Lower Heart Disease Risk While at Work
Being active while you work can reduce your risk for heart disease just as much as exercising in your leisure time.
A Finnish study of 60,000 men and women reports reduced heart failure risks when physical activity levels increased at work.
A New Weight Loss Drug
An FDA panel consisting of 20 experts voted 13 to 7 in favor of approving the weight loss drug Contrave, with an abstention that additional studies be conducted related to heart risks. Safety concerns were considered, but it was determined that the pros of the medication outweighed the cons. Two weight loss drugs were rejected by the FDA panel just this past October due to safety concerns.
What is Contrave?
The weight loss drug Contrave is a combination of the antidepressant buproprion and the anti-addiction drug naltrexone. Some of the side effects reported by the FDA include high blood pressure, dizziness, and insomnia.
Is alcohol damaging your heart?
Occasionally splurging on alcohol once or twice a week is no big deal, right? New research published in the British Medical Journal this past November 2010 would argue otherwise. Researchers found heavy drinking or binge drinking a couple days a week worse for the heart than drinking a moderate amount of alcohol throughout the week.
The 10 year study analyzed the Prospective Epidemiological Study of Myocardial Infarction (PRIME) for 9778 men (2405 men from Belfast, Northern Ireland and 7373 men from France) between the ages of 50-59 years-old.
The participating men were divided into four groups – non-drinkers, former drinkers, regular drinkers, and binge drinkers. Binge drinking was defined as excessive alcohol consumption equivalent to 4 or 5 drinks in a short period of time, such as a weekend day.
Risk Factors . . .
Lower High Blood Pressure – 5 Surprising Sodium Sources
As you work to lower high blood pressure, it’s important to limit the sodium in your diet. Current recommendations are to limit your sodium intake to 2300 mg per day or less. The new 2010 Dietary Guidelines will be released this year and it looks like sodium recommendations are going to be reduced even further to 1500 mg per day for all Americans (not just those with high blood pressure!).
Many studies repeatedly find significant decreases in systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure with a reduction in sodium intake.
Surprising sodium sources
Lower Blood Pressue by Combing Aerobic AND Resistance Training
A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research evaluated the impact of resistance training versus aerobic training on arterial blood flow.
Research to date has shown a significantly lower arterial distensibility (AD) after resistance training, but a higher AD after aerobic exercise. Arterial distensibility (AD) is a measure of blood vessel elasticity. For heart health it’s important that blood vessels are able to expand and contract to maintain a consistent healthy blood pressure.
The Study
Are you abdominally obese?
A study conducted by the American Cancer Society examined the link between waist circumference and mortality in 48,500 men and 56,343 women. All participants were age 50 or older. Over a 14 year period, 9,315 men and 5,332 women died.
The study found that large waist circumferences were linked to about twice the risk of death during the study period. A large waist circumference was defined as 47 inches or greater in men and 42 inches or greater in women.
A large waist circumference was linked to increased risk even in individuals with a normal body weight.
What is a healthy waist circumference?
