What Kind of Gene Could Prevent Heart Disease?

Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is a condition in which the heart cannot supply adequate blood flow to the rest of the body's organs. Such condition is caused by significant or prolonged stress to the heart. It could simply occur following a heart attack, high blood pressure, certain infections, and because of genetic causes.

Statistics show that heart failure affects some 23 million people worldwide and kills about 600,000 every year.

Recently, a tiny piece of genetic material that plays a key role in heart failure has been identified by an international research team who also shows how an experimental compound prevents the condition in mice.

Using a treatment from Regulus Therapeutics, the scientists were able to block or silence the tiny strands of ribonucleic acid called microRNA. Regulus Therapeutics is a joint venture between US biotech companies Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc and Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

These genetic fragments are responsible for regulating the making of genes into proteins, and in this case, it was discovered that a failing heart had 3- to 5-times more of a particular microRNA called miR-21. The findings of the new study were reported on November 30, 2008 in the journal Nature.

To begin with, the researchers analyzed hundreds of microRNAs within human and mouse heart samples to identify miR-21 as a key cause of heart failure. Then, they gave some mice an experimental compound known as antagomir to block miR-21. In these mice, the heart failure was prevented while mice that did not get the drug developed heart failure. As compared with the mice that did not receive the treatment, mice with heart failure that later got the compound did improve.

In other words, cardiac disease could be prevented as well as cured because the results from the study showed that heart function and tissue damage improved in both cases.

This new study was viewed as a landmark event in the advancement of microRNA therapeutics as a new class of innovative medicines. Several big drug makers have already invested into RNA technology to search for promising biotech assets.

Earlier in November 2008, a United States team had also shown how a different bit of RNA known as microRNA-101 meant the difference between an easily treated tumors and an aggressive cancer.

Toxin Gas Turns Out to be Remedy for Heart Failure!

Being a leading cause of hospitalization for the elderly, heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. This can be caused by previous injury to the heart muscle from a heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity.

Hydrogen sulfide is colorless and highly toxic. It is a flammable gas that not only has rotten-egg smell, but also is potentially dangerous for miners and sewer workers.

In a recent study, researchers from Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, Georgia found that small dose of hydrogen sulfide helps protect laboratory mice from heart failure through its ability to regulate blood pressure and reduce inflammation.

The findings, presented in November 2008 at the American Heart Association's annual conference meeting at New Orleans, Louisiana, revealed that hydrogen sulfide appears to stimulate heart muscle cells and produce their own antioxidants and molecules that stave off programmed cell death caused by loss of blood flow.

In order to create a model of cardiac failure, the researchers blocked the laboratory mice’s left coronary arteries either temporarily for an hour or permanently to cause part of their heart muscles to die. Then, some of the mice were treated with a solution of hydrogen sulfide administered intravenously once a day for a week, while others left untreated to become the control group.

After a period of 4 weeks, researchers tested both groups’ heart capacity through their ‘ejection fraction’, a measure of heart function. Mice treated with the toxic gas showed an ejection fraction of 33 percent higher than those mice in the control group (36 percent compared to 27 percent).

Such results indicated that hydrogen sulfide can actually blunt the impact of heart failure on heart function and mortality in a mouse model of heart failure, and it is hoped that such experimental treatment could benefit humans one day.

Sleep Adequately to Prevent Heart Disease!

If a person reduces his or her sleep duration, then his or her risk of getting heart disease would be higher.

A recent study indicated that sleeping less than 7.5 hours a night would increase the chance of cardiovascular risk, including heart attack and stroke, by 33 percent. The paper was published by researchers from Jichi Medical University on November 12, 2008 in the Journal of the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine.

The sleep of 1,255 people with hypertension (also known as high blood pressure) was monitored by the Japanese researchers for an average period of 50 months. Their daytime and nighttime blood pressure, sleep duration, and cardiovascular disease events like heart attack, stroke and sudden cardiac death were tracked.

In the study, there were 99 incidents of cardiovascular disease being recorded. It was also found that the rate for people who slept less than 7.5 hours was 2.4 per 100 person-years. Those who slept more had a lower incident rate of 1.8 per 100 person-years. Meanwhile, the researchers also discovered that people whose blood pressure rose at night were more prone to heart disease.

The researchers believed that shorter duration of sleep is actually a predictor of incident cardiovascular disease in elderly individuals with hypertension.

In the meantime, inadequate sleep has also been linked to higher chances of diabetes, obesity and several risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which includes nighttime hypertension and sleep-disordered breathing.

Are You Having High Blood Pressure Without Knowing It?

High blood pressure is also known as hypertension. It has been found by previous research that people with high blood pressure will be at a higher risk of getting heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and dementia.

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), high blood pressure is defined as being 140 over 90 mm of mercury or more. Mercury is the fluid used in the blood pressure gauges. The first number (140 mm), known as systolic, measures maximum heart pressure while the second (90 mm), known as diastolic, measures pressure when heart is in a resting phase (diastolic).

Many people who already have hypertension are just not aware of the condition. In fact, a recent study by Warwick Medical School in Britain and other institutes in Europe reported that more than half of people in 3 European countries who were diagnosed with high blood pressure did not know they had the condition. In addition, half of those who were aware that they had hypertension had managed to have their problems under control.

The findings were published in the International Society of Hypertension's Journal of Hypertension on November 12, 2008.

1,604 persons from Southwest London, Limburg in Belgium and Abruzzo in Italy, who participated in the study, answered questions regarding healthcare and lifestyle habits.

24 percent of the participants were found to have high blood pressure, yet only 44 percent of them were aware of their condition. Among these people, less than half had reduced their blood pressure to below 140 over 80 mm of mercury, the widely accepted benchmark of health.

According to the researchers, management of hypertensive problem is considered better in Britain than in many other European countries, partly because doctors in Britain have incentives to help patients reach targeted blood pressure. However, the incidence of high blood pressure is still rising, as too many patients are still not adequately treated.

No MP3 Headphone Near Heart Disease Patients Equipped with Defibrillator!

Listening to MP3 songs and music using MP3 digital music players with headphone has become a lifestyle of today’s youth. Lately, it seems to gain popularity among older generations as well. Nowadays, it is rather difficult to find a mobile phone that is without MP3 player.

From now on, people who like to listen to music using MP3 player with headphone should be more careful. This is because a new study revealed that the headphone used in MP3 player, if placed within an inch of lifesaving cardiac devices such as pacemakers or implantable defibrillators, the operation of those devices may be interfered.

Presented the findings at an American Heart Association conference during November 2008, the researchers from the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts found that neodymium appears to cause the devices to function improperly. This could thus pose a potential great risk to heart disease patients who rely on the devices. Neodymium is a magnetic substance that can be found in the MP3 player headphones.

By exposing to headphones, a defibrillator could temporarily be deactivated. As such, headphones accompanying the popular MP3 digital music players must be at a distance of at least 1.2 inches (or 3 centimeters) away from the implanted devices, according to the study.

Meanwhile, the scientists caution heart disease patients, who use heart devices, not to put the MP3 player headphones in their pocket or to hang them over their chest. They also advise friends or family members of heart disease patients with implantable defibrillators to avoid wearing headphones and not to rest their head right on top of the devices used in their family members or friends.

Nevertheless, the researchers determined that outside studies did not find any adverse reactions to pacemakers and defibrillators from other portable electronic devices like iPod, Bluetooth headsets, iPhone, electric blankets or hand-held airport metal detectors.

Incidentally, both iPod and iPhone are MP3 players and headphones used in other digital music players can be used in iPod and iPhone too. I wonder why there is such a different reaction. Perhaps further studies should be carried out to ascertain such disparities.

More Power Means More Functions For Pacemaker!

A pacemaker is a small device, which can be installed under the skin of a person’s chest or abdomen, for helping control abnormal heart rhythms. By using electrical pulses, such devices can prompt the heart to beat a normal rate.

Arrhythmia is the name given to describe abnormal heart rhythms. When a person has symptoms related to arrhythmias, his or her heart rhythms can be too slow, fast or simply irregular. With the help of a pacemaker, a person with abnormal heart rhythm could resume a more active lifestyle.

It has always been the wish of doctors to incorporate more functions into the pacemakers to help monitor the heart. However, to add new functions into pacemaker means more power is required, and the only way to increase the power is to use larger-size and heavier battery. Unfortunately, such change would certainly make patients feel uncomfortable and arouse rejection from the patients.

Good news has emerged recently when researchers have developed a tiny generator that can harvest the excess energy of a beating heart to help power a pacemaker or defibrillator, according to a paper presented at the American Heart Association's annual meeting during November 2008.

By capturing enough surplus heart energy, the experimental micro-generator, developed by the researchers from Southampton University Hospital in Britain, can in turn provide 17 percent of the power required to run a pacemaker. This means that new generation of devices that lasted significantly longer would be available soon and more functions that can help monitor the heart can be added.

Right now, the researchers have already started their work on how to improve the materials used in the generator in order to enhance the energy harvesting.

How Effective Is Crestor In Preventing Heart Disease?

Being manufactured by AstraZeneca, Crestor is a cholesterol-lowering medicine that aims to reduce levels of bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) and triglycerides in the blood, and in the meantime increase levels of good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL). It has been approved for use in over 95 countries with nearly 15 million patients being prescribed presently worldwide.

By lowering the bad cholesterol, it is possible to help prevent heart disease and hardening of arteries. These two conditions can develop heart attack, stroke, as well as vascular disease. Nevertheless, how effective is this medicine?

Presented during November 2008 at an annual meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, the study known as “JUPITER” revealed that Crestor could actually reduce by 44 percent the risk of heart problems among patients who currently do not face a high risk of getting a heart disease.

The study involved 17,802 men and women, of the age of 50 and more, who took 20 milligrams of Crestor on a daily basis. It was found that the combined risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, arterial revascularization, hospitalization for unstable angina, or death from cardiovascular causes was reduced by 44 percent as compared with placebo among men and women with elevated hs-CRP but low to normal cholesterol levels.

By the way, CRP is a protein that is produced by the liver. It plays an important role in inflammatory processes and serves as a biological marker to measure the risk of artery blockage.

Also shown in the study, patients who took Crestor also had the combined risk of heart attack, stroke or death from heart disease reduced by 47 percent. Meanwhile, their risk of heart attack was cut by more than half, the risk of stroke was reduced by nearly half and the total mortality of the participants was lowered by 20 percent.

It was also recorded in the study that a daily dose of 20 milligrams of Crestor was well tolerated in nearly 9,000 patients during the course of the trial, and there was no difference between treatment groups for major adverse events, including cancer or myopathy.