Low-Carb Fad

Exercise and Depression

Oral Health Score May Reveal Heart Risks

Genetic Variant Ups Women's Heart Attack Risk

Genetics May Play Role in Atrial Fibrillation

Low-carb Fad Seen as Unhealthy and a Rip-Off

Popular low-carbohydrate diets are leading Americans to poor health and spawning a rip-off industry of "carb-friendly products.  The Partnership for Essential Nutrition was formed to help educate Americans about the need for healthy carbohydrates such as vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains.  Losing weight on the extreme low-carb diets can lead to such serious health problems as kidney stress, liver disorders, and gout.  For more information, check out the Partnerships web site at http://www.essentialnutrition.org.   (7/04)

Exercise Helps Depressed Heart Attack Patients

Depressed or lonely people who experience a heart attack are less likely to suffer subsequent heart attacks if they exercise regularly.  Out of a group of 2,078 people who had experienced a recent heart attack and reported themselves to be either depressed or socially isolated, less than 6% who said they got regular exercise died of a subsequent heart attack within an average of two years, compared with 12% of non-exercisers.  Physicians should be aware of these findings and think of prescribing exercise just as they would think of prescribing blood pressure meds.  Exercise three times per week was just as effective as antidepressant medication in reducing depression.  The study was published in the May 2004 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.  (7/04)

Oral Health Score May Reveal Heart Risks

New research shows that poor scores in five different areas of oral health may serve as a red flag for heart disease risk.  A small study shows that poor oral health was a stronger predictor of heart disease than other commonly used risk factors, such as HDL "good" cholesterol, high levels of a clotting factors called fibrinogen, and high triglycerides (a type of fat).  Researchers say if future studies confirm these results, a dental exam may help identify people at risk for heart attack or stroke who do not yet have symptoms of heart disease.  The study appears in the February 2004 issue of Circulation:  Journal of the American Heart Association.  (7/04)

Genetic Variant Ups Women's Heart Attack Risk

Women who have a common variation in the gene for the alpha type estrogen receptor (ESR1) face an increased risk of a heart attack after menopause.  Dr. Stephanie C.E. Schuit and colleagues from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, evaluated 2617 men and 3791 postmenopausal women for the variant form of the ESR1 gene.  As reported in the June 23/30, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, about 78% of both women and men had either one or two copies of the variant gene.  After taking account of other cardiovascular risk factors, the team found that women carriers of the variant gene had more than two-fold higher odds of having a heart attack compared with noncarriers.  In men, there was no apparent association between the ESR1 variant and heart attacks or other heart problems.  In fact, if anything, it seemed to lower their risk.  (7/04)

Genetics May Play Role in Atrial Fibrillation

Children have double the risk of developing atrial fibrillation if a parent has this heart rhythm disorder, according to a study of participants in the Framingham Heart Study.  This is the first study to find a genetic connection for atrial fibrillation in a community sample.  The study appears in the June 16, 2004 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.  (7/04)