Cardio Currents

Priming the pump
Until recently, doctors were cautious about recommending strength training for patients with chronic heart failure, fearing it might harm the heart’s left ventricle, its main pumping chamber. Now, a study in the International Journal of Cardiology says resistance training—exercise using weights, exercise bands or resistance machines—actually helps weakened hearts pump blood more efficiently, enabling people with heart failure to perform daily activities better. The researchers found that subjects who took part in an eight-week resistance-training program suffered no harmful changes in the left ventricle and enjoyed a better quality of life than those who didn’t take part.

Heart patients and this amino acid don’t mix
If you’ve had a heart attack, you may be tempted to try anything to prevent another one. But don’t put your bets on supplements of the amino acid L-arginine. Given claims that the supplement reduces blood vessel stiffness, researchers from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore investigated its use in 153 heart attack patients and found that those who took L-arginine experienced no improvements in heart function or artery elasticity. What’s more, six subjects, including five over age 60, died during the study, causing the research to be stopped.

Figuring out fat labels
Trans fats are the new bad guys in the diet world. Like saturated fats, trans fats raise levels of LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, in the blood. However, avoiding trans fats completely is a bit tricky—a food label that reads 0 grams trans fat isn’t necessarily free of the stuff. Because testing methods aren’t reliable below 0.5 grams, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows manufacturers to list levels below 0.5 grams as 0 grams. So, eating several servings of foods with 0.4 grams of trans fats (but listed as 0) could add up to way too much. Trans fats are typically found in many cakes, cookies, crackers and muffins and in deep-fried restaurant foods. What to do? Check the ingredient list. The words “partially hydrogenated” indicate the food contains trans fats. And read the entire label, looking at all fats. Some manufacturers are lowering trans fats in their products but increasing saturated fats.

Did you know?
One year after you quit smoking, your heart disease risk drops by more than half.

Most women—81 percent—don’t know their cholesterol levels, according to a Harris Interactive survey, and 84 percent could not name their triglyceride level.

A croissant and an oat-bran bagel have about the same number of calories, but a croissant has 6.6 grams of saturated fat compared to 0.2 grams for the bagel.