Heart Disease Can Be Caused By Childhood Hardship!

While a number of risk factors including diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), overweight, smoking and high alcohol intake can lead to heart disease, childhood hardship can well be one of them.

Researchers from New Zealand's University of Otago revealed in the paper they published in August 2011 in ‘Archives of General Psychiatry’ that children who are abused, lose a parent or suffer other hardships might be at a higher risk of getting heart disease later in their life.

Among more than 18,000 adults in 10 countries, the researchers found that those who said they had faced childhood adversities such as abuse, death of a parent, or a parent’s alcohol or drug abuse had a higher chance of getting heart disease, arthritis, asthma, diabetes and other conditions. Similar pattern was seen among people who said they had suffered from depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions before the age of 21.

Though the findings did not prove that serious stresses in childhood would directly cause poor physical health later on, there were a few reasons behind the link between the two.

According to researchers, early adverse experiences could affect people’s behavior and lifestyle. Some people might just adopt smoking, drinking or over-eating as a way of dealing with the stresses. Likewise, young people with depression or other mental disorders might use smoking or drinking as a way to self-medicate. It is possible that severe childhood stress might have more direct biological effects.

Meanwhile, participants reported at least 3 childhood adversities had a higher risk of all 6 physical health problems that were assessed in the study. They had twice the risk of heart disease, compared with men and women with no adversities.

Similar results were seen among adults who said they had mental health conditions, especially depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or panic disorders, before the age of 21. Their risks of heart disease, asthma, arthritis and chronic back pain or headaches were between 43 percent and 66 percent higher than risks in adults with no early mental health disorders. Current psychological status, however, did not appear to account for the link.

Be Happy for Heart Disease Prevention!

There are about 2.5 million people in Britain with heart disease, which is the single biggest killer, causing 94,000 deaths a year.

While “do not smoke, have a healthy diet and exercise regularly” are the 3 basic things that people could do to maintain a healthy heart and avoid heart attack, a paper published online on February 18, 2010 in the European Heart Journal indicated that happiness might help to keep a healthy heart!

Researchers from Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, America used a 5-point scale to measure happiness levels of more than 1,700 adults in Canada with no heart disease in 1995. After a decade, they examined the 145 people who developed heart disease and found that happier people were less likely to have had heart problem.

After statistically adjusting to account for other factors like age, gender and smoking, it was found that for every point on the happiness scale, people were 22 percent less likely to develop heart disease.

It has been known that depression and stress would significantly raise people’s risk of developing heart disease, but this study is believed to be the first to suggest happiness could lessen heart disease risk.

Happy people tend to be more likely to have a healthier lifestyle. This could be owing to an unknown genetic trait embedded in these people making them happy and have less heart disease.

According to researchers, even if one is not naturally a happy person, just try acting like one; it could really help the heart!

Ordinary people can ensure they engage with some activities that they like in their daily lives. For example, spending 15 minutes or so to read a book or incorporate activities like walking or listening to music in the daily schedule if these activities could improve one’s mood.

Nevertheless, as this study used an experimental design that is good for observation of trends and associations, it does not prove cause and effect nor confirm lowering risk of heart disease by changing one’s mood. Perhaps, more studies should be carried out to find out more from the cause and effect perspective.

Would Depression Raise Stroke Risk?

When the blood flow to the brain is blocked, stroke would occur. It is one of the leading causes of death and permanent disability globally. It usually happens to elderly people but it can strike anyone including young people, children and even babies too.

Being a state of feeling sad, depression can affect thoughts, feelings and ability to function in everyday’s life. A number of factors including stress, difficult life events, side effects of medications, and unpleasant environmental factors can trigger depression. Depression can occur at any age. It is estimated that almost 10 percent of American adults (aged 18 and above) experience some sort of depression every year.

There are not many debates on the argument that people who had strokes are likely to have depression, as previous studies had shown. But it appears that experts have yet to have consensus on whether depression would lead to stroke.

For example, researchers from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pointed out in the July/August 2000 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine that people experiencing symptoms of depression are at an increased risk of getting stroke. The 20-year study found that people with high levels of depression symptoms were 73 percent more likely to have stroke, while those with moderate levels of depression symptoms were 25 percent more likely to develop stroke.

On the other hand, a large study, published on March 3, 2008 in the journal Neurology, reported that depression does not appear to increase the risk of stroke, and it is the high degree of psychological distress seemed to raise the risk.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge studied more than 20,000 people aged between 41 and 80 over a period of 8 and half years to discover if there is a link between depression and stroke.

600 people in the study suffered a stroke, 28 percent of which were fatal. But the researchers could not find any significant link between depression and stroke, after they factored for known risk factors like family history, high blood pressure, obesity and smoking. Instead, they identified psychological distress as the culprit. The most distressed people had a 40 percent higher chance of getting a stroke. The findings were similar for both men and women.

Distress occurs when an individual could not cope with stress. It can be marked by anxiety and problems with emotional control.

Couples Sleeping Apart To Prevent Heart Disease and Other Disorders?

Sleep plays an important role in our health. If one could not have a good night sleep, many health hazards might just occur. Evidences have already shown that poor sleep was linked to depression, heart disease, lung disorder, traffic and industrial accidents, as well as divorce. Nevertheless, people do not seem to pay much attention to the quality of their sleep.

Of course, poor sleep can be due to many causes. For instance, family or work pressure, frequent passing of urine during the night, snoring from the partner sharing the same bed, and so on and so forth.

An interesting finding, revealed on September 10, 2009 at the British Science Festival, indicated that couples actually sleep better when they sleep separately. This seems to be opposite to what people generally feel: they tend to sleep better when a partner accompanies them.

In order to compare how well couples slept when they shared a bed versus slept separately, the researchers from the University of Surrey studied the sleep patterns of 40 couples. They found that when couples slept together in the same bed and if one of them moved in his or her sleep, there was a 50 percent chance that their partners on the same bed would badly be disturbed.

They also revealed that even with the evidence they gathered, couples are reluctant to sleep apart. There is only 8 percent of those couples who are in their 40s and 50s are sleeping in separate rooms. Perhaps, the thinking that couples do not sleep in the same bed only when they have problem in their relationship still firmly instilled in the mind of most people.

One sleep specialist, who sleeps separately with his wife, argues that people were never meant to share their beds.

Why?

According to his explanation, the concept of modern martial bed only started with the industrial revolution. This is because people were moving to overcrowded towns and cities where living space was scarce. He further pointed out that married couples sleeping apart were rather common before the Victoria era.

So what should the couples sharing the same bed do now?

The advice from the experts is that if couples sleeping together can sleep perfectly well, then they should stick to it, otherwise they should not be afraid to do something different.

Can Sleep Adequately Prevent Heart Disease?

Previous studies have pointed out that getting too little sleep would yield negative health consequences. For instance, little sleep has been shown to raise the risk of depression, obesity and high blood pressure for children. Inadequate sleep, on the other hand, will increase the risk of fall for older adults while raise the chance of getting cancer, heart disease, infections and stroke for people in their middle ages.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults typically require between 7 and 9 hours of nightly sleep.

United States researchers from the University at Buffalo in New York said on March 11, 2009 that people who sleep less than 6 hours at night are prone to abnormal blood sugar levels, thus raising their chance of getting diabetes. In fact, people taking part in the study with fewer than 6 hours of sleep were 4.5 times more likely to develop abnormal blood sugar readings in 6 years compared with those who slept longer. The findings were presented at the Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in Palm Harbor, Florida.

Type-2 diabetes is driven by rising rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. It frequently strikes a person when the body makes too much insulin and does not effectively use it. Such condition is also known as insulin resistance.

In order to see if lack of sleep can raise the risk for Type-2 diabetes, the researchers used the data obtained from a large 6-year study. 91 people whose blood sugar rose during the study period were identified and their data were compared to 273 people whose glucose levels remained in the normal range.

During the study period, those who slept less were more likely than those who slept 6 to 8 hours to develop impaired fasting glucose, which is a condition that can lead to Type-2 diabetes. Even after adjusting for age, family history of diabetes, heart rate, high blood pressure and symptoms of depression, the differences remained.

Based on the findings of the current study, the researchers hope that more research will be carried out into this very complex area of sleep and illness.

Depression Will Lead to Heart Disease For Women!

Diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol and smoking have long been regarded as culprits that cause heart disease. Depression, which is common for patients after heart attack or stroke, and would probably worsen these patients’ outcomes, could simply break a healthy woman's heart silently.

A study by researchers from Columbia University reported that new evidence has been gathered to show depression can certainly lead to heart disease for women. The findings of the 12-year study were published on March 9, 2009 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In the study, 63,000 women from the long-running Nurses' Health Study were tracked between 1992 and 2004. When the study began, there was no sign of heart disease among all participants except nearly 8 percent of them had evidence of serious depression.

Those women with depression were more than twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac death, which is caused by an irregular heartbeat. Furthermore, they had a smaller increased risk of death from other form of heart disease.

The researchers were also surprised to note that sudden cardiac death seemed more closely related to the antidepressant use than with the depression symptoms the women had. This might imply that women who were prescribed with antidepressants were the most seriously depressed, though such finding would still require more research to confirm.

In fact, the newer antidepressants frequently used now had not been reported to cause a risk of irregular heartbeat. To the contrary, some research has even suggested having some sort of protection. Nevertheless, the researchers argue that the current finding does add to the growing evidence that depression could be an independent risk factor for heart disease.

To achieve heart disease prevention for depressed women, it is suggested that further study should be carried out to test whether appropriate treatment would lower the risk of getting heart disease for those depressed women.

Depression Could Be Bad for Heart Attack Patients!

As defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, depression is a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.

It is unavoidable that people would occasionally suffer certain degree of depression no matter how optimistic they are. Nevertheless, persistent depression could be bad for the body even for healthy persons, not to mention those already have heart disease.

In fact, Canadian researchers from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec found that persistent depression would mean worse physical health a year after heart attack or acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

In an attempt to investigate whether symptoms of depression during and after hospitalization for ACS would affect the health status, they studied 425 patients using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).

BDI, which was created by Dr. Aaron T. Beck in 1961, was revised in 1978 as the BDI-1A, and subsequently published in 1996 as BDI-II. Being a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory, it is regarded as one of the most widely used instruments for measuring the severity of depression.

Based on a Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) score of 10 or higher, 123 patients (28.9 percent) had at least mild symptoms of depression during their stay in the hospital and 102 patients (24 percent) had at least mild symptoms of depression a year later.

For patients with signs of depression in the hospital, significantly poorer physical health status 12 months after ACS had been predicted, as compared with patients who had a Beck Depression Inventory score below 10.

Persistent symptoms of depression significantly predicted worse physical health at 12 months after ACS compared with physical health before ACS. However, new depressive symptoms showed only a non-significant trend to predict worse physical health.

Meanwhile, the study also showed that patients with fleeting symptoms of depression did not have a higher risk of poor physical health outcomes 12 months after ACS.

Based on their findings, researchers urge doctors to assess symptoms of depression, not only at the time of the acute ACS hospitalization, but also during the subsequent follow-up visits.

Neuroticism Might Lead to Heart Disease!

Neuroticism can be defined as an enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states. A neurotic person tends to experience negative feeling such as anger, anxiety, depression and guilt. People who are neurotic are worrisome and might have emotional vicissitudes. They simply could not respond to environmental stress appropriately and more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult.

In comparison, extroversion is the act, state, or habit of being predominantly concerned with and obtaining gratification from what is outside the self. Extroversive people are friendly and outgoing. They not only enjoy human interactions but also are enthusiastic, talkative, assertive and gregarious. A person, who is extroversive, is more likely to enjoy their time spent with people.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland reported in December 2007 in the Journal “Psychosomatic Medicine” that neuroticism could cause heart disease. To clarify the effects on heart by both neuroticism and extroversion, they looked at mortality in 5,424 middle-aged adults, who were followed for 21 years after they completed personality tests.

The findings revealed that an increasing degree of neuroticism was related to a higher risk of dying from any cause. However, the relationship disappeared after adjustments were made for other relevant factors like body weight, use of alcohol, social class and education. Furthermore, the risk of death from cardiovascular disease was higher when a person’s level of neuroticism rose. Such relationship was still significant even after statistical adjustment.

On the other hand, the researchers found that extraversion tended to reduce a person’s chance of dying from respiratory disease, although extraversion had no other effects on mortality.

In conclusion, the researchers believed that the link between neuroticism and death of cardiovascular disease could be related to gene, though the socioeconomic and behavioral factors should be included as well.

Will Weight Loss Drugs Benefit Obese Patients?

While some doctors do agree upon the difficulty to help overweight or obese patients lose weight successfully by taking weight loss drugs alone, others would think that the few kilos loss would make a significant difference for patients suffering from heart disease or diabetes problems. Nevertheless, those people who take the drugs for cosmetic reasons may not see much benefit.

A study carried out by researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada revealed that patients on weight loss drugs might lose little more than their money, and yet face many unpleasant side effects. The report, which was published in the “British Medical Journal” on November 16, 2007, indicated that close to 20,000 patients, weighing an average of 100 kilos lost less than 5 kilos because of these weight loss drugs. These patients had been on one of 3 weight loss drugs, Xenical, Reductil and Accomplia for one to 4 years.

The meta-analysis using data from 30 clinical trials found that up to 30 percent of the patients on Xenical had unpleasant digestive and intestinal side effects, such as incontinence. On average, they lost 3 kilos.

Patients who took Reductil lost 4 kilos and had improved cholesterol levels, but up to 20 percent of the patients suffered from high blood pressure, raised pulse rates, insomnia and nausea.

Accomplia was most effective as patients taking this drug lost the most weight, 5 kilos on average along with improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Nevertheless, the 6 percent of the patients had an increased risk of mood disorders.

In fact, another study reported also on November 16, 2007 in medical journal “The Lancet that patients who were prescribed Accomplia were very likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and even suicidal tendencies.

The worldwide annual sales of these 3 medicines is closed to US$1.2 billion. These drugs are meant for severely obese people, and many of them suffer from or are at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Despite the side effects, which were explicitly listed by the drug manufacturers, many doctors do prescribed them to selected patients. According to their argument, fat people who lose 4 kilos could cut their risk of getting diabetes by 30 to 40 percent, and for those already suffer from diabetes, 4 kilos loss in weight would cut their blood sugar level and their risk of getting heart disease.

Work Stress More Likely Lead to Higher Depression Risk!

Work work, and work! This is the reality. Whether you like it or not, many of us just have to face it. Long hours of work pressure will make people feel chronically stressed, and that is how they are at a higher risk of depression.

The researchers from the University of Rochester Medical School in New York reported in the American Journal of Public Health in October 2008 that among more than 24,000 working Canadian adults, nearly 5 percent had suffered from major depression in the past year, and those under heavy stress at work appeared to be at particular risk.

In fact, a number of studies have previously found that health risks were associated with chronic job stress, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and depression. Nevertheless, the depression studies have been limited to either certain occupations or single company.

The researchers went a step further on depression studies by confirming and extending past research, and looked at a large and general population. They also used stricter criteria to gauge participants’ depression. While past studies have relied on questionnaire responses, participants in the current study underwent diagnostic interviews for depression.

The study found that men who reported “high job strain” were more than twice as likely to suffer depression as men who were low on the job-strain scale. “High job strain” is defined as work that is demanding but leaves people little independence or decision-making authority.

The findings on women were not quite the same. Only one component of job strain (lack of decision-making authority) was related to depression. Rationale behind this is unclear but it is suspected that it may be due to the types of jobs many women take.

As compared with men, women are more likely to take part-time jobs to balance work and family. Similarity did exist. For both men and women, lack of support from co-workers and supervisors, which is a measure of job stress, was related to depression.

As pointed out in the findings, depression prevention in workplace is necessary for the sake of workers. Researchers also suggested some ways to relieve job stress, for example, workers are offered opportunities for training in new skills.

Exercise Can Help You Stay Healthy!

No matter how, you need to allocate certain amount of time to exercise! This is a piece of advice commonly recommended by or heard from doctors and health experts. However, how many of us will actually take such advice.

Ask yourself this question: when is your last exercise? Most of us will just quote excuses like ‘too busy’, ‘too tire’, and so on and so forth to skip exercise. We rather spend the spare time for watching television, playing computer games, or any other activities that require minimal or no physical movements at all.

A recent report published by the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) on April 1, 2008 revealed that moderate, frequent exercise could reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, respiratory disease and depression.

In the report, the French researchers set a benchmark for adults, at least 30 minutes of modest exercise, such as fast walking, at least 5 times a week; or 20 minutes of harder exercise, such as jogging, 3 times a week. Young people should do twice that of the adults.

Furthermore, Inserm also recommended 'muscular strengthening' at least twice a week, and advised the elderly to do stretching and balance exercises.

Daily activities such as climbing up stairs with shopping bags or cleaning a bathroom can also be included in the exercise tally. However, Inserm cautioned that what the amount of exercise recommended would have only a minor effect on people who are obese.

Can Heart Be Protected By Food Rich In Copper?

Do ailing hearts need copper? Yes, this is the finding of a animal study conducted by the University of Louisville Medical Center in the United States and published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The researchers fed two groups of mice with foods rich in copper. Group A was fed three times more than the usual recommended dietary intake of copper, while Group B was given a normal dosage. Then, a condition of cardiac hypertrophy was triggered and developed into heart disease in all the mice. Heart failure followed after eight weeks in Group B.

Surprisingly, the hearts of the mice in Group A returned to their normal size despite the cardiac stimulation, after their dietary copper dosage was increased.

Cardiac hypertrophy occurs when the heart becomes enlarged as a result of disease or high blood pressure. It will cause the muscles to be thickened and so the supply of blood to the heart is obstructed. The researchers concluded that diets high in copper could help such heart muscle conditions. However, whether it will work on human beings will require further controlled human research.

Dietary copper helps maintain bone health, reduces tissue damage caused by free radicals, protects nerves and keeps the thyroid gland functioning normally. The daily recommended dietary copper intake is 900 microgrammes (mcg) with a maximum limit of 10,000 mcg a day for adults. For example, half a cup of roasted cashews contains about 80 mcg of dietary copper while 100 g of cooked oysters contains 200 mcg.

Nevertheless, consuming more than the recommended daily copper intake limit can result in diarrhoea, discolouration of the skin, stomach pain, lack of concentration and depression.

Some cardiologists also against the fact that a single supplement (mineral or vitamin) such as copper can act as a cure-all for ailments of the heart. Whether you believe or not, a well-balanced diet is still the key to a healthy life.

How Governments Can Help Combat Chronic Diseases?

In the recent WHO (World Health Organization) meeting held in Singapore during November 2007, ways to improve the prevention and control of chronic diseases were explored.

'It is easier to walk or ride a bicycle if there are green areas and bicycle paths in a city; it is easier to eat healthy food if we have healthy foods to choose from, if they are easy to find, affordable and promoted as desirable.' This was the statement made by Mr Shigeru Omi, WHO's regional director.

In his opinion, he believes that all risk factors for diseases can be drastically reduced by government through legislation, policy and regulation, and by industry through appropriate use of nutrition knowledge, food technology and marketing techniques.

He also stressed that it is cheaper to prevent problems than to treat them, but he admitted that this is a problem that many low and middle income countries face. Nevertheless, some countries were praised for their efforts in getting citizens to live healthier lives.

For example, obesity and traffic accidents are lower in the Netherlands than in many European countries because cycling is popular, both as recreation and transportation. Promotion and commitment to healthy diets had earned praise for Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, 'fruits in school' programme was launched in all primary schools in 2005.

In Singapore, the effort in fighting obesity has achieved and sustained reduction in obesity rates over a number of years. The key causes for disability in Singapore were chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, anxiety and depression and cancer. As such, Singapore has launched the nationwide subsidized health screening for people of 50 years old and above for high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and diabetes. Government also allowed people to use 'Medisave' to pay for treatment for chronic ailments. This year will be the first year for the programme and it is expected that some 90,000 patients will draw S$15 million from their Medisave.

In order to help more people have their problems diagnosed early, screening programmes will be stepped up by the government.

Hypertension And Depression

The connection between depression and hypertension may be strongest in families with a history of hypertension.

Nearly 20 percent of heart patients without prior history of heart attack and up to 65 percent of patients who had previously suffered a heart attack were diagnosed to have clinical depression.

There is no clear evidence on the influence of depression on heart health. Nonetheless, some researchers suggest that depression interferes with the body's ability to adjust to common changes in blood pressure during the day.

Another school of thought is based on the finding that clinically depressed people tend to have higher levels of stress hormones (that is, adrenaline) than people without clinical depression. This may explain why the hearts of clinically depressed people beat faster, even during sleep. This is also in line with studies showing reduced heart rate variability (that is, the heart's ability to handle stress) for people with both heart disease and clinical depression.

Furthermore, depressed people may be more likely to smoke, drink alcohol in excess or use drugs, all of which can lead to high blood pressure.