Small steps can prevent Kentucky's No. 1 killer, heart disease

It is now February, which is American Heart Month and a perfect time to remind people that small steps can reduce their risk of heart disease, Kentucky's No. 1 killer.

You may be surprised to hear that almost 80 percent of heart disease is preventable and there are daily things that can be done to keep hearts healthy, according Dr. Martha Grogan, medical editor-in-chief of Mayo Clinic Healthy Heart for Life.

For example, try to move 10 extra minutes each day, Recent research shows a sedentary lifestyle may increase your risk of heart attack almost as much as smoking, said Grogan.

Each day, make an effort to get up from your desk to go talk to a colleague instead of sending an email, or walk around the house as you are talking on the phone, she recommends: “Moving even 10 minutes a day for someone who’s been sedentary may reduce the risk for heart disease by 50 percent.”

Hearts are also hurt when you deprive yourself of sleep, which is a necessity like food and water, said Virend Somers, a Mayo cardiologist and sleep expert. Chronic sleep deprivation can increase the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes and depression.

Healthy habits can reduce a majority of risks for heart attack. "A 53-year-old male smoker with high blood pressure has a 20 percent chance of having a heart attack over the next 10 years. If he stops smoking, his risk drops to 10 percent; if he takes high blood pressure medicine, it falls to 5 percent," says preventive cardiologist Randal Thomas, M.D.

These healthy habits and changes like quitting smoking and taking blood pressure medicine can make a difference in life and death. For more from the Mayo Clinic, click here; for a American Heart Month information from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, go here.

British researchers say a simple calculation can predict likelihood of a baby's chance of becoming obese during childhood

If only we knew from the start which babies were predisposed to becoming diabetic and hypertensive and overweight . . . News out this week suggests we can. NBC News reports that British researchers have published findings in the journal PLOS ONE saying that a simple assessment can predict at birth a baby's likelihood of becoming obese during childhood. The formula, available as an online calculator here, estimates the child's obesity risk based on its birth weight, the body mass index of the parents, the number of people in the household, the mother's professional status and whether she smoked during pregnancy.

The hope is to help families will take steps to control the weight of babies and small children before medical problems arise. Philippe Froguel of Imperial College London, who led the study, explained that teaching parents about the dangers of over-feeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age is much more effective than having to teach children how to lose weight. Froguel's team developed their formula following 4,000 Finnish children since 1986. Childhood obesity is a leading cause of early type 2 diabetes, as well as various types of cardiovascular disease. (Read more)

U of L doctor tells American Heart Association that cardiac stem-cell research shows a lot of promise

Dr. Roberto Bolli

Promising results are coming from research that uses patients’ own cardiac stem cells to heal their hearts, a Louisville doctor told colleagues this week at an American Heart Association meeting in Los Angeles.

Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal reports that Dr. Roberto Bolli, lead author of the clinical trial and chief of cardiovascular medicine and director of the Institute of Molecular Cardiology at the University of Louisville, said cardiac stems cells may someday be used to treat heart failure caused by muscle scarring after a heart attack.

Bolli, who partnered with Dr. Piero Anversa of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston on the research, explained that their research showed that hearts in patients treated with their stem cells had greater pumping power, and benefits continued to increase as long as two years after receiving the cells.  Heart failure afflicts about 6.6 million Americans. (Read more)

Use of pacifiers could lead to very sick babies, study finds

Oklahoma State University researchers report that they have found a wide range of disease-causing bacteria, fungus and mold on pacifiers that young children had been using.

In research presented at the American Society for Clinical Pathology, scientists have shown that pacifiers can also grow a slimy coating of bacterial film that alters the normal bacteria in a baby or toddler's mouth, increasing the likelihood of colic and ear infections. It gets worse, according to study author Tom Glass, a professor of forensic science, pathology and dental medicine: The same types of bacteria found on a common pacifier have been linked to cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases.

HealthDay reporters Barbara Bronson Gray writes that Glass said the problems associated with pacificers are also applicable to any removable orthodontic appliance like retainers, mouth guards and dentures. Glass said his researchers were particular concerned about their findings when they discovered that "many of the bacteria growing from the used pacifiers were resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as penicillin and methicillin. The development of such resistance to certain antibiotics does not cause the organism to be more infectious than other strains that have no antibiotic resistance, but it can make the infection more difficult to treat." Glass told Gray that he does not recommend that pacifier use. use. "After doing the study, I say why take a risk?" (Read more)

Cardiologist: Kentucky needs better way to get heart attack patients to dedicated catheterization centers in time

Because cardiovascular disease kills more Kentuckians than anything else, and because what mostly kills them is a heart attack, and because if you can get help within 90 minutes of that heart attack your chances improve dramatically, this state needs a vastly improved way to get heart attack patients to the right hospital in a short amount of time. So explains Dr. William Dillon, an interventional cardiologist in Louisville, who writes an guest column in the In The Prime health blog of The Courier-Journal. He punctuates his point with a graph, right, that shows that Kentucky now ranks 49th of 50 states in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) deaths. AMI is doctor-speak for heart attacks. (American Heart Association graph)

Dillon's medically reasoned plea is for a more systematic regional network -- like one that have saved lives in North Carolina -- is "to transfer AMI patients to dedicated (heart catheterization lab) centers throughout the state." But Dillon also knows that many Kentuckians are not listening to their bodies as closely as they might. He writes that "another source of delay in AMI treatment is that, on average, patients wait more than 90 minutes before seeking medical attention. Furthermore, 50 percent of AMI patients drive to a hospital or clinic without calling EMS. Every year, a significant number of these patients needlessly die en route to the hospital." He adds then that health education -- in this case, early notification of needing EMS help -- is an important component in saving Kentuckians' lives. (Read more)

UK and Purdue researchers find a compound in watermelon that fights 'bad' cholesterol and arterial plaque in lab rats

A study from the University of Kentucky and Purdue University showed that mice fed a diet including watermelon juice had lower weight, cholesterol and arterial plaque than a control group. The findings, reported in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, suggest that citrulline, a compound found in watermelon, plays a role in cardiovascular health. "We were interested in citrulline because previous studies showed that it may lower blood pressure,"  Shubin Saha, a Purdue Extension vegetable specialist and study co-author, told Medical Xpress. "We didn't see a lowering of blood pressure, but these other changes are promising."

"The researchers fed two groups of mice diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol," MX reports. "Half the mice received water containing 2 percent watermelon juice, while the others received the same amount of water supplemented with a solution that matched the carbohydrate content of the watermelon juice. The mice that consumed watermelon juice gained about 30 percent less weight than the control group and had about 50 percent less LDL cholesterol - the so-called bad cholesterol. The experimental group also had about a 50 percent reduction in plaque in their arteries, as well as elevated levels of citrulline." Sibu Saha, a professor of surgery at UK, explained that the researchers are not sure at what molecular level the citrulline is working, but that is their next step.

Shubin Saha was excited about the dual benefit of the findings. "Twenty percent of each year's watermelon crop is wasted either because the fruit is visibly unappealing to consumers or because some growers find it too expensive to pay for harvesting as prices drop during the height of watermelon season." The wasted melons, he explained, could be put to use extracting these very beneficial compounds.  (Read more)

KET talks with experts on heart disease and health reform tonight

Some nationally recognized heart specialists will speak directly to Kentuckians about heart disease tonight on the season premiere of Health Three60 on KET. Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States -- and, perhaps surprisingly, in women -- will get a thorough examination. The show will take on the history of the disease, what women should know about the disease and what the future looks like for all of us. Host Renee Shaw will explore the history of cardiac surgery and the development of the artificial heart with Dr. Laman Gray, Jr. cardiovascular surgeon and medical director at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute. Gray will also discuss how the death rate from heart disease has decreased even as the increase has gone up.

Guests will also include Dr. Joey Maggard, executive director of the Central Kentucky Chapter of the American Heart Association; Dr. Melissa Walton-Shirley, cardiologist with Cardiology Associates in Glasgow; Mark Rucker, recipient of the American Heart Association Lifestyle Change Award; Dr. Paula Hollingsworth, cardiologist at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington; and, James B. Hoving, Ph.D., division chief of cardiosvascula therapeutics at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute. Health Three60 airs at 9 p.m. EDT.

Immediately preceding Health Three60, on this week's edition of Kentucky Tonight, host Bill Goodman and guests will discuss health care and health care reform.  Scheduled guests include State Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, chair of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee; State Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, vice chair of the House Budget Review Subcommittee on Human Resources; Dr. Ralph Alvarado, a Winchester internist and pediatrician; and Dr. Barbara Casper, an internist and University of Louisville professor of medicine. Kentucky Tonight airs at 8 EDT.

U of L researcher gets $3.4 million to replicate studies of stem cells for heart treatment

Dr. Roberto Bolli of the University of Louisville has received a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the validity of several recent studies by replicating them. The studies examine whether certain types of stem cells are safe and effective in treating heart failure, heart attacks and other cardiovascular disorders.

"Replicating studies in several locations with a large number of patients is necessary for researchers to ultimately determine which ones can be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval," Jill Scoggins reports in a U of L press release.

Bolli has received more than $100 million in grants for basic research for NIH. This is the first grant he has been awarded for clinical research. (Read more)

U of L scientist wins $9.5 million for heart research

A University of Louisville scientist has received more than $9.5 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to conduct promising new cardiovascular research.

Dr. Roberto Bolli, right, aims to find a drug that would reduce heart damage during a heart attack, The Courier-Journal's Laura Ungar reports.

Bolli will also work with scientists at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Emory University in Atlanta and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond to conduct the research.

Kentucky Department for Public Health numbers show 10,000 Kentuckians died from heart disease in 2005. (Read more)

Number of U.S. adults treated for diabetes more than doubled in a decade; it's a big problem in Kentucky

Diabetes, a bigger problem in Kentucky than in most states, is exploding nationally. The number of U.S. adults treated for the disease more than doubled between 1996 and 2007, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has estimated. About 19 million adults said they had been treated for the disease in 2007, up from 9 million in 1996, AHRQ reports. And the figures don't include perhaps millions of pre-diabetics who haven't been treated or even diagnosed.

Newswise, a news service about research, reports the AHRQ numbers also show:

• Costs for outpatient care doubled nationwide from about $5 billion to about $10 billion.

• Total prescription costs jumped from $4 billion to $19 billion. Patients paid an average of $1,048 for prescription meds in 2007, compared to $495 in 1996. (Read more)

Kentucky's trends are also alarming. In 2009, Kentucky was ranked fourth highest in the nation in prevalence of diabetes. A fact sheet from the state Diabetes Prevention and Control Program shows 8 percent of Kentuckians aged 35 to 44 were diagnosed with the disease. In 2000, less than 2 percent in the same age category had it. Prevalence is also increasing in seniors. In 2000, 14 percent of seniors 65 and older had diabetes. In 2009, 22 percent did.

The impacts of the disease are significant, the fact sheet indicates. In 2007, diabetes accounted for about 18 percent of hospitalizations in Kentucky, or almost 120,000 hospitalizations.

Why is diabetes increasing? Officials with the state diabetes program blame high obesity rates (30 percent of Kentucky adults), low rates of physical activity (30 percent of are considered inactive), and large shares of the population with high blood pressure (38.5 percent) and high cholesterol (30 percent).

The federal Centers for Disease Control also assess the ramifications of the disease. For a county-by-county estimate of diabetes diagnoses, go here.