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Nearly half of all deaths in the United States in 2012 that were caused by cardiometabolic diseases, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, have been linked to substandard eating habits, according to a study published in the March 7 issue of JAMA and funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
In a multicenter, international study of infants and children who suffered cardiac arrest while in the hospital, NIH-funded researchers have found that body cooling, or therapeutic hypothermia, is no more effective than actively keeping the body at a normal temperature, or therapeutic normothermia.
Young children do follow in their parents’ footsteps. Literally.
That’s the conclusion of NIH-funded researchers who found that in underserved populations, parents’ physical activity—and their sedentary behavior—directly correlates with the activity level of their preschoolers. Researchers say these findings, published January 9 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, could lead to interventions that focus more on helping parents model—not just encourage—an active lifestyle for their children.
For the seventh year in a row, U.S. News and World Report ranked the NIH-developed DASH Diet “best overall” diet. With its focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean proteins, the diet also ranked as the best for diabetes and healthy eating, and tied as the best for heart disease prevention.
WHAT: A new study shows that the drug fenofibrate might reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes who have high levels of triglycerides and low levels of “good” cholesterol, despite being treated with statins. The study, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), appears in the December 28 issue of JAMA Cardiology.
A team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health has uncovered a possible biochemical mechanism behind a rare, painful genetic disorder called ACDC disease, which causes calcium buildup in the arteries. The finding could lead to the first effective treatment for the potentially debilitating condition and might provide insight into other vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, the researchers say. The study is in the Dec. 13 issue of Science Signaling.
WHAT: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have identified seven new areas of the genome linked to body fat distribution—a finding that could offer new insights into the biologic mechanisms that influence a person’s risk for diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
A protein known to promote allergic diseases in people helps the body defend against Staphylococcus aureus, a leading cause of bacterial skin infections in the United States, according to a study appearing in the November 18 issue of Science Immunology.
The study authors from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) say the finding offers insights that could be used to help improve treatments for staph-related infections, including the potentially deadly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA.
A team of researchers led by NIH scientists from the Framingham Heart Study says it has identified a group of new chemical markers in the blood that could provide the basis for the first reliable blood test to detect heavy alcohol use. In addition to screening ordinary citizens for signs of alcohol misuse, such a diagnostic test could be used to screen airline pilots, bus drivers, train conductors, and others whose jobs directly affect the public safety. These biomarkers could also help shed light on the molecular basis of alcohol addiction, identify patients at high risk for alcoholism, and lead to new strategies for treating the disease, the researchers say. The study, the largest of its kind to evaluate blood markers for alcohol misuse, will appear in Molecular Psychiatry on November 15.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed a new, less invasive way to perform transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a procedure widely used to treat aortic valve stenosis, a lethal heart condition. The new approach, called transcaval access, will make TAVR more available to high risk patients, especially women, whose femoral arteries are too small or diseased to withstand the standard procedure. The Journal of the American College of Cardiology published the findings.
