Health Warning

[SHERIFF]

Health Warning: some of you might find this interesting.

Heart attack risk rises as temperature falls
Research: People with high blood pressure vulnerable

MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- People with high blood pressure seem to be more vulnerable to heart attacks when the temperature drops, new research shows.

The findings, presented Monday at a conference of the European Society of Cardiology, are not surprising because cold weather makes the blood vessels constrict, making it harder for blood to move through, but the study is the first to document that variations in the weather increase the occurrence of heart attacks in people with high blood pressure.

The two-year study, conducted by scientists at the University of Burgundy in France, examined 748 people admitted to local hospitals with a heart attack. The researchers matched the hospital admission with weather information covering the same period.

Of those in the study, 50 percent were being treated for high blood pressure or had at some time suffered from the condition.

Overall, heart attacks were more frequent when the temperature dropped below 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees celsius). However, a closer analysis revealed that this was only true for people who had high blood pressure. There were double the number of heart attacks among these people when the temperature dropped below the threshold.

Heart attacks also went up in hypertensive people when the temperature dropped by more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees celsius) on the day of their attack, regardless of how cold it was.

Blood pressure rises when it gets colder because the blood vessels narrow to preserve body heat. The hypertensive starts at a higher blood pressure than healthy people and ends up with an even higher blood pressure when the weather turns. Higher blood pressure is more strenuous for the heart.

The study highlights the special vulnerablility that people with high blood pressure have to cold weather and underlines the importance of getting their blood pressure down to normal levels, said Dr. David Faxon, chief of cardiology at the University of Chicago in the United States and a former president of the American Heart Association.

Barometric pressure, or air pressure, was also an important influence on heart attack in people with high blood pressure, the study found, but not in those with normal blood pressure. A shift of more than 8 points triggered an attack, the investigators found.

"A peak in (heart attack) onset in this population was observed at the passage of a cold front, but not a warm one," the study found.

How the weather is linked to heart attacks is unclear, but several theories exist. One is that the inflammation caused by winter respiratory infections could make the blood vessels more vulnerable. Another is simply that the extra narrowing of the blood vessels is enough to trigger a heart attack.

"This makes sense because when you get chilly weather, the blood pressure increases," said Dr. Lars Ryden, professor of Cardiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, who was not connected with the study. "It happens in everyone but people with hypertension are particularly sensitive. The reason people get hypertension is that they have overreactive blood vessels and if the blood vessels contract in a hypertensive patient, you get an even more narrow vessel than if they contract in a normal patient."

The best protection, Ryden said, is to dress warmly when going out in the cold.

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[drobin]

Thanks for a very well informed article, I had no idea that this could occur under these circumstances...

drobin

[hdwrench]

like i needed another reason not to live up north ;)


thanks for the info

[Ross]

Since the article was about German research, I thought it was going to say that beer prevents heart attacks!

[SHERIFF]

Another Helath Tip........

Good news, guys! Enjoy a glass of red wine most days of the week and you could cut your risk of prostate cancer in half, according to a new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The protective effect appears to be strongest against the most aggressive forms of the disease.

"We found that men who consumed four or more glasses of red wine per week reduced their risk of prostate cancer by 50 percent," senior study author Janet L. Stanford said in a news release announcing the findings. "Among men who consumed four or more 4-ounce glasses of red wine per week, we saw about a 60 percent lower incidence of the more aggressive types of prostate cancer. The more clinically aggressive prostate cancer is where the strongest reduction in risk was observed."


There were no significant effects either positive or negative with the consumption of beer or hard liquor and no consistent risk reduction with white wine. That implies there is some sort of beneficial compound in red wine that the other types of alcohol lack. Stanford thinks the magic bullet is an antioxidant called resveratrol that is abundant in the skins of red grapes but less so in white grapes. (Resveratrol is also found in peanuts, raspberries, and dietary supplements.)

While the researchers found that the risk of prostate cancer decreased 6 percent for every glass of red wine consumed per week, Stanford is quick to point out that research shows the law of diminishing returns comes into play when consumption increases beyond moderation. What's the optimal amount? Stanford recommends four to eight 4-ounce glasses of red wine a week. "Other studies show that more than that may have adverse effects on health," she adds. The study findings were published in the online edition of the International Journal of Cancer.

[SHERIFF]

More..............

Red wine may help stimulate a gene that reduces the number and size of fat cells in the body.

The gene in question is called SIRT1, which has been shown to reduce the development of new fat cells and increase the "burn rate" of fat within existing fat cells, reports Science Daily. Found in both mice and humans, the gene also seems to repress fat-related proteins that tell the body to store fat when food is scarce. Now researchers from Oregon State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Ottawa have determined that SIRT1 can be stimulated to work better with a bit of red wine--at least in mice.

The magic ingredient in red wine is something called resveratrol. By speeding up the activity of the SIRT1, it leads to a higher metabolism rate. And that reduces the number and size of fat cells.

"When cells were exposed to resveratrol, our studies showed a pretty dramatic reduction in the conversion to fat cells and a lesser but still significant increase in the mobilization of existing fat, or the rate at which the cells metabolized stored fat," said Mark Leid, a professor of pharmacology in the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy. "This clearly could be one of the explanations for the health benefits that some researchers believe can be linked to moderate red wine consumption."

Previous studies have shown that the antioxidants in red wine can protect against heart disease by reducing the development of arteriosclerosis, as well as raise the level of good cholesterol and lower blood pressure. This latest joint research project from Oregon State, MIT, and Ottawa may explain WHY red wine has this effect. Since the study was performed with mice, the next step is to replicate the results in humans.

"It would be very premature to suggest that supplements of resveratrol would have any benefits, because this compound oxidizes very quickly and easily loses its metabolic effectiveness," Leid cautioned. "Because of that we have a hard time even studying it in a laboratory setting. But we do know that red wine has fairly high levels of the compound, and this study would suggest at least one mechanism for possible health benefits of red wine. It may help prevent fat development and storage."

But do note that doctors are not encouraging patients to drink red wine just for the sake of cardiovascular benefits. And for those who do drink, the key word is moderation--no more than one drink daily for women and two for men. In addition to red wine, other sources of resveratrol are mulberries and peanuts.

[SHERIFF]

More.....

Red wine may hold the secret to a longer life, say researchers from Harvard University, the University of Connecticut, and Brown University.

Previous research has shown that when we drastically restrict our calorie intake, we may extend our lifespan. But you have to wonder if giving up the good things in life--a sizzling steak, whipped potatoes, or four-layer double chocolate cake--is worth it. Now you may be able to reap those same benefits without nearly starving yourself.

Enjoy a bit of red wine with your dinner, and you may add years to your life. Harvard researchers have found that resveratrol, an ingredient found in abundance in red wine, has the same life-extending effect on fruit flies and worms as severely restricting caloric intake has on monkeys, reports Reuters.

What does this mean? Someday, we may be able to pop a pill to achieve the same benefits as strict dieting to live longer and healthier lives, according to lead study author David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School. "We found this chemical that can extend the life span of every organism we give it to," Sinclair told Reuters in an interview. "We hope we can soon see molecules that treat diseases of aging, like diabetes for example. We really can have our cake and eat it, too."

Found in all living creatures from bacteria to human beings are molecules called Sir2-like proteins or sirtuins that are involved in the anti-aging effects of calorie restriction. The researchers wanted to find molecules that would stick to and activate the sirtuin protein. One--resveratrol--worked better than all the others they tested. "When I realized it was a molecule from red wine, I almost fell out of my seat," Sinclair told Reuters. "This is the molecule people suspect is behind the health benefits of red wine. It's uncanny."

Sinclair found that when fruit flies and worms were given resveratrol compounds, they lived longer and healthier lives and were just as active in old age as they were when they were younger. "They can eat as much as they like, and they live considerably longer," he explained to Reuters. Restricting calories may help dogs and monkeys to live longer in the lab, but it can also leave them lethargic and infertile. "These flies, instead of being infertile, they produced more eggs per day," Sinclair noted. Now he's testing the compound in mice, which are biologically closer to human beings than fruit flies and worms. He thinks if it works in mice, it will work in people.

Sinclair has already formed a company called Sirtris to exploit his findings and sell a product he developed called Longevinex, which concentrates resveratrol into a pill, reports Reuters.

[RCSignals]

See, all those Canadians who winter in Southern US are on to something