Existing Heart Failure Drug May Treat Potential COVID-19 Long-Hauler Symptom
In a new study out of University of California San Diego School of Medicine, researchers found a drug used for heart failure improves symptoms associated with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, otherwise known as POTS. This complex, debilitating disorder affects the body’s autonomic nervous system, causing a high heart rate, usually when standing.
Writing in the February 15, 2021 online issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, study authors investigated the drug ivabradine and its effects on heart rate, quality of life and plasma norepinephrine levels in persons living with POTS. Norepinephrine is a stress hormone and neurotransmitter. In blood plasma, it is used as a measure of sympathetic nervous system activity. Trial participants experienced a reduction in heart rate, improvement in their symptoms and overall quality of life one month after taking the drug.
Feb 17, 2021
Hypertension had strongest link to midlife brain hypometabolism
What’s good for the heart is ultimately good for the brain, data from a prospective cohort study showed. The researchers noted that midlife cardiovascular risk especially hypertension in asymptomatic patients was tied to middle-age brain hypometabolism in areas known to be affected by dementia.
Subclinical carotid plaque burden was also associated with reduced brain metabolism independently of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and smoking reported Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, of Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares in Madrid, Spain, and co-authors.
“The findings presented here suggest that the interplay between cardiovascular risk factors, atherosclerosis, and altered brain metabolism starts early in life,” they wrote in the
The Hidden Heart Problem That s Claiming Men s Lives Now
It s all about rhythm. 15/02/2021
Working out is one of the healthiest things you can do for your heart, so imagine exercising intensely for a decade – like cycling at least 25 hours a week – and then finding out you have, of all things, a heart problem. That’s what happened to Fabian Sanchis-Gomar, M.D., Ph.D. At 26, he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, or AFib. It’s a heart-rhythm disorder that increases your risk of a stroke or heart failure, and it’s killing nearly 40 percent more Americans (especially Black men) than it did just two decades ago.