ScienceDaily: Heart Disease News

Heart disease patients who practice yoga in addition to aerobic exercise saw twice the reduction in blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol levels when compared to patients who practiced either Indian yoga or aerobic exercise alone, according to new research.

A new study on two specially bred strains of mice has illuminated how abnormal addition of the chemical phosphate to a specific heart muscle protein may sabotage the way the protein behaves in a cell, and may damage the way the heart pumps blood around the body.

Heart surgery significantly decreases in-hospital mortality among infants with either of two genetic disorders that cause severe physical and intellectual disabilities, according to a new study.

For the first time, a strong link has been established between high blood pressure and the most common heart valve disorder in high-income countries.

Biomedical engineers report a significant advance in efforts to repair a damaged heart after a heart attack, using grafted heart-muscle cells to create a repair patch. The key was overexpressing a gene that activates the cell-cycle of the grafted muscle cells, so they grow and divide more than control grafted cells.

White men who exercise at high levels are 86 percent more likely than people who exercise at low levels to experience a buildup of plaque in the heart arteries by middle age, a new study suggests.

A history of gestational diabetes was associated with a modest higher long-term risk of cardiovascular disease in women in a new study, although the absolute rate of cardiovascular disease was low in the study's younger group of predominantly white women and adhering to a healthy lifestyle over time appeared to help mitigate the risk, according to a new article.

Treatments for high blood pressure do not totally reverse its damaging effects on the vascular rhythms that help circulation of the blood say researchers.

The onset of an irregular heartbeat jumps sharply in men after age 50 and in women after 60. The risk of developing the irregular rhythm known as atrial fibrillation rises with increasing age and weight. Having atrial fibrillation more than tripled the risk of dying during average 13-year study.

Investigators have identified a new molecular pathway that controls lifespan and healthspan in worms and mammals. Researchers have shown that worms with excess levels of certain proteins lived longer and healthier than normal worms. In addition, mice with excess levels of these proteins demonstrated a delay in blood vessel dysfunction associated with aging. The study has major implications for our understanding of aging and age-associated disorders.

The ability of a stem cell to differentiate into cardiac muscle (and by extension other cell types) depends on what portions of the genome are available for activation, which is controlled by the location of DNA in a cell's nucleus, new research suggests.

The level, or 'copy number,' of mitochondrial DNA -- genetic information stored not in a cell's nucleus but in the body's energy-creating mitochondria -- is a novel and distinct biomarker that is able to predict the risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths a decade or more before they happen, researchers report.

The slow and gentle movements of Tai Chi -- which can increase in pace -- hold promise as an alternative exercise option for patients who decline traditional cardiac rehabilitation. The study is the first to suggest that Tai Chi may improve exercise behaviors in this high-risk group.

Today it seems about everything has been shown to lead to heart disease. Of course smoking is bad for you, as is high blood pressure. There's even mounting evidence that psychosocial factors can cause heart problems. A new study demonstrates how traumatic experiences can affect vascular health and, ultimately, heart disease.

A new study has helped shed new light on some of the underlying genetic causes of cases of CHD as well as the long-term outlook for patients who carry these mutations.

Using fruit flies, researchers have figured out why a particular inherited human heart condition that is almost always due to genetic mutations causes the heart to enlarge, thicken and fail. They found that one such mutation interferes with heart muscle's ability to relax after contracting, and prevents the heart from fully filling with blood and pumping it out.

In a new study, researchers found that individuals with lower levels of calcium in the blood, which is easily monitored, are more likely to experience SCA than those with higher calcium levels.

A new study suggests that both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat can have a substantial effect on the cardiovascular system. Investigators took the pulse of fans during a hockey game and found that on average, their heart rate increased by 75 percent when watching on TV, and by a whopping 110 percent (more than doubled, equivalent to the cardiac stress with vigorous exercise) when watching in person.

Researchers have shown, for the first time, that reduced dietary potassium promotes elevated aortic stiffness in a mouse model. Such arterial stiffness in humans is predictive of heart disease and death from heart disease, and it represents an important health problem for the nation. The researchers also found that increased dietary potassium levels lessened vascular calcification and aortic stiffness. Furthermore, they unraveled the molecular mechanism underlying the effects of low or high dietary potassium.

Researchers have discovered a previously unrecognized healing capacity of the heart. In a mouse model, they were able to reverse severe heart failure by silencing the activity of Hippo, a signaling pathway that can prevent the regeneration of heart muscle.