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Middle-aged folks who don’t exercise are putting themselves at risk of life-threatening complex heartbeat irregularities, a new study says. Adults 40 to 65 with low fitness levels had a 52% increased risk for irregular heartbeat disorders, also known as arrhythmias, according to findings presented Wednesday at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting in Madrid. Age also played a factor, with people’s risk rising as they advanced through middle age, researchers found. These sort of irregular heartbeats can be a red flag for heart disease, and indicate that docs need to pay closer attention to the heart rhythms of middle-aged adults, researchers said. “These findings are a powerful reminder that the heart often whispers before it shouts,” lead researcher Dr. Amit Moses, an internal medical resident at Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Israel, said in a news release. “Subtle signs, such as frequent irregular heartbeats and complex arrhythmias, give us an early warning of future risk before symptoms occur,” Moses said. “This could allow early intervention to alter the trajectory of disease, allowing us to move to a new era of anticipatory heart medicine.” For the study, researchers screened 1,151 healthy adults 40 to 65 who didn’t have any heart symptoms or structural heart disease — disease that affects the heart’s walls, valves and chambers. About 88% were men, and the average age was 52.… read on > read on >

Enjoy a pint of beer, a glass of wine or a dram of whiskey? Then make sure you have some healthy eats and a good dose of exercise on the side, a new study says. A healthy diet and regular physical activity can protect your liver at least partially from the harmful effects of alcohol, researchers reported Aug. 27 in the Journal of Hepatology. Any amount of daily alcohol intake or binge drinking increases a person’s risk of death from liver damage, researchers found. But a good diet and more exercise significantly blunt that risk, even if you’re a heavy drinker or binge drinker, results revealed. “We found that adherence to high levels of physical activity and/or diet quality was associated with a lower risk of liver-related death across all drinking patterns,” said senior researcher Dr. Naga Chalasani, a professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. In the U.S., more than half (53%) of adults regularly imbibe, and about 178,000 people die from excess alcohol use each year, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 60,000 participants in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1984 and 2018. The survey asked people about their alcohol use, diet and exercise. Researchers defined heavy drinking as more than three drinks per day… read on > read on >

System integrates glucose biosensor with an AI-driven platform to show how food, activity, stress, sleep affect the body in real time read on >

Seniors with known heart-related problems aren’t doing a very good job taking steps to protect their health, a new study says. Older folks with high blood pressure, stroke survivors and heart failure patients in the United States all have been neglecting Life’s Essential 8 — a checklist of lifestyle factors that can protect heart health, researchers found. “On average, participants with one cardiovascular disease had a Life’s Essential 8 score 9 points lower than those without cardiovascular disease,” lead researcher James Walker, a medical student at Northwestern University in Chicago, said in a news release. Life’s Essential 8 recommends that people eat healthy, exercise, avoid smoking, sleep better, lose excess weight, and manage their cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels, according to the American Heart Association. For this study, researchers analyzed a sample of more than 3,000 adults 65 and older who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2013 and 2018. The team used people’s responses to estimate their adherence to Life’s Essential 8. Results showed that people with one or more heart-related health problems had an average score below 60 out of 100, while those without heart problems had an average score of 68. This gap was mainly due to differences in blood pressure control and exercise, Walker said. “Physical activity and blood pressure scores tended to be… read on > read on >

Cities can be designed in ways that promote walking, providing residents with built-in health benefits, a new study says. People who live in more walkable cities do indeed get more daily steps, researchers reported Aug. 13 in the journal Nature. Average steps increase or decrease by about 1,100 per day when people move between cities that promote or inhibit walking, researchers found. “Our study shows that how much you walk is not just a question of motivation,” lead researcher Tim Althoff, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a news release. “There are many things that affect daily steps, and the built environment is clearly one of them.” Prior studies have shown that for every 1,000 extra daily steps a person gets, their risk of death decreases by 15%, researchers said in background notes. For the study, the research team analyzed data from users of a step-tracking app called Argus between 2013 and 2016. Specifically, the team compared the steps of more than 5,400 people who moved one or more times between 1,600 cities in the United States, pulled from an overall data set of 2.1 million Argus users. “Some of our prior work suggested that our physical, built environment makes a big difference in how much we move, but we couldn’t produce particularly strong… read on > read on >

Nearly half of U.S. adults should receive earlier treatment for high blood pressure, including lifestyle changes and medications, according to a set of new guidelines issued by America’s top heart health groups. The guidelines call for early and more individualized treatment for the nearly 47% of Americans who have an average blood pressure of 130/80 mm/Hg or higher, says the joint report by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. “High blood pressure is the most common and most modifiable risk factor for heart disease,” said Dr. Daniel Jones, who chaired the committee that wrote the guidelines. He’s dean and professor emeritus of the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson. “By addressing individual risks earlier and offering more tailored strategies across the lifespan, the 2025 guideline aims to aid clinicians in helping more people manage their blood pressure and reduce the toll of heart disease, kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes and dementia,” Jones added in a news release. The new guidelines are an update from the last set issued in 2017 by the AHA and ACC, which lowered the threshold for high blood pressure from 140/90 to 130/80. This new set drills down on managing blood pressure among people with unhealthy lifestyles or specific medical challenges. For example, the guidelines offer specific recommendations on lifestyle modifications that can lower blood… read on > read on >