Tag: Heart Attack

  • Nation & World

    U.S. heart attack death rate among highest

    Across the six high-income countries reviewed, the U.S. heart attack death rate was among the highest, even with adherence to recommended treatments and faring well on other measures.

    6 minutes
    Man in hospital.
  • Nation & World

    New genetic insights on common cause of heart attack in younger women

    Disruptive variants in genes involved in the production of collagen are implicated in spontaneous coronary artery dissection, a major cause of heart attacks in women under 50.

    3 minutes
    3d illustration of female internal anatomy on black gradient background.
  • Nation & World

    Stroke, heart-attack cases plummet during pandemic

    A Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study showed dramatic drops in hospital visits for heart attacks and stroke, which likely led to uncounted deaths at home during the COVID crisis. Perhaps more troubling is the potential for long-term damage to decades’ work to catch conditions in their earliest, most treatable stages.

    10 minutes
    Emergency Sign.
  • Nation & World

    Sleep, heart disease link leads from brain to marrow

    New research from Massachusetts General Hospital traces a previously unknown pathway from poor sleep to an increase in the fatty plaques that line blood vessels in atherosclerosis, a key feature of cardiovascular disease.

    4 minutes
    Cameron McAlpine and Filip Swirski.
  • Nation & World

    Spending dips on health care for the Medicare elderly

    Health care spending among the Medicare population age 65 and older has slowed dramatically since 2005, and as much as half of that reduction can be attributed to reduced spending on cardiovascular disease, a new Harvard study has found.

    5 minutes
    David Cutler
  • Nation & World

    Exercise may help make heart younger

    In a new study performed in mice, Harvard researchers found that exercise stimulates the heart to make new muscle cells, both under normal conditions and after a heart attack.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    What’s another hour of lost sleep? For some, a hazard

    An interview with Jeanne Duffy, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a sleep researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, on links between sleep and health.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When disease strikes, gender matters

    Experts in Harvard Chan School discussion call for more sensitivity to differences between men and women in study and treatment of disease.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The grateful life may be a longer one

    Psychiatrist Jeff Huff is leading an MGH effort to determine whether positive thinking can promote better health.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Cocoa for pleasure — and health?

    A study by Harvard Medical School faculty members at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is exploring the health benefits of cocoa in a massive, 18,000-person study that may provide answers hinted at in smaller studies.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘DNA is not destiny’

    A new study examines whether lifestyle changes can offset genetic risk of heart disease.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Alcohol and heart risk, by the minute

    A study by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health shows that moderate alcohol consumption can produce a temporary increase in heart attack and stroke risk.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A shot against heart attacks?

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists collaborating with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a “genome-editing” approach for permanently reducing cholesterol levels in mice through a single injection, a development with the potential to reduce the risk of heart attacks in humans by 40 to 90 percent.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Weighing the benefits

    A report by Harvard researchers has concluded that the benefits of stopping smoking far exceed the risks from any associated weight gain.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Heart attack worsens atherosclerosis

    Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital have found that the body’s immune response to heart attacks actually worsens atherosclerosis, increasing future heart attack risk, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Protecting the heart with optimism

    Work by HSPH researchers suggests a connection between psychological well-being and a reduced risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular events.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Impact of cutting co-pay on meds

    Researchers from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital evaluated whether eliminating co-payments for specific medications following a heart attack would increase adherence and improve outcomes in patients.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Helping the heart help itself

    Stem cells being transfused into post-heart attack patients may not be developing into new heart muscle, but they still appear to be beneficial. Some stem cells in the bone marrow, called c-kit+ cells, appear capable of stimulating adult stem cells already present in the heart to repair damaged tissue.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Checking in, saving lives

    Harvard researchers have estimated the likely cost-effectiveness of post-discharge follow-up phone calls to smokers hospitalized with acute heart attacks. In a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers suggest that phone calls to these discharged smokers encouraging them to quit would yield significant health and economic gains.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Mixed messages

    A comparative analysis found wide disparities in the results of four common measures of hospital-wide mortality rates, with competing methods yielding both higher- and lower-than-expected rates for the same Massachusetts hospitals during the same year.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Help from Shore

    Yasuko Nagasaka is among 81 recipients awarded a Shore Fellowship. Such grants can be used for “mini-sabbaticals” by junior faculty who do not yet have independent funding.

    8 minutes