Sex can be dangerous for people with heart conditions, a new study shows. Although the chances of someone keeling over from sex is rare, it does trigger heart attacks on occasion, particularly with men, according to a 1996 study by Harvard Medical School researchers. Thus, the researchers say, if you have cardiovascular disease, or even if it runs in your family, it’s important to ask your doctor what type of sexual activity is safe. For instance, if you’ve recently suffered a heart attack, it’s a good idea to wait three to four weeks before having intercourse, current guidelines suggest. If you have heart failure, your doctor may recommend that you avoid lying on your back during sex, because fluid is more likely to pool in your lungs in that position. “The physical danger posed by sexual activity is probably the least of your problems, however,” writes Ray Hainer of CNN.com. “There are plenty of other ways for heart disease to curtail your sex life. Everything from incision pain following bypass surgery to the emotional stress of living with a heart condition can get in the way of intimacy.” He says that sexual activity and heart conditions often interact in complicated ways. The problem is exacerbated, he says, because heart patients (and their partners) are often uncomfortable discussing their sex lives with their doctors, and vice versa. “I’ve found that most doctors don’t have the time– or the personality– to talk about sex with their heart patients,” says Dr. Edward Chapunoff, a cardiologist in private practice in Pompano Beach, Florida, and the author of “Answering Your Questions About Heart Disease and Sex.” He said, “They are evasive about it. They won’t bring it up themselves and even if the patient brings it up, a doctor might be hesitant to discuss it.”

New York’s Cuttino Mobley says leaving court will prolong his life. Just as the Stephon Marbury drama comes to a close, another New York Knicks guard brings a plot twist to Madison Square Garden. Eleven-year NBA vet Cuttino Mobley has retired from the court, saying his hypertrophic cardiomyopathy condition has worsened. The disease, which causes heart muscle to thicken and challenges blood circulation, made his decision necessary, Mobley says. “The specialists I’ve seen made it clear that my heart condition has gotten worse and I couldn’t continue to play professional basketball without putting my health and life in serious danger,” says Mobley. “As much as I want to keep playing in the NBA, I have no choice but to follow the advice of my doctors and step away from the league.” Mobley had recently been traded to the Knicks from the Clippers, requiring physical screenings that alerted him to the increased problem. “The doctors said to not chance it and I feel as though they’re right, having an 8-year-old son, having a long life ahead of me, it’s the smart thing,” Mobley adds. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been connected to the deaths of Celtics forward Reggie Lewis and Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers, who collapsed on court.

Lung cancer patients are blamed for their disease. A majority of Americans, including many health-care workers, believe that people who have lung cancer are at least partly to blame for their disease, a new survey finds. In the poll of nearly 1,500 American adults, researchers found 59 percent of respondents agreeing with the notion that lung cancer patients helped bring the disease on themselves. It’s a bias that over time has led to fewer resources to investigate the No. 1 cancer killer in the United States and added shame to the burden that lung cancer patients carry, experts said. “Sadly, the stigma has been used to justify underfunding, not only of research but also of programs for early detection and treatment,” said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, president and CEO of Lung Cancer Alliance, a private organization providing support and advocacy for people with lung cancer. He added that too many people blame lung cancer on individual patients because they mistakenly believe that smoking causes all cases of the disease. Lung cancer is among the leading causes of cancer deaths in the United States. The American Lung Association estimates that more then 215,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year, and more than 161,000 will die of the disease. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of lung cancers are diagnosed in nonsmokers, the association estimates.

A little music does the heart good. Keep the gospel playing on your iPod or throw on a little Beyoncé and sit back and relax, knowing that your blood vessels are expanding wide open, letting the blood flow freely.  Turns out that hearing a joyful noise does the heart good. In fact, nothing could be healthier for your heart, a new study suggests. “Listening to music that makes you feel good may also be a good preventive measure for heart health,” said study author Dr. Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore. “There’s no downside. It’s simple, economic and it may pay off dividends in regard to a healthy heart.” Dr. Carl Lavie, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention director of the Stress Testing Laboratory at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, also told HealthDay: “Although this was just [a short-term] study, it suggests that laughter and listening to relaxing music may provide cardio-protection or be heart-healthy. I suspect that the authors are correct in this theory. But the important thing to know is whether regular performance of this or similar activity would have long-term benefits on the cardiovascular system, similar to… such things as regular aerobic exercise that has been extensively studied and proved to have substantial long-term benefits.” Previous studies had found that music could affect heart rate and blood pressure. Prayer has also been shown to improve cardiac performance. And Miller’s group previously found that laughter improved vascular health.
  

Can you tell if he’s HIV-positive? A new feature at BET.com asks if you can tell by looking at someone whether he or she is HIV-positive. “Are You Positive?” provides information about HIV and AIDS as well as HIV-testing information and a site locater as part of a special feature that appears in advance of the BET News special of the same name. To find out more, go to BET.com/lifestyle.
(www.bet.com/lifestyle/bodysoul)

Plastic water bottles are linked to heart disease, diabetes. The first major study of health effects in people from a chemical used in plastic baby bottles, food cans and a host of other products shows a connection between them and a higher risk for heart disease and diabetes. People who have a higher exposure to bisphenol A or BPA have a 39-percent higher risk for those diseases, the study’s authors say. And because of the possible public health implications, the results “deserve scientific follow-up,” the scientists added. But the study is preliminary, far from proof that the chemical causes heart disease and diabetes, The Associated Press reports. Two Dartmouth College analysts of medical research said the study raises questions but provides no answers about whether the ubiquitous chemical is harmful. The findings were released Tuesday to coincide with the researchers’ presentation of their findings at a Food and Drug Administration scientific advisers’ hearing. The FDA has the power to limit use of BPA in food containers and medical devices but last month released an internal report concluding that BPA exposure is not enough to warrant action. Since then, another government agency released a separate report concluding that risks to people, in particular to infants and children, cannot be ruled out. Past animal studies have suggested reproductive and hormone-related problems from BPA. The new study is the largest to examine possible BPA effects in people and the first to suggest a direct link to heart disease, said scientists Frederick vom Saal and John Peterson Myers, both longtime critics of the chemical. Dr. Ana Soto of Tufts University said the study raises enough concerns to warrant government action to limit BPA exposure. No government action has been taken so far. However, health officials recommend that you limit your use of plastic water bottles with the number 7 on the bottom, and avoid microwaving plastic containers.

Drug war is devastating Black communities. A $45 billion policy has had devastating consequences for millions of African Americans, says a drug policy expert, who is to debate his position before a London crowd. Absent fathers, orphaned children and growing numbers of HIV and Hepatitis C infections are what some African Americans are facing due to the U.S. war on drugs. Exactly 25 years ago, former president Ronald Reagan announced his zero tolerance measure to tackle what he saw was a growing epidemic of illegal drug use in the nation. Politicians believed that millions of federal dollars should be spent on prosecuting and sentencing drug users in the hope that it would reduce drug addiction and send out the message of zero tolerance. In 2005, the Office of National Drug Control stated that the federal government has spent more than $45.5 on the war on drugs, and it appears that African Americans are facing the brunt of this no-nonsense policy, reports the Voice of London. According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans make up an estimated 15 percent of drug users but they account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Deborah Peterson Small a former director of the Drug Policy Alliance will speak about the racism within the war on drugs policy at the conference. “The war on drugs policy has had a devastating effect on African-American communities, particularly poor communities that already suffer from a whole host of economic and social problems,” she said. Pointing to prison sentencing, Small, a New Yorker, says the mandatory-minimum-sentence policy for low-level drug offences subjects people who are low-level participants to the same or harsher sentences as major drug dealers. Currently, crack cocaine is the only drug for which the first offense of simple possession can trigger a federal mandatory-minimum sentence. Possessing 5 grams of crack with a street value of $1,000 carries an automatic five-year jail sentence. Despite the high rate of African-American drug convictions, a recently released report by Human Rights Watch, found that African Americans are not the greatest users of drugs. According to Jamie Fellner, author of the report, Whites are more likely to be drug users.

Heavy people get heart attacks 12 years sooner. The fatter you are, the more likely you are to have a heart attack earlier in life, a new study shows. “Basically, it is showing that as people got progressively more obese, the rate at which they had heart attacks early went up dramatically,” said Dr. Eric D. Peterson, a professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center’s Division of Cardiology and a member of the group reporting the findings. Cardiologists at several institutions studied data on more than 111,000 people who had heart attacks, looking specifically at body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity, HealthDay reports. Someone with a BMI of 30 or above is regarded as obese; a person 5 feet, 7 inches tall who weighs 192 pounds has a BMI of 30. The average age of a first heart attack for people with a BMI of 18.5 or under was 74.6 years. For people with a BMI of 40 or over, it was 58.7 years. The age at which a first heart attack occurred went up steadily with increasing BMI – 3.5 years earlier for a BMI of 25 to 30; 6.8 years earlier for a BMI 30 to 35; 9.4 years for a BMI of 35 to 40; and 12 years earlier for a BMI 40 or higher. “The news here is that heart muscle in obese diabetic individuals can be mobilized by eating less,” said Dr. Heinrich Taegtmeyer, professor of medicine in cardiology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston and co-author of an accompanying editorial comment.

Vital Signs: The lack of sports in school is showing up in strange ways. Vital Signs has more. 

Adam “Pacman” Jones cleared to play in Dallas this season. Formerly suspended Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones will officially begin his career with the Dallas Cowboys this season. Jones, who was the subject of an unconventional trade from Tennessee to Dallas while still banned from the league, has been reinstated. His numerous arrests in connection with felony incidents, including shootings – one of which left a nightclub employee paralyzed – led to Jones’ discipline. The kick returner restlessly missed all of last season, recently joining Dallas for workouts with permission from Commissioner Roger Goodell. “It feels good, man, you know, to get a second chance and I just have to take advantage of it,” Jones tells the Dallas Morning News. “First and foremost, I don’t want to let myself down, definitely (don’t want to let) my little girl down.” Jones also thanks the Cowboys ownership and fans.

Kevin Duckworth suffered from cardiomyopathy. Former Portland Trailblazers center Kevin Duckworth died of the same heart disease that killed his father and two siblings, a state medical examiner has announced. Duckworth was discovered collapsed and not breathing in Oregon this week, where he planned to host a free basketball clinic. The cause of his death was an enlarged heart “attributed to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure,” the medical examiner reports. His sister Francine Duckworth says the retired player’s dad and brothers also died of congestive heart failure. Duckworth was 44.

Here’s yet another reason to catch those Zzzzs.
Sleepless teens risk high blood pressure. Teens who don’t get enough sleep or have poor-quality sleep run the risk of elevated blood pressure, a new study finds. It’s the first study to make such a connection, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Susan Redline, director of the University Hospitals Sleep Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “In adults, there has been evidence that less than six hours of sleep a night was associated with high blood pressure levels,” said Redline, who is professor of medicine and pediatrics at Case Western Reserve. “No study has been done in adolescents.” Redline and her colleagues studied 238 boys and girls, ages 13 to 16, asking about their sleep habits. They found that 11 percent of them slept less than 6.5 hours a night, and 26 percent had poor “sleep efficiency,” with frequent awakenings at night. One of every seven teens in the study had either hypertension, which is high blood pressure, greater than 120 over 80, or borderline high blood pressure called pre-hypertension. Teens with less than 85 percent sleep efficiency had nearly three times the odds of high blood pressure, the researchers reported. “That was one of the more unique findings, that poor sleep quality is associated with high blood pressure,” Redline said.

Don’t drink too much Red Bull. Too much of a good thing isn’t always good, scientists in Australia found. Too much of the popular Red Bull energy drink may lead to heart damage, they say, after studying 30 university students, ages 20 to 24. The researchers found that drinking just one 250 ml sugar-free can of the caffeinated drink boosted the “stickiness” of the blood and increased the risk of blood clots. After drinking Red Bull, the students had a cardiovascular profile similar to that of someone with heart disease, The Times of London reported. The results were alarming and suggest that older adults with symptoms of heart disease shouldn’t drink too much Red Bull, said study author Scott Willoughby, of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Adelaide University. In a statement, Red Bull officials said the drink had been proved safe by numerous scientific studies, and that it had never been banned from anywhere it had been introduced, the Times reported. Red Bull is sold in 143 countries but is banned in Norway, Denmark and some other countries due to health concerns.

Chemical used in baby bottles is safe. A chemical used in the making of baby bottles and other food containers is not dangerous, U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers have decided. FDA scientists have confirmed the agency’s original decision that the chemical bisphenol A, which hardens plastic, is not a threat to either infants or adults. The European Food Safety Authority made a similar finding in late July. Trace amounts of bisphenol A have been found to leach into food containers, the FDA acknowledged, but the agency’s scientists said they found no evidence that such small amounts were harmful, The Associated Press reports. The FDA findings are not the final word, according to AP. A September meeting is scheduled, at which experts outside the FDA will debate bisphenol A’s safety. The FDA itself has kept the issue open. More research is needed because “there are always uncertainties associated with safety decisions,” AP quotes the FDA as saying.

Inattentive parents more likely to raise drugged out kids.

Parents who don’t monitor their children’s school-night activities, safeguard their prescription drugs, address the problem of drugs in their children’s schools, and set good examples increase the chance that their 12- to 17-year old children will smoke, drink, and use illegal and prescription drugs, according to a new report. “This year’s survey reveals that too many mothers and fathers are problem parents who fail to take essential steps to prevent their kids from smoking, drinking or using drugs. By their actions – and inactions – by failing to become part of the solution, these parents become part of the problem of teen alcohol and drug abuse,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the chairman and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), which conducted the study. “Indeed, these problem parents enable – some even encourage – their 12- to 17-year olds to use and abuse tobacco, alcohol, and illegal and prescription drugs.” The study, the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII: Teens and Parents, is the 13th annual back-to-school survey conducted by Columbia University-based CASA. It found that the later teens are out of the house hanging out with friends on school nights (Monday through Thursday), the likelier alcohol and drug use will be going on among them. Almost half (46 percent) of 12- to 17-year-olds report leaving their house to hang out with friends on school nights. Among these teens, 50 percent who come home after 10 p.m. say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs; 29 percent who come home after 8 p.m. and before 10 p.m. say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs.

Breast-feeding shows new benefits. There are proteins in human breast-milk — not present in cow’s milk — that may fight disease by helping remove bacteria, viruses and other dangerous pathogen’s from an infant’s gastrointestinal tract, researchers in Switzerland and Australia say. Researchers have known for years that breast milk appears to provide a variety of health benefits, including lower rates of diarrhea, rashes, allergies, and other medical problems that cow’s milk does not provide. However, the biological reasons behind this association were not clear. To find out, the scientists collected human and cow’s milk samples and analyzed the content of milk fat in both. They found that fat particles in human milk are coated with particular variants of two sugar-based proteins, called MUC-1 and MUC-4. Previous studies by others have shown that these proteins can block certain receptors in the digestive tract that are the main attachment sites for E. coli, Helicobacter pylori and other disease-causing microbes, thereby preventing infection. By contrast, since cow’s milk lacks these protein variants, it may not offer the same disease protection, the researchers say.

Air pollution can damage the heart, study says. Air pollution has short-term and long-term toxic effects on the heart and blood vessels, causing increased hospitalization for cardiac illness, and even death, a new report says. The article, expected to be published in the Aug. 26 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, looks at previous research that finds inhaled pollutants set off an increase in “super-oxiding molecules” that damage cells. The damage not only causes inflammation in the lungs, but triggers harmful effects in the heart and cardiovascular system, scientists say. “We used to think air pollution was a problem that primarily affects the lungs. We now know it is also bad for the heart,” Dr. Robert A. Kloner, director of research at the Heart Institute of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, said in a journal news release. Ultrafine air pollutants, such as those from car exhaust, may pass into the bloodstream and damage the heart and blood vessels directly, recent research has suggested. Studies conducted at the Heart Institute found that ultrafine air pollutants can cause an immediate drop in coronary blood flow and the heart’s pumping function, and tend to cause arrhythmias. Researchers have also found that high levels of air pollution can lead to emergency hospital admissions for heart attack, chest pain and congestive heart failure and even to death from heart disease, arrhythmias, heart failure and cardiac arrest. “Air pollution can be dangerous at levels that are within the accepted air quality standards,” said Dr. Boris Z. Simkhovich, a senior research associate at the Heart Institute of the Good Samaritan Hospital.

National Urban League and Walgreens provides free health screenings. In an effort to promote early detection and raise awareness of preventable diseases in urban communities, the National Urban League and Walgreens have partnered to launch a nationwide, educational health screening bus tour. The tour will encourage consumers to act as their own health advocates by visiting the wellness bus when it visits New Orleans August 28-30. The National Urban League and Walgreens Wellness Tour will continue will raise awareness of various health issues and encourage individuals to seek the appropriate resources by providing free health screenings in 27 urban communities across the U.S. as part of a 12-month mobile health campaign. the 38-foot customized bus features five free screenings, including blood pressure, bone density, glucose levels, cholesterol levels and body mass index which total more than $100 in value. “Walgreen is delighted to partner with the National Urban League to provide resources that will empower Americans in urban communities to live healthier lives,” said Mark Wagner, executive vice president of store operations for Walgreen Co. “Many diseases can be detected through screenings long before any symptoms are noticed, which is why we are bringing this valuable service to residents of New Orleans.” People in urban communities, particularly minorities, experience disproportionately higher rates of preventable disease. “The National Urban League is pleased to offer these screenings and health information to people who otherwise may not have had access to these basic health resources,” said Marc H. Morial, NUL president and CEO. “We are excited to be taking this tour to major cities across the country , such as Chicago, New York and Miami.” The National Urban League’s State of Black America 2006 reports that Blacks are impacted by higher rates of obesity, substance abuse and diabetes.

Married folks are the healthiest. People who’ve exchanged wedding vows tend to be healthier than their single, divorced or widowed peers, but new research shows that health gap may be narrowing, reports HealthDay News. Interviews with today’s never-married men suggest they are healthier than never-married guys were three decades ago, researchers say. And that’s helping single males gain some ground, in terms of their health, compared to married people. “One of the most-often documented facts is that married people are healthier than non-married people, but the difference between married and unmarried people has changed over the past few decades,” said the study’s lead author, Hui Liu, an assistant professor and sociologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Liu said there are two theories as to why married people report better health. One is that being married gives you more access to social support and economic resources. The other is that being divorced or widowed hurts health. “In general, marriage tends to make people healthier, happier and richer, and that’s especially true for men,” Scott Wetzler, vice chairman of psychiatry and behavioral science, and head of the “Supporting Healthy Marriage” program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City told HealthDay.

Some overweight people can be healthy.

Some obese individuals do not appear to have an increased risk of heart disease, while some normal-weight individuals experience a variety of heart risks, according to two reports in the August 11 Issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA/Archives journal. “The prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide, and this epidemic is accompanied by a high incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease,” the authors write as background information in one of the articles. But research shows that in addition to overall obesity, the way body fat is distributed may decide whether a person is at risk of heart disease and diabetes. For instance, individuals with fat around the tummy — estimated by measuring waist size —appear to be at higher risk for insulin resistance (a pre-diabetic condition that occurs when the body fails to respond to the hormone insulin) and for having an unhealthy cardiovascular risk profile. In one study, individuals in the obese–insulin sensitive group did not differ from the normal-weight group in insulin sensitivity or artery wall thickness, the authors note. “In conclusion, we provide evidence that a metabolically benign obesity can be identified and that it may protect from insulin resistance and atherosclerosis,” Norbert Stefan, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Tübingen, Germany, wrote about their study of 314 individuals age 18 to 69 (average age 45). The second study found that among U.S. adults 20 years and older, 23.5 percent (about 12 million adults) of normal weight had abnormal metabolisms, while 51 percent (about 36 million adults) who were overweight and 31.7 percent who were considered obese had healthy metabolisms. The average weight of individuals with slow metabolisms tended to be older, less physically active and had large weights. Bottom line, waist size had more to do with whether a person had an increased risk for heart disease or diabetes than their actual weight, the studies show.

Borderline high blood pressure a threat for young people
Young adults with borderline high blood pressure, known as pre-hypertension, are more likely later in life to have calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, a new study finds. “They’re too young to have very many heart attacks and strokes,” lead author Dr. Mark J. Pletcher said of the 3,560 participants whose ages were 18 to 30 when the study started. “But looking at coronary calcium is a way of measuring atherosclerosis, which is a strong predictor of heart attacks.” Almost 20 percent of the people in the study developed pre-hypertension – blood pressure higher than the recommended 120 over 80 but below the 140 over 80 reading of treatable high blood pressure – before the age of 35, HealthDay.com reports. Heart scans showed accumulation of calcium deposits in their heart arteries during the 20-year study. “What we have shown is that these low-level elevations, above 120 over 80, appear to be associated with atherosclerosis later in life and probably with heart attacks and stroke,” said Pletcher, an assistant professor of epidemiology, biostatistics and medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The findings were published in the July 15 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.