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Families often have chief medical officers – and they're almost always women
In every family, there's often one person who takes charge of everybody's health care needs. Who makes sure everyone gets an annual health exam. That they get their teeth cleaned and their prescriptions filled. And that all the insurance claims get filed. If a child gets sick, this person stays...
Picking up a laundry basket, she felt 'the worst headache ever.' It was a brain aneurysm.
On a sunny spring afternoon, Alma Gonzalez was home alone folding laundry and talking on the phone to her husband, Jose. She finished the chore and bent over to pick up the full basket. As she stood up, her head felt extremely heavy. She mentioned this to Jose. It was "the worst headache ever," she said. Maybe you're just tired, he said, and suggested she lie down.
Cracking the calcium code to understand its role in health
People seeking straightforward nutrition advice might have a bone to pick with calcium, a building block of health that can start to seem like a piece from a complicated puzzle. Luckily, the basics – such as understanding why you need it and how to make sure you're getting enough –...
2 weeks after giving birth, teacher had a heart attack. Then a cardiac arrest.
After having their first child, Naiya Atkins and Tristan Griffith were settling into a routine. On leave from her job as a second grade teacher, Naiya was home with baby Joseph, whom they nicknamed JoJo. Tristan worked late hours and took care of JoJo at night. JoJo was 2 weeks...
'Safety bundles' may reduce pregnancy-related deaths, particularly among Black women
A woman begins losing blood during childbirth. Some vaginal bleeding is normal, but is it too much?. How that question gets answered – and how quickly a hemorrhaging mother gets treated – can make the difference between life and death. Excessive blood loss is the leading cause of death for women on the day they give birth and one of the leading causes of maternal death in the postpartum period. It is a complication that is far more likely to be fatal for Black women.
A growing understanding of the link between movement and health
A century ago, people threw medicine balls and did calisthenics to stay fit. Then came the hula hoop, vibrating belts and aerobics. People sweated to the oldies with Richard Simmons and felt the burn with Jane Fonda, before dancing their way into Latin-inspired cardio workouts or joining a high-intensity fitness program. During the pandemic, exercise bicycling boomed.
The surprising ways your siblings and your health may be linked
Anybody who has worn a hand-me-down, shared a bathroom or survived a long car trip with a brother or a sister knows that siblings can affect your life in nearly every way possible. Researchers, however, are just starting to unspool the ways those relationships affect health. "It's kind of an...
Since losing her mom to heart disease at 53, health and fitness are her priorities
Sarah Steinsiek grew up in small-town Arkansas watching her mother, Ruthie Hare, join all sorts of fitness groups. Naturally slim, Ruthie especially loved aerobics and calisthenics. She had another motivation, too. She knew it would help ward off the heart disease that had plagued nearly every member of her family.
The health connection between cardiac arrest survivors and their loved ones
Lynn and Kent Wiles agree that the day she died – then was revived – was miraculous. The couple's experience then and in the years since also illustrates how recovery from a cardiac arrest can both unite and disrupt families who go through it together. Kent, 62, still...
Abnormal heart exam almost ended NBA hopeful's basketball career
As a high school junior in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 6-foot-9 Lacey James had drawn the attention of many college basketball scouts. Then he began to cough. A case of bronchitis sent him to the hospital. That led to a chest X-ray and an electrocardiogram, or EKG, a test that examines the electrical signals from the heart.
Nation's heart health success story not written for everyone
Cardiovascular health has improved dramatically across the U.S. over the past several decades, but those gains were enjoyed almost exclusively by the wealthiest segments of the population, a new analysis finds. The progress made against cardiovascular disease masked broad, income-driven inequities in cardiovascular health that emerged and have grown increasingly...
Social factors may affect cardiovascular risk differently among Asian American adults
The lack of a job, health insurance or a college education are social factors linked to an increased likelihood for Asian American adults to have risk factors for heart disease and stroke, new research finds. But these and other factors, known as social determinants of health, may affect each Asian...
After 2 open-heart surgeries, she got a transplant – at age 2
Tamika LeBlanc was 21 weeks pregnant with her first child when someone from her doctor's office in Garden Grove, California, called. They wanted her to have another ultrasound. "We didn't get a great picture of the heart," she'd been told, prompting LeBlanc to think she was headed in for routine...
Walk this way – it's quite good for you
Walking is sometimes equated with simplicity itself. If your task is a "walk in the park," it might require little more than baby steps to get things moving. But putting one foot in front of the other can set you on a path for significantly better health, experts say – even without a lot of heavy lifting or jumping through hoops.
2 strokes in a month at 27 left her partially paralyzed. Now 31, she runs and hikes.
Molly Fitzgerald woke up one fall morning with intense pain in her neck. It was so bad she thought about going to the emergency room. But Molly eventually pegged the pain to work stress. Maybe the migraines she'd had lately were also to blame, she thought. She took pain medicine...
How might fiber lower diabetes risk? Your gut could hold the clues
Eating more dietary fiber may help prevent Type 2 diabetes by promoting beneficial gut bacteria and substances produced during metabolism, according to new research in Hispanic adults. "Consistent evidence suggests diabetes-protective effects of dietary fiber intake, but exactly how that protection occurs remains unclear," said Dr. Zheng Wang, a study...
Dr. Helen Taussig's work saved 'blue babies' and made her the mother of pediatric cardiology
Before Dr. Helen Taussig came along, pediatric cardiology didn't exist. Babies born with heart defects often turned blue and died. She helped them to live. Before Taussig spoke up, a morning sickness drug, which caused birth defects in thousands of babies in Europe, was being considered for mass distribution in the U.S. She helped keep it out.
For healthy spring cleaning, think NEAT (and dust carefully)
As traditions go, spring cleaning probably doesn't bring the thrills that come from watching a college basketball tournament, taking a break at the beach or spying the first robins outside your window. But no matter how you approach it, cleaning might affect your health in ways you haven't considered. We...
Heart disease, stroke risk may be higher in certain neighborhoods
People living in neighborhoods with high rates of environmental and socioeconomic problems may face a higher risk for heart disease and double the risk for stroke, new research finds. The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found the combination of chronic environmental and social issues,...
Strokes in young adults may be caused more often by migraines, other nontraditional factors
Strokes are typically caused by high blood pressure and other traditional risk factors. But for adults under 35 who have a stroke, migraine headaches and other nontraditional risk factors may be more likely to blame, new research finds. The higher risk declines as people age, according to the study, published...
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Heart and Stroke News: Stories about people, science and health, from American Heart Association News.
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