New Moms – Breast Feeding can Lower your Heart Attack Risk
Breast Feeding Your Baby can Reduce Your Heart Attack Risk
A large US study involving over one hundred thousand women has concluded that breast feeding your baby as a new Mom can protect you against heart disease, heart attacks and strokes in later life.
The investigations were carried out by a team of scientists and medical experts based at the University of Pittsburgh, and published in the medical journal ‘Obstetrics and Gynaecology’.
Study follows through from child birth to Menopause
It has followed the health of the study volunteers from their early child bearing years, through their later years and into the menopause stage of their lives.
The following findings were discovered by the research team, which was led by Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz :-
- long term breastfeeding for more than a year) reduces the risk of suffering from a heart attack or a stroke by more than 10%
- A very short period of breastfeeding, typically just for a month after giving birth, was found to produce beneficial lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, plus lower recorded rates of diabetes, all of which form significant risk factors in cardiovascular disease later in life
- The reduction in the instances of high blood pressure was 12%, whilst the reduction in instances of high cholesterol was even higher at 20%.
Employers need to facilitate breast feeding for women at work
Dr Schwarz contextualises the research findings towards employers, and promoting breast feeding wherever possible, especially encouraging new mothers to feed their babies where they work, when they go back to work.
Over the other side of the Atlantic, the United Kingdom now has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates anywhere, with nearly a third of all new Moms never even attempting to breast feed their babies.
A spokesperson from the UK National Childbirth Trust, Rosie Dodds, has called upon the UK government to assist with the promotion and facilitation of breast feeding in the workplace, and in more public locations.
If you have experienced any difficulties or obstacles when breast feeding your baby at work, or in public, please leave a comment below – we’d like to hear about your experiences
Steps And Information To Cure Diabetes
Diabetes is an ailment wherein the human body do not create or utilize proper insulin, which is the hormone produced by the pancreas. The pancreas is the organ adjacent to the stomach. Insulin is necessary to convert sugar and as well as other foods to energy. If someone has diabetes, the body either can not utilize its individual insulin or the pancreas can not produce sufficient insulin or both. This is the reason why the sugars build up very high in the blood.
A person develops Diabetes Milletus if the result of fasting blood sugar level test is 126 mg/dl or higher. Pre -diabetes is a situation wherein the blood sugar levels are elevated than he normal reading, however, it is not diabetic. Persons who have pre-diabetes are at risk to develop type II diabetes, stroke and heart ailments.
The following are some signs if a person having pre-diabetes: damaged fasting blood sugar level (100 -125 mg/dl), impaired or damaged glucose tolerance (fasting blood sugar level which less than one hundred twenty six milligrams per deciliter) and blood sugar level between one hundred forty and one hundred ninety milligrams per deciliter 2 hours after having the glucose tolerance test by mouth.
The most common type of diabetes is type II and it appears frequently in grown up adults; but young adults and teenagers are developing this type II of diabetes at frightening rate. It appears when the human body can not produce sufficient insulin and can not use effectively the insulin it has made. Type I diabetes normally occurs in kids and young adults. In this type of diabetes, the pancreas produces small amount or no insulin at all. People with diabetes type I will not survive if not injected with insulin everyday.
Both types of diabetes are inheritable through the genes. A family with history of this ailment may significantly enhance the danger of developing the disease. Diabetes if not treated may lead to several severe medical problems. These problems include kidney diseases, blindness, cardiovascular diseases, nerve diseases and limb amputation.
Diabetes can be treated, however, even if glucose level is properly managed, it significantly increases the danger of stroke and heart ailments. In reality, majority of people having diabetes die of heart or cardiovascular disease because of diabetes.
Pre-diabetes as well as type II diabetes normally result from resistance to insulin. When diabetes or insulin resistance happen with other cardiovascular diseases danger factors like elevated blood pressure, obesity, high triglycerides and abnormal cholesterol, the danger of stroke and heart ailments increase more. Resistance to insulin is connected with atherosclerosis (fatty buildups found in arteries) and diseases of the blood vessels just before the diagnosis of diabetes. Therefore, it is very essential to avoid and manage diabetes and insulin resistance. Obesity and physical immobility are vital danger factors for diabetes, insulin resistance and cardiovascular diseases.
If diabetes is detected, the physician may suggest changes in eating lifestyle, management of weight and exercise programs and also drugs to remain it in test. It is important for diabetic patients to have habitual checkups. People with diabetes and elevated blood pressure should have a blood pressure lower than one hundred thirty over one hundred eighty mm Hg. Diabetes is the prime risk factor for coronary heart ailment and stroke, which entails heart attack. Persons with diabetes may prevent or delay heart and cardiovascular ailments by controlling some other factors. It is specifically essential to control body weight and blood cholesterol by means of low-saturated fats, less cholesterol diet and habitual aerobic exercises. It is vital also lower elevated blood pressure and quit smoking. Lastly, you have to maintain healthy lifestyle.
New Doubts over Aspirin for your Heart
Doubts have been raised over the value of taking Aspirin and low dose Aspirin for your heart, as scientists now believe a daily dose could do more harm than good. New research reveals that taking a daily aspirin to ward off heart attacks could do more harm than good!
What is a low dose Aspirin?
For many years we have been led to believe that taking a low dose of aspirin – typically 75mg per day, is beneficial for our heart health and in minimising the risk of developing a heart attack.
A recent study conducted by Scottish Scientists however, has cast doubt over the benefit of aspirin as a simple, cheap heart medication. A more in-depth analysis of this research though, reveals that this applies only to preventing a first heart attack, and that Aspirin is still effective at preventing a second or repeat heart attack. The study also highlighted though that taking aspirin does increase the risk of internal bleeding.
Aspirin and the Healthy Middle Aged
Many healthy middle-aged people, also known as the ‘worried well’, decide to take low dose aspirin as a precautionary measure, even though they currently have no symptoms of cardiovascular disease.
Aspirin effectiveness trial targets diabetes sufferers
The scientists’ claim follows a study of type 2 diabetes sufferers which discovered that regular daily doses of the medication apparently fails to prevent victims of type 2 diabetes suffering a first cardiac arrest. This group was chosen as Aspirin is widely prescribed to diabetics, who are at much greater risk of heart disease than the general population. However, the scientists also advised that those people already taking small daily doses of aspirin against giving it up without consulting their doctor. Professor Jill Belch, of the Institute of Cardiovascular Research at Dundee University, Scotland, said: ‘If you’re taking aspirin for secondary prevention because you’ve had a heart attack or stroke, or have a circulatory problem, then it works’. ‘But it doesn’t work if you have none of these problems, and there is also no evidence for its use by healthy middle-aged people.’ She added, however: ‘We do not want people taking aspirin prescribed by their doctor to stop taking it without seeking medical advice. They may have conditions for which it is suitable.’ Around 2.3million Britons have type 2 diabetes, which is closely linked with growing levels of obesity, and they are up to five times more at risk of heart disease than the general population.
Aspirin’s established reputation in heart attack prevention
Aspirin does have an established reputation for reducing the risk of repeat heart attacks and stroke by up to a third. However, a major study suggests that diabetics who have not had a previous heart attack gain no benefit from a daily dose. Professor Belch’s paper published recently in the British Medical Journal, involved 1,276 patients aged over 40 with diabetes and evidence of artery disease, who had not suffered a previous heart attack. It found after eight years that there was no overall benefit from either aspirin or antioxidant treatment in preventing heart attacks or death. Patients in the aspirin groups had 116 heart attacks compared with 117 in those given placebos. Professor Belch said there was widespread prescribing of aspirin in diabetes despite the lack of evidence to support it’s use. But studies show it can double the risk of stomach bleeding from an ulcer.
Side effects of Aspirin and low dose Aspirin treatments
‘Unfortunately aspirin has side effects and it’s one of the biggest reasons for admission to hospital for drug-related adverse reactions, mainly gastrointestinal bleeding. ‘Although the risk is relatively small, the numbers taking aspirin is large so it’s a major problem.’ Professor Belch said there was international opposition to the study, mainly because U.S. guidelines recommend routine use of aspirin in patients with type 2 diabetes and millions are taking it. ‘They were adamant that it was unethical to carry out this trial but I’m glad we persevered.’ She said clinical guidelines from various UK organisations recommending aspirin as primary prevention for diabetics should be changed. There has also been growing pressure for ‘blanket prescribing’ of aspirin in middle age, with a report only last month from Nottingham and Sheffield researchers suggesting most healthy men over the age of 48 and women over 57 would benefit from the drug. Research such as this has encouraged healthy middle-aged people to start taking aspirin bought over the counter without seeing a doctor – despite it not being recommended by any medical body. Aspirin is also an ingredient of the ‘ Polypill’, a single cheap multi-drug tablet being developed to slash the toll of heart attacks. But this one-size-fits-all approach might now have to be rethought, said Professor Rory Collins, of Oxford University, a pioneer of large-scale studies into the causes and treatment of heart attacks. His team is observing 10,000 diabetics who have been allocated daily aspirin or placebo, and has carried out a major analysis of existing studies. The findings show any small benefit from using aspirin in those who have not had heart attacks is outweighed by the risk of stomach bleeding, he said. ‘There has been a conflict between guidelines recommending the use of aspirin as primary prevention and the lack of evidence supporting this. ‘But a lot of GPs are following these guidelines. When we were recruiting for our study, we found practices where all diabetic patients were being prescribed aspirin. ‘The evidence is not there but the risk of bleeding is – and it goes up with age.’