Heart Attack
What Are the Health Benefits of Coffee and Choco…
Americans have a puritanical streak. This way of thinking suggests that if something hurts or tastes bad, it must be good for you. Conversely, if it tastes good, you might conclude it's bad for you. T…
The Infection Factor: Rethinking Heart Disease a…
Ask most healthcare professionals what causes heart attacks and strokes and you will be told that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is triggered by too much cholesterol and related lipid compounds circulat…
How Helpful Are Beta Blockers After Heart Attack…
Beta blockers have been among the most trusted and most prescribed drugs in the pharmacy. This category of medications includes atenolol (Tenormin), bisoprolol (Zebeta), carvedilol (Coreg), labetolol …
Shingles Vax Reduces Risk of Heart Attack, Strok…
The anti-vaccine movement has been gaining momentum, but there is growing evidence that the shingles vax offers benefit far beyond protection against shingles. Several studies have demonstrated that t…
The Unexpected Risks of French Fries
French fries may be tempting, but giving in to temptation might be dangerous. New research reinforces previous findings that French fries are associated with undesirable health outcomes, including typ…
Daily Exercise Boosts Lifespan
Everyone agrees that exercise is beneficial for your health, though not everyone actually participates in daily exercise. Muscle-strengthening exercise, in particular, can reduce the risk of premature…
How Clean Indoor Air Could Benefit Your Blood Pr…
For years, public health researchers have been sounding the alarm about air pollution. Scientists have reached a consensus that exposure to air with a lot of fine particulate matter of the sort you mi…
Sitting Sabotages Good Health
Some health experts have taken to calling sitting the new smoking. In other words, a sedentary lifestyle puts you at significant risk for poor cardiovascular outcomes. Mounting evidence suggests that …
Will Boosting Your Step Count Save Your Life?
How many steps do you take a day? You may have heard that you should be taking 10,000 steps a day. Initially, that ideal step count was not based on evidence, but rather was a marketing maneuver by a …
Is Aspirin Underutilized for Preventing Second H…
Aspirin has a long history, loaded with controversy over its benefits and risks. Chemists originally synthesized the compound, acetylsalicylic acid, in 1899. Very soon thereafter, the Bayer company ma…
Does Green Tea Interact with Prescription Drugs?
When you sit down to enjoy a beverage, do you think about whether it might affect the medications you take? Years ago, research on grapefruit juice showed that what you drink can indeed affect your pi…
Why Is the Sugar Substitute Erythritol Risky?
Everyone on the planet may already know that sugar is bad for our health. Excessive sugar contributes to cavities in teeth and pimples on skin. It adds pounds and displaces more nutritious foods like …
Heart Attacks = Cardiac Rehab! Why Doesn’t…
Have you suffered a heart attack? Know someone who has? According to the CDC, each year over 800,000 people have what doctors call a myocardial infarction and the rest of us call a heart attack. About…
Make Sure Your Vegetarian Diet Is High Quality
A vegetarian diet can be beneficial, but the quality of the diet matters. A meta-analysis of 25 randomized controlled trials covering more than 3.5 million participants found that there can be a big d…
Do We Have Micro Particles of Plastic in Our Bra…
Are you getting tired of reading about plastic? I wouldn't blame you. We are getting exhausted writing about the perils of plastic. That said, almost every week there is news about problems with plast…
Why Won’t MDs and Pharmacists Believe You …
Why do so many doctors and pharmacists dismiss patients who tell them a generic drug doesn't work? That is a question we have been pondering for almost two decades. Ask any mechanic if cheap, aftermar…
If Statins Cause Diabetes, Why Should ALL Diabet…
The guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology are crystal clear. Middle-aged people with diabetes (both type 1 and type 2) should be on a statin-type choles…
Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Carry Serious Cardiova…
Most people are aware that consuming too much sugar is not good for our health. A study from Sweden suggests that not all sweet foods are equivalent, though. Occasional sweet treats like pastries don'…
Why Didn’t Statins Protect Dad from Clogge…
Most cardiologists take it as absolute fact that cholesterol is a bad actor in the heart disease saga. They believe that LDL cholesterol in particular is responsible for causing clogged coronary arter…
Show 1432: Lead, Lies and Lasting Harm: The Chem…
This week, the topic is lead. A hundred years ago, chemists discovered that adding lead to gasoline decreased engine knock and gave the cars of the day more power. It remained a popular additive for d…
Does Insomnia Raise Your Risk for Heart Trouble?
People with insomnia experience a terrible double bind. On the one hand, they have trouble falling or staying asleep. That is, after all, the definition of insomnia. As a result, they may have trouble…
How Good Is the Shingrix Vaccine Against Shingle…
If you ever had chickenpox as a kid, you are at risk for shingles as an adult. That's because the virus that causes this childhood illness is varicella zoster, the same virus that causes shingles. Eve…
What Is the Evidence That Cocoa Flavanols Improv…
An ongoing argument often surfaces around certain holidays, especially Valentine's Day, Easter and Halloween. You'll see a number of feature pieces suggesting that chocolate is actually good for you. …
Is Low LDL Cholesterol Linked to Bleeding Stroke…
Ask any golfer if you can have too low a golf score and he will think you're nuts. After all, the lowest score wins in golf. Ask almost any cardiologist if your LDL cholesterol levels could be too low…
Have You Been Tested for Lp(a) Levels? What̵…
Most people have had a blood test for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). It's been dubbed "bad" cholesterol since the 1980s. Cardiologists write that "the prevalence of severely elevated LDL…
Amazing Benefits from Half a Tablespoon of Olive…
We have been writing about the health benefits of olive oil for decades, although at one time doctors thought it was too high in saturated fat to be healthy. Data from long-running cohort studies cont…
Flip Flops on Fish Oil: Omega 3 Fats DO Have Hea…
Are you fed up with flip flops? The latest U-turn on dietary supplements has to do with omega 3 fats. There was a time when Americans were told that the golden footballs containing some kind of fish o…
Is Inexpensive Food Undermining Public Health?
Are US government agricultural subsidies undermining public health? A study several years ago suggested that people who eat a lot of processed foods made from subsidized crops such as corn, soybeans, …
Wegovy or Ozempic: Semaglutide to Prevent Heart …
Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss are more familiar brand names for the pharmaceutical compound semaglutide. Seven years ago, when Ozempic was first introduced to treat type 2 diabetes, …
Another New Study Reinforces Shingles Vaccines A…
For decades, neuroscientists have promoted the idea that the cause of dementia is the accumulation of amyloid plaque in the brains of patients with Alzheimer disease. Drug companies spent billions to …
Why You Should Eat the Mediterranean Way
The Mediterranean diet has been associated with a number of health benefits. We have written previously about studies showing that a Mediterranean-style eating plan can protect the brain, reduce arthr…
Overdosing on Vegetable Oil Could Be Deadly
For decades, nutrition experts urged Americans to substitute vegetable oil (aka seed oil) for saturated fats such as butter and lard. They assumed that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) found in oil…
Is Lp(a) the Best Kept Secret in Heart Disease?
Ask most people about their risk factors for heart disease and they will likely mention total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C (“bad”) cholesterol and HDL-C (“good”) cholesterol. Sometimes people even …
Are Non-Sugar Sweeteners a Healthy Choice?
When people hear that sugar-sweetened beverages pose health hazards, some respond by switching to diet soft drinks. That certainly seems reasonable, but evidence now suggests it might not be the best …
Big Pharma’s Dirty Secret: How Its Math Mi…
The pharmaceutical industry is unbelievably lucrative. According to numerous analysts, drug companies grossed more than $600,000,000,000 last year. In case that many zeroes is a bit mind boggling, tha…
Why Grandma Was Right About Vegetables
Your grandmother may have told you to eat your vegetables. Ours certainly urged us to do so. If she did, she was right. Vegetables and fruits are good sources of flavanols, plant compounds that appear…
Are Pecans Good for Your Heart?
Have you ever wondered whether your favorite food is good for your heart? If your favorite foods include ice cream and cookies, you don't have to wonder. The answer is a clear no. If you love oatmeal …
Purple Peril? Grape Juice Interaction Differs fr…
Have you ever been warned about a grape juice interaction with the heartburn medicine omeprazole (Prilosec)? I didn't think so. If you were to poll most pharmacists and physicians and ask them about s…
Helping Your Heart Means Boosting Your Brain
We have long suspected that taking care of your heart health with exercise, a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, stress management and social interaction could also benefit your brain. …
Show 1421: Is Lp(a) the Heart Risk No One Talks …
This week, we get in-depth information on Lp(a), the heart risk no one talks about. You have heard of cholesterol, and you may even know what your cholesterol level is. The compound lipoprotein a may …