Vitamin D-ficiency may up blood pressure

Ladies: You already know vitamin D is good for your bones, but now it appears that premenopausal women with a vitamin D deficiency have increased risk of developing high blood pressure in mid-life. In the Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study, researchers followed 559 women beginning in 1992 when the women were between the ages of 24 and 44, with an average age of 38. Researchers took blood pressure readings each year and measured vitamin D levels once in 1993; they compared these results with systolic blood pressure (the pressure in the vessels when the heart beats) taken in 2007. Premenopausal women with vitamin D deficiency had triple the risk of developing systolic hypertension 15 years later compared to those with normal levels of vitamin D. To maintain healthy levels of vitamin D, eat a healthy, vitamin D-rich diet that includes fortified milk products and fatty fish like salmon, tuna and sardines.

Kick bad habits to save your life

Everybody knows that smoking, unhealthy eating and lack of exercise can all hurt your heart—but a new study shows these bad habits may cut a decade off your life. Researchers from Oxford University looked at data from almost 19,000 male civil servants who were examined in the late 1960s when they were 40 to 69 years old. Researchers looked at the participants’ medical history, lifestyle and smoking habits, weight, blood pressure, heart and lung function and cholesterol and blood sugar levels. More than 7,000 of the surviving men from the study were re-evaluated in 1997. Men who smoked and had unhealthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels at the start had double the chance of dying from a non-heart-related problem and triple the chance for a heart-related problem (10 years earlier, too) than men without these risk factors. While the percentage of people who have died of a heart attack or stroke has dropped by about 25 percent in industrialized countries over the last decade, having risk factors hasn’t fallen so quickly: Since 1999, uncontrolled hypertension has decreased by only 16 percent in the United States, high blood cholesterol by 19 percent and tobacco use by 15 percent. What’s more, people don’t exercise any more than they did a decade ago, and more children are obese. Let’s hope that knowing the costly price we pay for our unhealthy lifestyle choices will encourage all of us to kick bad habits to the curb.

Scan may help defeat heart disease

In the battle to fight heart disease, doctors have a new option for patients—coronary artery calcium scans that detect calcium deposits in the coronary arteries. According to an Early Identification of Subclinical Atherosclerosis with Noninvasive Imaging Research study led by investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, this noninvasive test can help identify patients with “silent” heart disease, or cardiac ischemia (lack of blood and oxygen to the heart), who are at risk of a heart attack or sudden death and need medical care. Researchers performed scans on 1,361 volunteers and followed them over four years. There was a strong relationship between the amount of calcium found and chance of subsequent cardiac events. The scan seems to be more effective than standard cholesterol and blood pressure measurements and may be an important new cost-effective technology in the war against heart disease.

Workout results vary by sex and race

You hear it all the time and you know it’s true—exercise is good for you. A new study shows the benefits you get from physical activity may be determined by your sex and race. The study is based on data collected from 8,764 middle-aged African-American and Caucasian men and women who have participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study for the past nine years. According to a report in the Journal of Lipid Research, people who added about an hour of mild exercise (walking or leisurely swimming) or 30 minutes of moderate exercise (bicycling or running) had increased levels of heart-healthy HDL cholesterol. Researchers found that more exercise meant less harmful triglycerides (a type of fat made by the body and found in foods), but only in Caucasians. Increased activity also seemed to improve levels of artery-clogging LDL cholesterol in women, but not in men. What’s more, added exercise brought total cholesterol levels down, but only in African-American women. Researchers believe these differences may be related to hormonal differences between men and women and genetic variation between races. Always remember that no matter your sex or race, exercise positively affects your health—so get up and get moving this holiday season!