http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/cardio.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.lbpost.com/news/addison/1309300094 http://tobacco.org/news/333523.html For his proposal to study how secondhand smoke exposure may predispose women to heart disease, Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) chemistry/biochemistry senior Tuyen Ngoc Tran has received a $3,000 scholarship as one of this year's recipients of the Howell-CSUPERB Research Scholar Award. CSUPERB (CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology) has partnered with the Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women's Health Research to fund promising undergraduate student research projects in topics related to women's health. The Howell Foundation and CSUPERB recognize that research experience is critical to engaging, retaining and graduating students interested in careers in women's health. CSUPERB received 32 applications from students at 15 different CSU campuses for the Howell awards, but only 11 students from seven of the universities were selected for the $3,000 scholarships. The Howell-CSUPERB Scholars show great professional promise academically and in research programs. Each scholar will be conducting faculty mentored research projects during 2012. Long Beach Post addison@lbpost.com ( Brian Addison * Long Beach News) Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://ekasearch01.eurekalert.org/e3/cs.html?url=http%3A//www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/bmj-omw012712.php&charset=iso-8859-1&qt=%2Bsmoking%2C+EurekAlert&col=ev3rel&n=3&la=en http://tobacco.org/news/333396.html Mums-to-be who are both overweight and smoke during their pregnancy risk damaging their baby's developing heart, finds research published online in Heart. Congenital heart abnormalities are some of the most common defects found at birth, with around eight in every 1000 babies affected. A likely cause is only found in 15% of cases. The authors base their findings on an analysis of almost 800 babies and foetuses who were born with congenital heart abnormalities, but no other defects, between 1997 and 2008. These babies were compared with 322 children and foetuses who were born with chromosomal abnormalities, but without any heart defects. EurekAlert edickinson@bmjgroup.com Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.cdc.gov/24-7/prevention/MillionHearts/ http://tobacco.org/news/333351.html This Health and Human Services (HHS) initiative seeks to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes over the next five years by empowering Americans to make heart-healthy lifestyle choices, and improve care for those needing treatment. Announced on September 13, 2011, Million Hearts is co-led by CDC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Heart disease and stroke are the nation’s leading killers—together causing one of every three deaths. More than 2 million heart attacks and strokes occur every year and treatment for these conditions accounts for approximately $1 of every $6 healthcare dollars. Cardiovascular disease accounts for the largest single portion of racial disparities in US life expectancy. “Heart disease takes the lives of far too many people in this country, depriving their families and communities of someone they love and care for—a father, a mother, a wife, a friend, a neighbor, a spouse,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, MPA. “Each loss deprives our society of their fullest contribution, their creativity, and their productivity. We are paying much too high a price, and together we must and we can do better.” Know Your ABCS – The first line of defense. Centers for Disease Control cdcinfo@cdc.gov Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT http://www.cdc.gov/Features/HeartMonth/ http://tobacco.org/news/333350.html February is American Heart Month, and unfortunately, most of us know someone who has had heart disease or stroke. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States; one in every three deaths is from heart disease and stroke, equal to 2,200 deaths per day. These conditions are also leading causes of disability preventing people from working and enjoying family activities. Cardiovascular disease is also very expensive—together heart disease and stroke hospitalizations in 2010 cost the nation more than $444 billion in health care expenses and lost productivity. However, we can fight back against heart disease and stroke. CDC and other parts of the US government have launched Million Hearts™, to prevent the nation's leading killers and empowering everyone to make heart-healthy choices. Centers for Disease Control cdcinfo@cdc.gov Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://ekasearch01.eurekalert.org/e3/cs.html?url=http%3A//www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/esoc-rua012512.php&charset=iso-8859-1&qt=%2Bsmoking%2C+EurekAlert&col=ev3rel&n=4&la=en http://tobacco.org/news/333337.html While the rapid improvement in socio-economic conditions is thought responsible for the high rates of cardiovascular disease in the Gulf states, deep-rooted cultural factors also play a part. "We're sitting on a time bomb," says Professor Hani Najm, Vice-President of the Saudi Heart Association, whose annual conference begins Friday 27 January. "We will see a lot of heart disease over the next 15 to 20 years. Already, services are saturated. We now have to direct our resources to the primary prevention of risk factors throughout the entire Middle East." . . . And now there is further evidence that the cultural heritage of the Middle East may present yet another growing risk factor in the region's battle against heart disease. The waterpipe - also know as the hookah or shisha - is now said to be used by up to 34% of Middle Eastern adolescents. Despite a perception that the risk of the waterpipe may be less than those of cigarettes, a recent report suggests that its "harmful effects are similar to those of cigarettes", and that the waterpipe may offer "a bridge" to cigarette smoking.(1) The greatest prevalence of use - with up to 34% reported - is currently among adolescents and women. A recent study from the Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE), the region's largest, found that 38% of patients registered were cigarette smokers and 4.4% waterpipe smokers.(2) The study, which included 6,701 consecutive acute coronary patients in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, found that the waterpipe smokers were older than the cigarette smokers and more likely to be female. However, despite the relatively low rate of waterpipe smoking among the patients in this registry study, other studies report more widespread use throughout the region, and especially among the younger age groups. A study from 2004 found that 22% of men in two villages of Egypt reported current or past use of waterpipes, and the habit is increasingly evident even among student communities in the USA, Canada and Germany. EurekAlert press@escardio.org Mid-east Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/plastic-surgeon-cautions-against-smoking-surgery-080445994.html http://tobacco.org/news/333328.html Concerned about studies that indicate a link between smoking and complications during and after breast augmentation, Boston, MA area plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Tantillo is urging women to kick their cigarette habits prior to surgical procedures. He's so concerned, in fact, that he's using Facebook to spread the word about the connection between smoking and surgical complications. "Despite so many studies showing the risks of smoking, it's still a widespread habit," Dr. Tantillo says. "Many people do not even know about the potential affect it can have on surgery. To help spread the word on the risks of smoking when it comes to surgical procedures, I decided to use my Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/MichaelTantilloMD?v=wall) to call attention to an ABC News report on the correlation between cigarettes and surgical complications. PR Web Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n4sl8 http://tobacco.org/news/333171.html At the European Society of Cardiology's meeting at the Saudi Heart Association's Annual Conference in Riyadh Professor Hani Najm suggested that water pipes are contributing to a time-bomb of heart disease in the Gulf States. BBC Online Saudi Arabia Mid-east Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=661228 http://tobacco.org/news/333130.html Women who are both overweight and smoke during pregnancy could damage their baby's developing heart, a new study warns. Researchers in the Netherlands looked at nearly 800 fetuses and babies with congenital heart defects, but no other birth defects, between 1997 and 2008. Congenital means present at birth. This group was compared with more than 300 fetuses and babies born with chromosomal abnormalities, but without any heart defects. The results showed that women who were both overweight (body mass index of 25 or more) and smoked during pregnancy were 2.5 times more likely to have a baby with a congenital heart defect than women who either smoked or were overweight during pregnancy. . . . The study was published online Jan. 31 in the journal Heart. HealthDay [HealthScout] Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2012/01/16/heartjnl-2011-300822.short?g=w_heart_ahead_tab http://tobacco.org/news/332923.html Conclusions Maternal overweight and smoking may have a synergistic adverse effect on the development of the fetal heart. Overweight women who wish to become pregnant should be strongly encouraged to stop smoking and to lose weight. Heart Netherlands Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gE_DwnGLgXxOheHAwF40F0iTcJng?docId=N0220111327935040767A http://tobacco.org/news/332922.html Unborn babies' hearts can be damaged if their mothers are overweight and smoke, a study has shown. Scientists studied data on 797 live and stillborn babies and aborted foetuses with congenital heart problems. They were compared with 322 babies and foetuses having chromosomal abnormalities but no heart defects. Birth abnormalities affecting the heart were much more common among children, and foetuses, whose mothers both smoked and were overweight. Women with both risk factors were more than twice as likely to give birth to a baby with a congenital heart defect as those with just one. The Press Association Ethiopia Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/290084/20120131/pregnant-women-obese-smoke-congenital-heart-defect.htm http://tobacco.org/news/332921.html Pregnant women who are both overweight and smoke are putting their babies' hearts at risk, according to a study published online in the journal Heart. Researchers from the University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands, studied the impact smoking by obese pregnant mothers has on the heart of the unborn baby. They found that the risk for congenital heart defects in babies increased with around eight in every 1,000 babies affected when their obese moms smoked during pregnancy. IBTimes Netherlands Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jlbB9iAbDyD-FRncYWx_MT-iWp4A?docId=CNG.99d02254ab012d035a0b1bd24af05e21.b1 http://tobacco.org/news/332725.html A person's lifetime risk of getting heart disease may be much higher than previously thought, according to a major US study published on Wednesday. A single risk factor -- such as smoking, having diabetes, high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol -- can significantly boost one's likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke at some point in life. However, most studies to date have focused on how such risks play out over the short term, such as five to 10 years, giving an unrealistic picture of the longer term, said the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. "The risk factors we develop in younger and middle ages are going to determine our heart disease risk across our lifetime," said lead author Jarett Berry, assistant professor of internal medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "The current approach to heart disease prevention focuses on only short-term risks, which can give a false sense of security, particularly to individuals in their 40s and 50s." The study drew data from 254,000 participants in the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project, which measured risk factors for black and white men and women at ages 45, 55, 65 and 75. Agence France Presse Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/archinternmed.2011.1326 http://tobacco.org/news/332711.html Background Screening of peripheral atherosclerosis is increasingly used, but few trials have examined its clinical impact. We aimed to assess whether carotid plaque screening helps smokers to improve their health behaviors and cardiovascular risk factors. . . . Conclusion In smokers, carotid plaque screening performed in addition to thorough smoking cessation counseling is not associated with increased rates of smoking cessation or control of cardiovascular risk factors. Archives of Internal Medicine Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1012848 http://tobacco.org/news/332707.html BACKGROUND The lifetime risks of cardiovascular disease have not been reported across the age spectrum in black adults and white adults. METHODS We conducted a meta-analysis at the individual level using data from 18 cohort studies involving a total of 257,384 black men and women and white men and women whose risk factors for cardiovascular disease were measured at the ages of 45, 55, 65, and 75 years. . . . CONCLUSIONS Differences in risk-factor burden translate into marked differences in the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, and these differences are consistent across race and birth cohorts. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.) New England Journal of Medicine Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-heart-disease-risk-factors-20120125,0,2565091.story http://tobacco.org/news/332706.html They're called "risk factors" for a reason - people with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and/or a smoking habit are much more likely to have heart attacks, strokes and other manifestations of cardiovascular disease, including death. A new study coming out in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed health data on more than 250,000 adults to confirm that those who had any of these risk factors were in greater peril than those who didn't. The more risk factors a person had - and the more severe they were - the greater the lifetime risk of a "cardiovascular event." This trend held for both men and women, and for both whites and blacks. The raw data in the new study came from 18 so-called cohort studies - including the Framingham Heart Study, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Artherosclerorisis - that examined people at least once when they were around the ages of 45, 55, 65 and 75. Los Angeles Times Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT