CardioCurrents
News and tips for the heart-conscious

Smoking damage starts early
You don’t have to be middle-aged for smoking’s effects to begin showing on your heart. A team of researchers looked at heart function in 66 healthy, slim, 20- to 40-year-olds, half of whom smoked 10 to 25 cigarettes a day for six to 20 years. Smokers were examined by ultrasound after a two-hour nonsmoking period, then immediately after smoking. The results? A number of abnormalities indicating that the ability of the heart’s left ventricle to relax between beats was impaired, leading to a decrease in its pumping capacity. Authors of the study, which appeared in the journal Chest, note that this ventricular impairment is the first stage of serious heart dysfunction.

Take your heart’s best shot
Avoiding flu’s misery of fever, headache, muscle aches, sore throat and congestion should be incentive enough to get your annual flu shot. If not, here’s more: Influenza can trigger a fatal heart attack, according to American and Russian researchers, who studied eight years of autopsy reports from St. Petersburg, Russia. They determined that heart attack and chronic ischemic heart disease (IHD) deaths coincided with epidemics of influenza and acute respiratory disease—a flu complication—each year from 1993 to 2000. The data, published in the European Heart Journal, also revealed that deaths from heart attack increased by one-third in epidemic weeks compared to nonepidemic weeks and death from IHD increased by one-tenth.

Antibiotics before dental work? Maybe not
People with certain heart conditions may be accustomed to taking antibiotics before dentist appointments to prevent endocarditis, an infection of the heart’s lining or valves that may occur when mouth bacteria enter the bloodstream during dental procedures. But the American Heart Association (AHA) says premedicating may be unnecessary for most people. Based on growing scientific evidence that taking antibiotics before certain procedures presents more risks than benefits, the AHA has revised its guidelines. Only patients facing the greatest likelihood of developing endocarditis should continue taking preventive antibiotics, such as those who have:

• an artificial heart valve
• a previous history of endocarditis
• certain types of serious congenital (present from birth) heart defects
• any repaired congenital heart defect with a remaining defect at the site or near the site of a prosthetic patch or device
• a heart transplant that develops a valve problem

Concerned or unsure? Ask your doctor.

Did you know?

• Food labels are confusing—in a study of 200 educated adults, most had difficulty understanding everyday food labels. Their biggest problem? Figuring out the serving size.
• Age-related physical changes can affect how your body uses drugs, so as you get older, your healthcare provider may need to adjust your medication doses.
• Your body makes all the cholesterol you need and uses it to produce hormones, vitamin D and bile acids, which help digest fat.