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Cardiovascular
UK approves weight-loss jab for heart attacks, stroke
British health officials have approved weight-loss drug Wegovy to be used to prevent heart attacks and strokes in overweight people, the first such medication...
CVD among top three causes of death in SA
Cardiovascular or heart-related diseases have raced to the top three causes of death in the past two decades, say South African life assurers, who...
Plant-based meat alternatives less risky for CVD, Canadian study confirms
Studies comparing the impact of plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) and animal-based meats consistently suggest that the former improve cardiovascular risk factors – which appears...
Why major HIV and statins finding may not apply in South Africa
One of the biggest stories in HIV in the past year was that statins could help reduce cardiovascular disease in people with the virus....
Fewer people may need statins to prevent heart disease – US study
A new way of determining heart disease risk could slash the numbers of people who are prescribed statins, suggests a recent study, although doctors...
Excess kilos in teen years can double later stroke risk – Finnish study
Women who were overweight or obese as teenagers or young adults had more than a twofold increased risk for stroke before 55, suggest researchers,...
Atrial fibrillation tied to higher risk of stroke and dementia
After examining data on more than 5m people from British GP practices, researchers from the University of Birmingham found that patients with a common...
What's best? US study compares step-counting to timed workouts
A large US study has looked at whether physical exercise or the goal of reaching a daily step count has a better impact on...
Fish oil supplements may increase heart conditions risk – global study
Recent research findings suggest that fish oil supplements might increase the risk of someone developing a heart condition or stroke, but could reduce the...
SA heart groups urge stricter testing to prevent ASCVD
SA heart groups are calling for stricter low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) targets and lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) testing to be incorporated into routine practice for preventing...
CVD benefits from weight-loss drugs a 'game-changer'
Two important studies were presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO), based on the landmark Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes (SELECT) trial from...
High mortality risk after hip breaks in elderly – Canadian analysis
A recent analysis found poor survival rates after bone fractures in older adults, with fewer than a third of men and half of women...
Rush of anger may trigger heart attack – US study
In efforts to dig deeper into a previously observed link between anger and heart attacks, researchers from Columbia University Irving Medical Centre, Yale School...
Pollution linked to stress, heart disease deaths – US study
A study in more than 3 000 US counties, involving more than 315m residents, has suggested that air pollution is linked with stress and...
AFib rising among younger people – US study
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) – an abnormal heart rhythm that affects the heart’s upper chambers and can increase the risk of stroke and heart failure...
FDA heart pump recall after link to deaths and injuries
A pair of heart devices linked to hundreds of injuries and at least 14 deaths has received the FDA’s most serious recall, the agency announced...
Call to re-assess growing burden of AF and its consequences
Heart failure, not stroke, is the most common complication of atrial fibrillation – which affects 37m people worldwide – say experts, calling for the...
No benefits from 'outdated' beta-blockers after heart attack
Swedish researchers have described as outdated the standard practice of prescribing beta-blockers after a heart attack to lessen the risk of a future cardiovascular...
High salt consumption among CVD sufferers – US study
A recent study found that people with cardiovascular disease consumed double the amount of sodium per day than recommended – 89% of them exceeding...
Tanzania winning NCD war as it merges HIV and diabetes care
Non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes have emerged as serious health crises in developing countries, as HIV was a decade ago. New models of...
Weight loss drug approved for heart disease prevention
Wegovy is the first weight loss drug to be approved for major heart disease prevention, after the US Food & Drug Administration gave the...
Experts challenge ‘one size fits all’ aspirin guidelines
Heart disease researchers have identified a group of patients in whom, they suggest, international guidelines on aspirin use for heart health may not apply.
In...
Heart attack survivors could risk major health issues for years – UK study
A large British population study has suggested that survivors of heart attacks could face a greater risk of developing further serious health conditions for...
Early death risk for workers who sit all day – Taiwanese study
People who spend most of their work time sitting have 16% more chance of dying earlier than normal, suggest scientists, with their risk of...
Experts urge awareness of heart events tied to breast cancer drugs
Pharmacovigilance is needed to identify, monitor, and prevent cardiovascular adverse events (CV-AEs) associated with new agents for breast cancer and to reduce the risk...
Increase in stroke cases in KZN
An emergency medical services company in KwaZulu-Natal says it has seen a significant increase in the number of stroke cases in the past two...
Psoriasis tied to increased heart disease risk – Italian study
In a large cross-sectional study, nearly one-third of patients with severe psoriasis met criteria for coronary microvascular dysfunction, with the authors suggesting the need...
Obesity-linked deaths in US triple since 1999
Obesity in the US is ballooning, with the number of adults who died of heart disease and whose death records cited obesity as a...
Statins slash CVD risk in people with HIV – global study
A recent study suggests that one daily statin reduces the risk of heart disease in younger people with HIV, this group having a 1.5...
Researchers confirm vitamin D link in CVD risk reduction
Scientists say that their recent study, the largest of its kind, suggests a link between vitamin D levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease...
New hypertension guidelines released by ESH
The European Society of Hypertension (ESH) has released refreshed guidelines for the management of hypertension, which have been endorsed by the European Renal Association...
Women’s reproductive history linked to CVD risk – UK-Yale study
An earlier first birth, a higher number of live births, and starting periods at a younger age are all linked to a higher risk...
Aspirin reduces cardiovascular events in elderly with raised Lp(a) – ASPREE analysis
Low-dose aspirin for the primary prevention of cardiovascular events may specifically benefit older individuals with genotypes associated with elevated plasma lipoprotein(a), outweighing harm related...
AstraZeneca’s diabetes drug first to lower fatality in all forms of heart failure
In a pre-specified pooled analysis from AstraZeneca’s phase III trial of the diabetes drug Farxiga (dapagliflozin) in patients with heart failure (HF), the medication...
Morning or night for BP meds? It makes no difference, finds Scottish study
It doesn’t matter what time of day or night you take your blood pressure medication, a recent TIME study has found, contradicting previous research...
Daily polypill instead of drug trio reduces CVD risk – SECURE randomised trial
Combining aspirin, an ACE inhibitor, and a statin into a single “polypill” improved cardiovascular outcomes in secondary prevention compared with prescribing the medications separately,...
Salt substitutes slash risk of CVD, death – Chinese-Australian meta-analysis
Dietary salt substitutes not only lower blood pressure but also have a clear impact on hard clinical endpoints, lowering the risk of myocardial infarction...
Sitting for hours can increase CVD risk, hasten death – cohort study
Recent research has confirmed opinions that prolonged sitting may be hazardous to your health. An international study surveying more than 100,000 people in 21...
Less TV time could slash coronary heart disease cases – joint study
Watching too much TV is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease regardless of an individual's genetic makeup, say scientists.
The researchers, from the...
Aspirin link to CVD drop in kidney disease patients confirmed – German analysis
Patients with higher-grade chronic kidney disease (CKD) but no established cardiovascular disease who took daily aspirin showed a 43% cut in the rate of...