Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Inflammation”
You may have heard about inflammation from your doctor or read about it on the Internet. There are 2 kinds: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is part of the normal healing process. It causes the redness, warmth, swelling, and pain you feel when you cut yourself or get a splinter. But when inflammation sticks around for a while, it can …
If you have high blood pressure, you may be familiar with the DASH diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This plant-based eating pattern was designed to bring down harmful blood pressure levels and it is very effective. Research has shown that the DASH diet greatly lowers blood pressure, compared to the typical American diet, even when the …
Eat to Protect Your Heart from Inflammation and Reduce Stroke Risk You may know that certain foods can raise cholesterol levels and blood pressure and add inches to your waistline. All of these effects can harm your heart. But foods can have another important effect. They can also trigger or reduce the inflammation in your body, which has a huge …
Doctors have known for a long time that getting too little sleep and disrupted sleep are bad for the heart. But they are still figuring out why. A new study in the journal, PLOS, has some hints. Researchers looked at the sleep patterns of more than 1600 people after spending the night in a sleep lab and having other sleep …
Advice for having a healthy heart—exercise, stop smoking, lose weight—may sound difficult. But there are a few simpler ways to boost your heart health, too. Several recent heart studies highlight new steps to take to reduce your risk for heart attacks and strokes. Here are a few that can set you on your way toward a healthy heart! Filter your …
Saying thanks to a friend or family member is sure to make their day. But this act of gratitude has benefits for you, too—including a boost in your heart health. Research from the University of California in San Diego is part of the evidence. Scientists there studied a group of 185 people with a condition called asymptomatic heart failure. People …
Stay Connected—and Keep Your Heart Healthy Too! Being alone a lot may not just make you lonely or sad. It might also put you at a greater risk for heart problems. This could have serious consequences as more people stay at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus across the country. Previous studies showed that people who were socially isolated …
You probably know a few ways to prevent problems like strokes and heart attacks. These include things like eating a heart-friendly diet, walking or being physically active regularly, and not smoking. Now there’s a surprising new way to avoid heart attacks and strokes—the shingles vaccine. Shingles results from the same virus (herpes zoster) that gave you chicken pox as a …
A healthy diet is the first step toward a healthier heart. Eating lots of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, healthy fats like olive oil, and lean protein like fish and chicken, can’t be beat for preventing heart attacks and strokes. But how you prepare these foods also makes a big difference. A variety of herbs have been shown to give …
Heart-healthy diets include plenty of vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, and whole-grain bread and pasta. One thing these foods have in common is fiber. Fiber is good for your body in many ways and especially good for your heart. The results of a large review study just released by the World Health Organization (WHO) are …
The rich foods and sweet treats of the holidays can make it hard to keep a heart-healthy diet. But one small change in your eating habits could help: eating the day’s larger meals in the middle of the day. You probably know that what you eat and how much you eat is very important to your heart and your health. …
Exercise. Eat healthy. Stay slim. Lower your stress. This “to-do” list is great for a healthy heart, but it may not sound like fun. Thank goodness, there’s chocolate! Hundreds of studies have found that chocolate—specifically, dark chocolate— keeps the heart and blood vessels in good shape. Here are some of the ways this delicious treat helps the heart: It may …
It can take years for hidden inflammation to harm your health, raising your risk for heart attacks and stroke. Fortunately this damage can be reversed. Over time, a poor diet (too much sugar, for example), lack of exercise, a smoking habit, and other personal lifestyle choices may lead to low levels of long-term, continuing inflammation. This type of inflammation can …
When it comes to your heart’s health, the foods you eat can hurt or they can help with healing. It all depends on how they affect inflammation. Inflammation, even at low levels, which continues for a long time, has been shown to lead to heart disease, diabetes, and other common health conditions. The latest proof comes from a new study, …
Inflammation is not always a bad thing. When you cut yourself or have a splinter or get an infection, your body fights off any harmful invader with inflammation. So, short term inflammation is part of the normal healing process. But if there is a long-term continuing presence of inflammation, it often can cause a problem that worsens the effects of …
The 3 million Americans with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease often have severe diarrhea and stomach pain, lose weight, and feel tired. They may sometimes develop blockages in their bowels or have trouble digesting food, which can put their very lives at risk. On top of all that, new research presented recently at the American College …
What the President’s Physical Exam Results Can Teach Us About Heart Health While cardiologists have debated the finer points of the President of the United State’s recent health report, his yearly check-up is raising awareness of heart disease risk indicators that can help gauge risk over time. Among the more common risk factors, the President’s body mass index (BMI), 29.9, …
As if the chronic pain and mobility challenges of rheumatoid arthritis weren’t burdensome enough, it’s becoming clearer that people with the disease face another serious health threat—a greater risk for heart disease. Some 1.5 million Americans, a majority of them women, have this form of arthritis, an autoimmune disease that happens when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, …
About 90 percent of strokes each year in the U.S. occur in people age 50 and older. Yet alarming new research shows that significantly more young adults are experiencing stroke, even as rates among older people may be improving. The new data, from the Centers for Disease Control, found a significant increase in hospitalizations due to stroke among men and …
You know that lifestyle choices can help your heart’s health. And the evidence just keeps getting stronger. Consider exercise. Physical activity not only improves weight, lowers cholesterol, and enhances the functioning of your heart, but, a new study shows, it also calms inflammation, a major culprit behind cardiovascular disease and its deadly consequences. Inflammation is a key part of the …
For the 8 million Americans who suffer from gout, sudden and severe attacks of pain in the joints aren’t the only things to worry about. A new study in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases shows that the majority of people presenting with this common form of arthritis are at a very high risk for cardiovascular disease and prevention tactics should …
Healthy Teeth and Gums—More Important Than Ever for Your Heart Gum disease, when bacteria-laden plaque accumulates around the teeth, has long been linked to poorer health—particularly heart health. Inflammation is believed to be behind the connection. Now it looks as though another common dental infection may be just as harmful. Called apical periodontitis, the condition results in inflammatory lesions that …
Fall is the time for colorful foliage, cooler temperatures—and the beginning of cold and flu season. No mere nuisance, flu costs the U.S. more than $10 billion and takes about 3,600 lives each year. Vaccination is a powerful weapon against the seasonal illness, which poses particular health risks to the very young and the elderly. But flu shots also have …
Fruits and vegetables, the stars of a healthy plant-based diet, have long been recognized as powerful weapons against inflammation, which underlies cardiovascular disease as well as cancer and many other chronic inflammatory conditions. Scientists credit bioactive compounds present in these plant foods, such as carotenoids and flavonoids, for the inflammation-quelling properties. With the summer’s bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables, …
Migraine headaches affect as many as 18 percent of American women and 6 percent of American men, triggering a cluster of neurological symptoms, including severe pain, visual disturbances, nausea and vomiting, tingling and numbness, and sensitivity to light, sound, and smell. If that weren’t enough, it’s beginning to appear that this common condition may also be a harbinger of future …
Silent and Deadly: The Growing Danger of Symptomless Heart Attacks A heart attack can be a vital wake-up call for people with cardiovascular disease—a chance to embrace radical changes to improve heart health, and if medical help is sought quickly, even avoid heart damage. But what if the heart attack goes undetected because there are no symptoms? According to alarming …
Running on empty. Burning the candle at both ends. Pulling an all-nighter. Sleep loss is so endemic to American society that we have a whole vocabulary for it. Despite a couple of decades of research revealing the health dangers of cheating on sleep, the culture seems to expect effort and achievement at any cost, including widespread sleep deprivation. In …
The Stroke Threat You’ve Never Heard Of Regardless of their personal habits, most Americans know that diet, exercise, sleep, and other lifestyle measures can affect their risk of developing heart disease and experiencing a life-changing stroke. But another, less obvious factor appears to play a role in these common heart problems: Sheer loneliness. The link was confirmed in a recent …
Women with endometriosis—the growth of uterine tissue outside the uterus—tend to focus their concerns on health problems such as debilitating pelvic pain and infertility. But new research suggests that women with the condition may also face another more deadly health threat: heart disease. Endometriosis, which strikes women of reproductive age, particularly in the later childbearing years, is characterized by the …
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), or heart disease, is the number one killer of women in the United States, causing one in four deaths. The majority of women who die suddenly from CVD, 64 percent, never knew they had it because they had no symptoms. As we recently reported, many women aren’t aware of their risk of CVD, even if they do …
Only about one in ten women can correctly identify female-specific risks for stroke, according to a national survey released by Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center. That’s concerning, given that stroke is the third leading cause of death in American women and the top cause of long-term disability, reports the National Stroke Foundation. “What women don’t know about stroke …
Used as a natural “medicine” for thousands of years, certain herbs and spices really do have amazing health benefits, including fighting chronic inflammation, which has been linked to a wide range of conditions, from heart disease to diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and even cancer, according to new studies. Here’s a look at four delicious seasonings that rank as anti-inflammatory standouts. Curcumin: The …
More than one in three US adults have metabolic syndrome, a combination of at least three of five pre-disease-state factors, that doubles risk for heart disease and quintuples the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study reported that from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012, overall rates of metabolic syndrome …
Omega-3 fatty acids may help treat depression, new research suggests. Found in oily fish, walnuts, flaxseed and other foods, as well as supplements, omega-3 fatty acids fight inflammation, which has been implicated in a wide range of disorders from cardiovascular disease to type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, as we recently reported. Now researchers are examining the link between inflammation …
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and cancer have shared risk factors, including systemic inflammation, University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator Tim Byers, MD, MPH reported at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2015. For example, says Dr. Byers, “Obesity leads to a chronic inflammatory state and circulating growth factors that have adverse effects on the heart, and can also …
It sounds too good to be true, but a variety of tasty treats – including nuts, berries, and even dark chocolate – help protect against cardiovascular disease, according to new research. Here is a look at some of the latest discoveries about which foods are the most beneficial. Peanuts may help prevent heart disease. Eating peanuts may protect against fatal cardiovascular …
Omega-3 Fish Oil Supplements Omega-3 fish-oil supplements may have heart-protective benefits and reduce the “overall atherothombotic risk profile” of patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD), new research presented at the American College of Cardiology 2015 Scientific Sessions suggests. The study, which included 600 subjects with suspected CAD, found that those who took fish-oil supplements had significantly lower levels of …
The cardiovascular “risk calculators” medical providers commonly use to assess patients’ likelihood of suffering a heart attack or stroke may greatly overestimate the danger in some patients and underestimate it in others, according to a new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Both scenarios pose potential perils for patients, since clinicians often use data from risk calculators to help …
Embracing positive emotions–from optimism and gratitude to love, laughter and other joyful experiences–has been shown to dramatically reduce heart attack and stroke risk, and could even add years to your life, new research suggests. In fact, the most optimistic people are twice as likely to have ideal cardiovascular health, compared to those who are pessimistic, according to a study of …
Getting enough vitamin D could add years to your life, since people with the lowest levels of the sunshine vitamin may have a 57 percent higher risk of early death from both cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all causes combined, compared to those with the highest levels, according to a meta-analysis published in British Medical Journal. Despite these potential dangers, up …
Cholesterol is the most demonized, misunderstood and controversial substance in both our bodies and our diets. New and recent cholesterol guidelines, in particular, have sparked headlines and hot medical debate about its role in heart disease. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) ignited fresh controversy this month by suggesting that cholesterol-rich foods–such as eggs, shellfish and liver–may not be a …
Americans spend more than $1 billion a year on fish oil supplements to support heart health, fight inflammation, prevent diseases, and boost mental functioning. But how significant are cardiovascular benefits? Both supplements and fatty fish (such as salmon, tuna, herring, lake trout and sardines) are rich in two essential omega-3 fatty acids: docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Some …
