That's Fit

A recent study published in Circulation: Heart Failure reveals that, for heart failure patients, the day that they're admitted to the hospital may dictate the length of their stay.

The researchers reviewed data for more than 48,000 heart failure patients admitted to 259 different US hospitals. Those admitted on Tuesdays had the shortest stays, while patients admitted on Thursdays and Fridays had the longest stays. This finding didn't hold true for heart attack patients.

Researchers theorize that the discrepancy in length of stay could be do to reduced staffing over the weekend. Though many hospitals are already eschewing the old trend of running on a tighter staff over the weekend. If short staffing is to blame for the increased lengths of stay, correcting the staffing issue could potentially save hundreds of thousands for a hospital.

How often do you eat curry? Chances are, you might not be getting enough. In addition to being delicious, curry has been shown to have dozens of health benefits, including the most recent revelation that it can lower your risk of heart failure and heart attacks, according to research out of Canada. The not-so-secret heart-healthy ingredient is the spice Tumeric, which gives curry at least part of its distinctive flavour. In addition, it's also been shown to ward off panreatic and colon cancers.

So for dinner tonight, how about some curry?

In a study that involved over 3,000 people aged 65 or older, researchers found that having subclinical hypothyroidism may double a person's risk of congestive heart failure.

Although past studies have shown a link between hyperthyroidism and clinically detectable hyperthyroidism can lead to heart trouble, this new study is the first to make the connection for subclinical hypothyroidism. This particular kind of the disease is detectable only with a blood test, and does not show any outward signs or symptoms.

The results of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the American Thyroid Association.

Though heart disease began to steadily decline in the 1960s, a recent study suggests that that decline is about to take a sudden turn...upward. Researchers studied autopsy records of young people who had died of unnatural causes. About 8% of them had significant heart disease at the time of their death, and 83% had the beginnings of coronary artery disease. Health experts say that this finding is significant, and call it the result of the "perfect storm" of a blossoming fast food industry and a decline in physical activity.

As a young person myself, these findings make me more than a little nervous. Heart disease is already the number one killer in America. It's definitely time that we address the issues surrounding diet and exercise so that we can reverse those numbers back downward again.

Infusion therapy includes glucose, insulin and potassium -- a triumvirate thought to help patients after a heart attack occurs. Not so fast, as a new study out this week says this this kind of therapy actually increases the immediate risk of heart failure and death. However, just in some patients (not a mass problem).

The therapy, known as GIK in medical circles, has shown varied results in earlier studies. One such study showed no increased risk of death a month after a heart attack occurs, so this new study seems to refute that conclusion completely.

But, only in patients with an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction due to the specific type of electrical pattern disruption that occurs with this kind of attack. The study says that there is a lingering risk of death three days after an initial heart attack if a STEMI (as it is known) occurs compared to another kind of heart attack.

Yoga is good for so many things -- you body, your mind and your soul. So to us yogis, it never comes as a surprise when it's found to be good for specific ailments, including this one -- recent studies have found that yoga improves the health of heart failure patients. Yoga not only reduced heart inflammation, but it improved the quality of life in patients, and those who did yoga saw a 26% decrease in symptoms compared to those who didn't.

In lieu of these studies, it would be nice to see yoga become a part of rehabilitation process for cardiac patients, don't you think?

Meditation helps a lot of things because it reduces stress, but now there specific data about how it helps heart patients. A small pilot study was done on 23 African American patients hospitalized with congestive heart failure. Half of the patients were instructed on Transcendental Meditation and told to continue it for 6 months, while the other half was simply educated on their diagnosis and sent home without being asked to meditate regularly. After 6 months the people that meditated not only showed lower levels of depression but also performed better than their non-meditating counterparts on the six-minute walking test that measures functional capacity.

Obviously, this was a small non-diverse study that will need to be repeated on a larger scale and get the same results before the data is considered reliable.

Would you believe that the onset of heart failure in many adults is brought on by a fetal heart-cell enzyme? That's the conclusion from U.S. researchers that believe most heart failure in adults is due to a carryover from pre-infant biology.

The enzyme, according the the research, is associated with a condition called cardiac hypertrophy, and that condition is a precursor to many forms of congestive heart failure. With heart disease being leading cause of death here in the U.S. , this research is sure to get quite a bit of attention as a result.

The heart expresses genes that are generally only expressed in fetal development when heart failure begins, and scientists have not know why this happens to this point. The discovery of this enzyme's effects here may be of huge importance soon (my guess).

With U.S. waistlines expanding and with an aging population, heart disease has become one of the major health headlines of our day. Heart failure -- when a heart can not pump correctly -- affects 5 million people nationwide, and a 1/2 million more new cases will be diagnosed this year. The leading causes of heart failure include heart attack, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

A healthy lifestyle can prevent heart disease. This article outlines six simple steps to good heart health -- including losing weight, dropping the cigarette habit, and limiting alcohol, as well as exercising and having basic blood work done by your doctor.

This article is interesting for its health advice, but also has a stunning list of statistics. Over 100 million people have high cholesterol, 47 million still smoke, and a whopping 73% don't exercise....it's an eye-opener for sure.