The Health Blog

Eliminate risk factors. Know your risk, which one can be changed and which are not.

Risk factors that you can change include some diseases. If you can control the disease, you may lower your risk for stroke. Controllable risk factors include:

• High blood pressure (hypertension). High blood pressure is the second most important stroke risk factor after age.
• Diabetes. Having diabetes doubles your risk for stroke because of the circulation problems associated with the disease. 2
• High cholesterol. High cholesterol can lead to coronary artery disease and heart attack, which can damage the heart muscle and increase your risk for stroke.
• Other heart conditions, such as atrial fibrillation, endocarditis, heart valve conditions, or cardiomyopathy.
• Smoking. Daily cigarette smoking can increase the risk of stroke 2½ times.
• Lack of physical activity.

Some risk factors, however, can’t be changed. Risk factors that you cannot change include:

• Age. The risk for stroke increases with age. Most strokes occur in people older than 65.
• Race. African Americans and Hispanics have a higher risk than people of other races.
• Gender. Stroke is more common in men than women. However, at older ages, more women than men have strokes. At all ages, more women than men die of stroke.
• Family history. The risk for stroke is greater if a parent, brother, or sister has had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA).
  Prior history of stroke or TIA. About 14% of people who have a stroke have another stroke within 1 year.

Do you prefer fast foods? Well, you have to refrain eating more now. A new study finds out that the typical Western diet increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Indulging in a typical Western diet of burgers, fries, and diet soda boosts your risk of getting heart disease and diabetes, a study shows.

This study found out that just two burger patties a day and one daily diet soda substantially boost the risk of getting metabolic syndrome, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Their findings:
1. The Western diet increased risk by about 18% overall of getting metabolic syndrome over nine years

2. Those who ate two or more servings of meat a day, or about two burger patties, boosted their risk by 26% compared with those who only ate meat twice a week.

3. Diet soda, one can a day, increased risk by 34%.

The American Heart Association has issued eight new recommendations to help reduce congenital heart defects in babies.

The recommendations include actions women can take before becoming pregnant.

The recommendations, printed in the journal Circulation, are as follows:

• Take a multivitamin that contains folic acid.
• Get preconception and prenatal medical care.
• Get screened for diabetes. If you have diabetes, manage it carefully during pregnancy.
• Get vaccinated against rubella and influenza (flu).

If you have an inherited disease called PKU (phenylketonuria), which affects your diet, talk to your doctor about proper nutrition during pregnancy.

Listening to tunes on an iPod may be great for putting a skip in your step, but it can also play havoc with a heart pacemaker, a new study found.

A study by a Michigan high school senior along with several doctors found out that the portable music players caused pacemakers to malfunction in 50 percent of patients.

The biggest concern is that pacemakers store the history of a heart’s rhythms, said Jay Thaker, the Okemos High School student, who worked with several doctors on the research. “If a physician was to go back and look at that (history), the physician might think that the patient was having abnormal heart rhythms,” he added.

This effect may pose danger to heart patients which might be treated for conditions that aren’t really present. Further, if an iPod stopped a pacemaker from working in a patient who was totally dependent on their pacemaker, it could cause the heart to stop.