A measure gaining traction in New York City would require restaurants to serve healthy beverages rather than sugary drinks in kids’ meal combos. The Healthy Kids Meals Bill announced this week by NYC Speaker Corey Johnson would make water, milk and 100% fruit juice the standard beverages in restaurant offerings aimed at children.
Air pollution is a big killer. Researchers estimate that smog—particularly the tiniest particles in the mix—contributes to the early deaths of up to seven million people worldwide each year. Harm to fog-filled lungs is an obvious concern, yet air pollution is notably linked to cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and stroke.
Even as a young adult, being overweight may cause higher blood pressure and thicken heart muscle, setting the stage for heart disease later in life, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Circulation.
The American Heart Association (AHA) is sharply critical of a bill passed last week in California that prevents local communities in the state from adopting any new local sugary drink taxes for the next 12 years. The AHA calls Assembly Bill 1838 “a last-minute, backroom deal negotiated and written in secret by beverage industry lobbyists and their allies” and warns that it is a significant step backwards in the ongoing effort to reduce overconsumption of sugary drinks.
The Philadelphia City Council has passed a law requiring chain restaurants operating within the city to have sodium warning labels on its menu for high-sodium items – and the American Heart Association (AHA) couldn’t be happier about it.
Crossing your legs or even talking are among the seven common errors that can lead to inaccurate blood pressure readings, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
The organization is using May - National High Blood Pressure Education Month – to bring to light these measurement mistakes – all of which can lead to an artificially high reading:
Less than 40 percent of people with severe elevations in cholesterol are being prescribed appropriate drug treatment, according to a nationally representative study reported in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Circulation.
Data from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was used to estimate prevalence rates of self-reported screening, awareness and statin therapy among U.S. adults age 20 and older with severely elevated LDL or “bad cholesterol” levels of 190 mg/dL or higher.
In women with heart disease, constriction of peripheral vessels during mental stress affects the heart circulation more than men’s, potentially raising women’s risk of heart-related events and death, according to new research in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, an American Heart Association (AHA) journal.
In most people, mental stress causes peripheral vessels to constrict. In people with heart disease, this effect can cause a reduction in blood supply to the heart muscle called “ischemia.”
Infant deaths from critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) decreased more than 33 percent in eight states that mandated screening for CCHD using a test called pulse oximetry, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In addition, deaths from other or unspecified cardiac causes decreased by 21 percent.
Pulse oximetry is a simple bedside test to determine the amount of oxygen in a baby’s blood and the baby’s pulse rate. Low levels of oxygen in the blood can be a sign of a CCHD.
New research presented this week at APHA’s 2017 Annual Meeting and Expo examined the burden of air pollution and its association with mortality in Chinese cities. The study by researchers at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health showed a significant correlation between higher air quality index concentrations and higher mortality rates. The study is the first to provide strong evidence of the burden of air pollution in major Chinese cities, as well as the impacts of air quality and climate change on urban population mortality.
