researchers report.Although almost 9 percent of those autopsied had some degree of atherosclerosis (or "hardening") of their coronary arteries, which can lead to heart disease, this was far lower than seen in soldiers who died in Vietnam or Korea, researchers say.Similar studies had shown that 77 percent of soldiers in the Korean War and 45 percent in the Vietnam War had atherosclerosis,...

Antioxidant-producing microbes may keep atherosclerotic plaques in place Though atherosclerosis is an artery problem, microscopic denizens of the intestines may play a surprising role in how the disease plays out. A new study suggests that different mixes of intestinal microbes may determine whether people will have heart attacks or strokes brought on by break-away plaque from the arteries. Compared with healthy people, heart disease patients who have had strokes or other complications of atherosclerosis carry fewer microbes that make anti-inflammatory compounds. These patients also have more bacteria that produce inflammation-triggering molecules, researchers report online December 4 in Nature Communications. Inflammation...

Critics not persuaded that metal-snaring treatment works. With millions of Americans regularly using complementary medicines, researchers usually applaud efforts to test and debunk folk treatments such as echinacea, a herbal supplement often deployed against the common cold. But what if a trial shows that an alternative therapy might work? That is the case for a study funded by the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. The trial hints that a fringe therapy intended to sop up metal ions in the blood might reduce participants’ risk of...

Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner Action Points Certain variations in the vitamin D receptor gene may influence the clinical effects of low vitamin D levels in some chronic diseases.Note that patients in the cohort without the genetic polymorphism showed no association between low 25(OH)D levels and outcomes such as hip fracture, myocardial infarction, cancer, and death. Variations in the vitamin D receptor gene may influence the clinical effects of low vitamin D levels in some chronic diseases, researchers found.Among patients with low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin...

ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES — Researchers are reporting a key advance in using stem cells to repair hearts damaged by heart attacks. In a study, stem cells donated by strangers proved as safe and effective as patients’ own cells for helping restore heart tissue. The work involved just 30 patients in Miami and Baltimore, but it proves the concept that anyone’s cells can be used to treat such cases. Doctors are excited because this suggests that stem cells could be banked for off-the-shelf use after heart attacks, just as blood is kept on hand now. The study used a specific...

For a subset of heart patients who are both diabetic and have more than one clogged artery, bypass surgery appears to outperform the use of artery-widening stents, a major new trial finds. The study adds more evidence that bypass is the preferred approach for this type of patient, according to experts discussing the findings Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Los Angeles. "This has the potential to change clinical practice," said Dr. Alice Jacobs, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and interventional cardiology at Boston Medical Center. In her commentary, she said the results of...

Beta blockers may offer little against heart attack, stroke Commonly prescribed drugs called beta blockers fail to protect against heart attacks and strokes even while helping to control heart rate and blood pressure, researchers report in the Oct. 3 Journal of the American Medical Association. Beta blockers also didn’t lessen the odds of a heart-related death, in heart attack patients or others at risk, over a median follow-up of 44 months. The American Heart Association had previously discouraged the long-term use of beta blockers as a post–heart attack treatment beyond three years. The new findings further dim the prospects for...

Cancer has overtaken heart disease as the No. 1 killer among Hispanics in the U.S., and the rest of the country may be only a few years behind. The change is not exactly cause for alarm. Death rates for both cancer and heart disease have been dropping for Hispanics and everyone else. It's just that heart disease deaths have fallen faster, largely because of improved treatment and prevention, including the development of cholesterol-lowering drugs. Overall, cancer will probably replace heart disease as the nation's top cause of death in the next 10 years, said Rebecca Siegel of the American Cancer...

Heart attack survivors using certain painkillers are more likely to die or suffer another event People who have survived a heart attack seem to increase their risk of having another one, or of dying, by taking common painkillers called NSAIDs, a popular class of drugs that includes ibuprofen. The unsettling link between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and heart attack risk is not new. The American Heart Association released guidelines in 2007 discouraging the use of any NSAIDs among people with a history of cardiovascular disease. Researchers in Denmark now bolster that link with the largest study to date of NSAID use...

Having a normal overall BMI and a beer belly ("abdominal obesity") was found to be more dangerous than having a BMI in the obese range.BrewBooks/FlickrPROBLEM: While the relationship between obesity and cardiovascular health is well understood, less is known about the risks associated with "central obesity," or excessive fat concentrated around the abdomen. A gut, if you will. Are those with fat primarily in this region at higher risk of death due to cardiovascular problems than those who are obese? METHODOLOGY: A representative sample of 12,785 American adults was culled from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, which...

Testing electrical activity of the heart using an electrocardiogram is unlikely to help doctors figure out who is at risk of coronary heart disease, according to recommendations from a U.S. government-backed panel. The United States Preventive Services Task Force wrote on Monday that there's no good evidence the test, also known as an ECG, helps doctors predict heart risks any better than traditional considerations such as smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol levels in people with no symptoms. "It could potentially be helpful if we had evidence that doing a test like an ECG or an exercise ECG would better classify...

Since the city banned trans fats in restaurant food in 2008, diners have consumed 2.4 fewer grams of trans fats per lunch, which should mean better health, researchers say. A New York regulation that took effect in 2008 prohibits all restaurants… (Kathy Willens / Associated…)New York City's pioneering ban on all but the smallest amounts of trans fats in restaurant food has led to a significant reduction in consumption, a change that should translate into better cardiovascular health in the nation's largest city, according to a new report. It also demonstrates that coffee shops, fast-food joints and other eateries can...

New research has uncovered how some cox-2 painkillers increase the risk for both heart attacks and stroke. The once popular cox-2 drugs, Vioxx and Bextra, were pulled off the market in 2004 and 2005, respectively, after research showed that both raised the chances of cardiovascular trouble. Meanwhile, Celebrex, a painkiller in the same drug class that remains on the market, carries a "black box" warning alerting patients to potential heart risks. Now, a team of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia say that, although cox-2 inhibitors are very good at inhibiting the workings of the cox-2 enzyme --...

Laughter may not exactly be the best medicine. But a cheerful outlook on life may be good for your heart. So concludes new research on the impact of happiness and optimism on cardiovascular health. Scientists have known about the reverse relationship between psychological health and heart health for some time; studies show that depression and anxiety can worsen outcomes for heart patients. But the findings on happiness and its medical impact over the years have not been as consistent. In a new analysis, researchers at Harvard sought a more definitive conclusion by reviewing the results of more than 200 studies...

WASHINGTON — For a man who has long battled advanced heart disease, Dick Cheney has had a remarkable streak of being in the right place at the right time. Now 71, the former vice president has survived five heart attacks, the first of them at the age of 37. Even before he received a heart transplant a month ago today, Mr. Cheney had benefited from just about every procedure, technology and class of drug available to people with his condition — atherosclerosis, in which fatty deposits block blood flow in the arteries. Indeed, Mr. Cheney’s medical history could almost be...

The common practice of inserting a stent to repair a narrowed artery has no benefit over standard medical care in treating stable coronary artery disease, according to a new review of randomized controlled trials published on Monday. Stable coronary artery disease is the type of heart ailment that causes angina, or chest pain, after physical exercise or emotional stress but generally not at other times. The review did not include studies of the emergency use of stents for heart attacks. Stent implantation involves a procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention, or P.C.I., in which a surgeon inserts a mesh tube made...

An ex-wife of Newt Gingrich told ABC News’s “Nightline” that the Republican presidential candidate wanted an “open marriage.” In a published clip of Brian Ross’s interview with Marianne Gingrich, which will air tonight, Marianne Gingrich said her husband wanted her to accept the fact that he had a mistress. “He was asking to have an open marriage and I refused,” she said. Marianne Gingrich said Newt Gingrich admitted to his six-year affair with Callista, a congressional aide who is now married to the candidate. Newt Gingrich allegedly said Callista “doesn’t care what I do.” Asked for her response, Marianne Gingrich...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) - An ABC News executive tells The Associated Press that the network has interviewed Newt Gingrich's second wife and is likely to air the segment Thursday on "Nightline."</p>