-Scientists may have discovered a new way to prevent strokes in high risk patients, according to research from the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW).

Work by a new research group, led by Professor Donald Singer, Professor of Therapeutics at Warwick Medical School and Professor Chris Imray from UHCW, has now been published in US journal Stroke.

-The group is using ultrasound scanning to look at patients with carotid artery disease, one of the major causes of stroke. Clots can form on diseased carotid arteries in the neck. Small parts of these clots can released to form microemboli, which can travel to block key brain arteries and lead to weakness, disturbed speech, loss of vision and other serious stroke syndromes. Standard anti-platelet drugs such as aspirin may not prevent the formation of harmful microemboli.

-The scanning process can be used to find patients at very high risk of stroke because microemboli have formed despite prior anti-platelet drugs. Using scanning, the team has found that tirofiban, another anti-platelet drug designed to inhibit the formation of blood clots, can suppress microemboli where previous treatment such as aspirin has been ineffective. In their study, tirofiban was more effective than other ‘rescue’ treatment.

Didn’t you know that?: The highest level of happiness happens at the beginning OF EXERCISING

As a quick last fact, exercise, the increase of the BDNF proteins in your brain acts as a mood enhancer. The effects are similar to drug addiction one study found. So when you start exercising, the feeling of euphoria is the highest:

The release of endorphins has an addictive effect, and more exercise is needed to achieve the same level of euphoria over time.

So, if you have never exercised before (or not for a long time), your happiness gains will be the highest if you start now. We cannot conclude that the fountain of happiness lies in exercise, but at least we want you to be aware of this fact and try to exercise, but always consulting with your physician.

Men in their thirties who had inflamed gums caused by severe periodontal disease were three times more likely to suffer from erection problems, according to a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Turkish researchers compared 80 men aged 30 to 40 with erectile dysfunction with a control group of 82 men without erection problems.

This showed that 53 per cent of the men with erectile dysfunction had inflamed gums compared with 23 per cent in the control group.

When the results were adjusted for other factors, such as age, body mass index, household income and education level, the men with severe periodontal disease were 3.29 times more likely to suffer from erection problems than men with healthy gums.

“Tomatoes are ‘stroke preventers’,” BBC News has claimed.

The news is based on a study looking at the levels of various chemicals called carotenoids in men’s blood and their long-term risk of stroke.

Carotenoids are naturally occurring chemicals which give fruit and vegetables their colour. They can act as antioxidants. Antioxidants are believed to help protect against cell damage from molecules known as “free radicals” and “singlet molecular oxygen”. Antioxidants are thought to work by reacting with an unstable molecule and bringing it under control.

Some have suggested that antioxidants may have a protective effect against stroke by reducing damage to blood vessels.

In this study, the researchers found that men with the highest levels of a chemical called lycopene (known to be an antioxidant) in their blood had a 55% reduced risk of stroke compared with those who had the lowest levels. Lycopene is the chemical that gives tomatoes their distinctive red colour.

An important limitation of this study is that, although it included 1,000 men, only 67 strokes occurred. This makes for a very small sample size, which decreases the reliability of the risk calculations.

Overall, this research cannot show that the levels of lycopene were directly responsible for the differences in stroke risk, and it is also unclear how lycopene could prevent strokes. However, the findings of this study support the recommendation to eat a balanced diet rich in fruit and vegetables.


Where did the story come from?

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, Lapland Central Hospital and University Hospital of Kuopio, Finland. It was funded by Lapland Central Hospital.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Neurology. Well, is not a bad source anyway.

After EECP treatment you may find that:

-You can walk farther, carry heavier packages, and be more active without having angina
-You have fewer attacks of angina
-Your episodes of angina are less intense
-You can return to work, go out to dinner, garden, travel, or enjoy golf, tennis, or bowling once again
-You no longer have to restrict your social life, volunteer activities, or exercise because you are worried that they will cause angina.

Silent ischemia has no symptoms. But researchers have found that if you have episodes of noticeable chest pain, you may also have episodes of silent ischemia.

The following tests can be used to diagnose silent ischemia:

An exercise stress test can show blood flow through your coronary arteries in response to exercise, usually walking on a treadmill.

Holter monitoring records your heart rate and rhythm over a 24-hour period (or longer). You wear a recording device (the Holter monitor), which is connected to disks on your chest. Doctors can then look at the printout of the recording to find out if you have had episodes of silent ischemia while you were wearing the Holter monitor.

How is ischemia treated?

Treatment for ischemia is similar to that for any form of cardiovascular disease and usually begins with the following lifestyle changes:

-If you smoke, quit.
-Control high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes.
-Limit how much alcohol you drink.
-Adopt healthy eating habits.
-Start an exercise program that has been approved by your doctor.

We human beings are hardwired to sleep eight hours a day. What happens when we don’t do this? No matter the reason, when we deprive our bodies of sleep, there are significant physical and mental consequences.
This is what happens to your body if it’s deprived of sleep:
-You have problems with memory and concentration.
-You have problems finding the right word.
-You get irritable.
-Neurotransmitters in the brain become altered.
-You become more susceptible to infection.
-At its extreme, sleep deprivation can lead to death.

A bacterial protein in common house dust may worsen allergic responses to indoor allergens, according to research conducted by the National Institutes of Health and Duke University. The finding is the first to document the presence of the protein flagellin in house dust, bolstering the link between allergic asthma and the environment.

Scientists from the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and Duke University Medical Center published their findings in people and mice online in the journal Nature Medicine.

“Most people with asthma have allergic asthma, resulting largely from allergic responses to inhaled substances,” said the paper’s corresponding author Donald Cook, Ph.D., an NIEHS scientist. His research team began the study to identify environmental factors that amplify the allergic responses. “Although flagellin is not an allergen, it can boost allergic responses to true allergens.”