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A Spanish research team has reported that a heart attack in the morning is more severe than having one at any other time of day.

Lead researcher Dr. Borja Ibanez, from the National Center for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, said, “It is well-known for several decades that the incidence of heart attack is variable across the time of the day, with higher incidence in the early morning hours.”

From in.news.yahoo.com:

It has been speculated, though not proven, that the body’s circadian clock triggers the release of substances into the bloodstream that make the heart more prone to a heart attack at certain times of the day, he added.

“What was completely unexplored was the effect of the time of the day of onset of the heart attack on the extent of heart muscle death,” Ibanez said. “This is the very first examination showing that the human heart has a variable tolerance to ischemia according to the time of the day.”

The report was published in the April 27 online edition of Heart.

For the study, Ibanez’s group collected data on 811 patients who had heart attacks between 2003 and 2009. Specifically, they looked at the amount of heart muscle damage in relation to the time the heart attack occurred.

The researchers found the most damage happened when the heart attack occurred between 6 a.m. and noon, compared with those whose attack occurred between 6 p.m. and midnight.

The researchers added that heart attacks happening between 6 a.m. and noon are likely to damage about 20 percent more heart muscle than a heart attack occurring in the afternoon or evening.

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A study has concluded that being a carer for a sick or disabled relative can sometimes promote the health of the helpers.

This finding was revealed by a team of researchers led by psychologist Dr Michael Poulin, of the University of Buffalo, who analyzed helping behavior and well-being among 73 spousal carers.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

Dr Poulin found that carers experience more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions when they engage in ‘active care’ like feeding, bathing, toileting and general physical caring for the spouse.

But the study found that passive care  -  which requires the spouse to simply be nearby in case anything should go wrong  -  provokes negative emotions in the carer and leads to fewer positive emotions.

Dr Poulin said: ‘Our data doesn’t tell us exactly what psychological processes are responsible, but we hypothesise that people may be hardwired so that actively attending to the concrete needs and feelings of others reduces our personal anxiety.’

The study involved 73 subjects, aged from 35 to 89 with an average of 71.5, providing full-time home care to an ailing spouse. Participants carried Palm Pilots that beeped randomly to signal them to report how much time they had spent actively helping or being on call since the last beep, the activities they engaged in and their emotional state.

Overall, we wouldn’t say that caring for an ailing loved one is going to be good for you or healthy for you, but certain activities may be beneficial, especially in high-quality relationships’, Dr Poulin added.

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If you are looking for the best bodybuilding supplements, this YouTube video is a great piece of advice for you. With this video, you will learn how to boost the amount of testosterone in your body without falling prey to supplement frauds and coming in contact with dangerous hormones.

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Regular use of painkillers like aspirin or ibuprofen can reduce the risk of an individual of developing colon or rectal cancers – sometimes by as much as 50 percent – according to a new study.

“The (risk) reductions that we saw here are not inconsequential,” said Dr. Elizabeth Ruder of the National Cancer Institute, the study’s lead author.

From Reuters.com:

The current study expanded on earlier research by including larger numbers of people and assessing where in the colon cancers occurred.

Using questionnaire data from more than 300,000 adults, Ruder’s group analyzed how often people took any of 19 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) pain medications, which include aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen sodium (Aleve), sulindil (Clinoril), and others.

The observed drop in cancer risk varied depending on how often people took the painkillers and the type of cancer in question.

Overall, taking any of the NSAID drugs was associated with a 20 percent drop in the risk of colorectal cancer over 10 years.

And the more frequently people took a drug, the less likely they were to be diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer.

“But we’re not at the point that one could make a public health recommendation” based on the findings, Ruder added.

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According to a finding of a new study from doctors in Utah who looked at the relationship between periodic fasting and cardiovascular disease, regular fasting may be good for the heart.

It was found by the researchers that people who fasted regularly had a 58 percent lower risk of coronary disease compared with those who said they did not fast.

From Well.blogs.nytimes.com:

The study showed only an association between fasting and better heart health, which means it’s possible that fasting may not have a direct effect but might just be more common among people who are healthier to begin with. Devout Mormons, for instance, abstain from alcohol, smoking and caffeine, which are all factors that could affect heart health.

But the researchers say the findings are important because they affirm the results of an earlier, larger study, published in 2008 in The American Journal of Cardiology, that found a similar association between fasting and heart disease among 448 patients.

“The first study we did was not a chance finding,’’ said Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology for Intermountain Healthcare, a health services and managed care firm in Salt Lake City. “We were able to replicate the findings and show that people who fast routinely have a lower prevalence of coronary disease.’’

The finding of the report was presented at the American College of Cardiology conference in New Orleans this week.

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Australian men are struggling with rejection in the bedroom, according to a sex therapist.

Bettina Arndt said women, who cook and clean for their men, might be better off by offering sex to them.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Arndt, who is coming to Byron Bay and Brisbane for a series of relationship talks, said many women would rather eat chocolates, get a good night’s sleep, read a good book “or read any book” than have sex.

“Women are shutting up shop. They work so hard to please their partners by keeping a beautiful house and cooking nice meals and so on, when a 10-minute bonk might be a better option every now and then,” the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

Arndt interviewed 150 men for a new book, ‘What Men Want In Bed’, and found many of them were locked in a “heroic” emotional struggle over their love for their partners and their inability to get enough or, in some cases, any sex.

“A lot of men talk about the fact they do find it difficult to be constantly rejected,” she said.

She added, “Most of us don’t want to live with our room-mate or sister – intimacy is what makes relationships unique.”

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Welsh scientists have spoken of the growing public health emergency in India after discovering antibiotic-resistant superbugs in the drinking water supply.

The Cardiff University team that discovered the NDM-1 gene that creates the new breed of superbugs said some of the resistant bacteria found in New Delhi could cause dysentery and cholera.

From Walesonline.co.uk:

Their findings emerged as the World Health Organisation today said there was less than a handful of antibiotics currently in the pipeline to combat these types of superbugs.

It added that the worldwide spread of genes resistant to last-resort antibiotics, like NDM-1 which has been already been found in people in South Wales, is a “nightmare scenario”.

Professor Tim Walsh, of Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, who led the research in New Delhi, said: “We found resistant bacteria in public water used for drinking, washing and food preparation and also in pools and rivulets in heavily-populated areas where children play.

The discovery was termed as “extremely worrying” by the researchers.

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