The Ornish Diet
Unlike other diet books that make big promises, Eat More, Weigh Less, by Dean Ornish, MD, soft-pedals the health claims for this diet for the masses, adapted from his regimen to reverse heart disease. Ornish is well known in the medical community because of his success in reversing blockages to the heart, once thought impossible without surgery or drugs. Unlike other books that are full of scientific-sounding... Read more
Caffeine and Pregnancy
Watching what you eat and drink while you’re pregnant is important for the health of you and your baby. Caffeine is a stimulant. When you consume it, it is delivered across the placenta to your baby, whose metabolism can’t process the stimulant like an adult’s metabolism. The American Pregnancy Association says the best thing you can do is to consume as little caffeine as possible.... Read more
Heart Failure Accounts for 37% of Medicare Spending
Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure have many more doctor visits and take more medications than those without heart failure, researchers are reporting. They based their conclusion on an analysis of data on 173,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The overall average age of the beneficiaries was 70.7 years, while the average age for those with heart failure was between 76 and 77 years. The analysis found... Read more
Gains Against Heart Failure Reported
Researchers are reporting new ways to use exercise and medications to manage and improve the lives of people with heart failure, a condition that affects more than 5 million Americans. One study found a small, 7 percent reduction in death or hospitalization rates from any cause, as well as a reduction in cardiovascular mortality and heart failure hospitalizations, among heart-failure patients who followed... Read more
Avapro Blood pressure drug fails heart failure trial
The blood pressure medicine Avapro, sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Sanofi-Aventis, was no better than usual care in treating a type of heart failure that primarily affects women and the elderly, according to results of a large study. Researchers had hoped to show that Avapro could reduce the incidence of death and serious heart problems better than medicines currently used in this patient population... Read more
Elderly fare well in open-heart surgery
Eighty-year-olds with clogged arteries or leaky heart valves used to be sent home with a pat on the arm from their doctors and pills to try to ease their symptoms. Now more are getting open-heart surgery, with remarkable survival rates rivaling those of much younger people, new studies show. Years ago, physicians “were told we were pushing the envelope” to operate on a 70-year-old, said... Read more