Women and Heart Disease

Heart diseases are common among the women population just as is the case in male population. In fact, it is estimated that 8.6 million women succumb to the illness annually in the United States alone. This means that the disease is responsible for a third of all women deaths in the country. Women heart disease is currently affecting eight million women, with 35,000 of these being under 65 years of age. Another four million are angina sufferers.

The prevalence of women heart disease is evident in the 435,000 heart attacks registered annually in the different parts of the country. Statistics indicate that 42 percent of the heart attack suffers die within a year of the attack. This means that women who suffer heart attacks die at a faster rate than men. Statistics in the trend of heart ailments in men indicate that only 24 percent of men die a year after suffering an initial heart attack.

Women heart diseases first presents with mild symptoms which feel like flu to most women. According to health professionals, at least 71 percent of women with heart conditions experience these mild symptoms, which usually manifest as extreme weakness. At this early stage, most women do not have pains in the chest. In fact, health statistics indicate that about two-thirds of heart related deaths occur in women who have never had chest pains before.

Just like in the male population, the most profound women heart disease risk factors include tobacco smoking, abnormal amounts of lipids in the blood and diabetes. Previous researches indicate that women smokers increase their risk by 19 years compared to non smokers. Hypertension, which is common in people using the oral contraceptive, also increases the chance of women developing heart disease. Diabetes on the other hand places women sufferers on twice the risk of suffering from women heart disease when compared to the non-diabetics. More so, diabetes places women at double the risk of repeat heart attacks.

The diagnosis for women heart disease is not as straight forward as is the case with men. This is attributed to the even distribution of plaque in women’s arteries, which passes as normal in angiographic studies. In men however, the plaque clumps in different areas of the artery walls thus leading to easy diagnosis.

However, it is not all doom for women heart disease sufferers. Studies have shown that the female heart is able to respond better to lifestyle changes than does the male heart. As such, women can easily adopt lifestyle changes related preventive measures to keep the disease at bay.

Higher Dose of IVF Drug May Be Needed for Obese Women

Obese women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) might need a stronger dose of a certain medication to improve their chances of getting pregnant, new research suggests.

In IVF, sperm is mixed with an egg outside a woman's body and the resulting embryo is then transferred into the uterus. Harvesting as many eggs as possible helps improve the chances that IVF will be successful.

During egg collection, women are given a medication called GnRH antagonist to prevent ovulation from starting too early and ruining the egg harvest, explained the authors of the study published March 20 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

"If the GnRH antagonist clears from a woman's body too quickly, there is a risk that the brain will signal the body to discharge the eggs from the ovaries too early," Dr. Nanette Santoro, of the University of Colorado at Denver, said in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

"We were surprised to find obese women were more likely to experience this, and it may be one reason why overweight and obese women have a higher rate of unsuccessful IVF cycles than normal-weight women do," she explained.

Santoro and colleagues gave GnRH antagonist to 10 obese and 10 normal-weight women and monitored them for 14 hours. The drug was cleared from the obese women faster than from the normal-weight women.

The researchers also found that during the monitoring period, half of the obese women had a rebound of a hormone that causes the body to release eggs.

"Our findings indicate obese women may need a different or increased dosing regimen to improve fertility treatment outcomes," Santoro said. "Given the cost of IVF and stress of infertility, it is important to maximize each woman's chances of conceiving a child."

Haemophilus influenzae infections in pregnant women

The journal of the American Medical Association recently published a paper about the Association of invasive Haemophilus influenzae infections in pregnant women and fetal results. The researchers studied British women who had an invasive h. influenzae infection (defined as the recovery of the organism from a normally sterile site). The researchers concluded that pregnant women had a greater risk of invasive infection than non-pregnant women, and these infections resulted in poor pregnancy results.
H. influenzae is a picky organism that grows on chocolate agar. Usually associated with respiratory tract infections, as the organism an encapsulated strain is, it can spread to other parts of the body and cause meningitis, sepsis, pericarditis and even urinary tract infections.
In terms of identification, h. influenzae are small, Gram-negative a a on microscopic examination. The opaque appear grayish colonies on chocolate agar. Since there are X and V factors to grow the organism on blood agar, appears only in the presence of an organism that hemolyzes of the blood (such as Staphylococcus aureus). In addition to the X and V requirements, h. influenzae ferments glucose, catalase positive.

Do you want to know more? The CDC has great information on this organism.

-Kelly Swails, MT (ASCP), is a professional, restore laboratory microbiologist and Web editor for Lab medicine.

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Breast Cancer in Young Women

Cancer is a disease in which cells in the body grow out of control. When cancer starts in the breast, it is called breast cancer. Except for skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women.

Most breast cancers are found in women who are 50 years old or older, but breast cancer also affects younger women. About 11% of all new cases of breast cancer in the United States are found in women younger than 45 years of age. While breast cancer diagnosis and treatment are difficult for women of any age, young survivors may find it overwhelming.

CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control is working to increase awareness of breast cancer and improve the health and quality of life of young breast cancer survivors and young women who are at higher risk of getting breast cancer.

Women Face Delays in Heart Attack Care Compared to Men

Among young and middle-aged adults, men tend to receive faster hospital care than women for heart attacks and chest pains, a new study finds.

Anxiety appeared to be a key factor -- women who appeared anxious upon admittance to the hospital tended to have delays in crucial care, the study authors found.

Aerobic Exercise May Help Older Women at Risk for Dementia

Regular aerobic workouts increase the size of the brains memory area in older women and may help slow the progression of dementia, according to a small new study.

It included 86 women, aged 70 to 80, who had mild memory problems, also known as "mild cognitive impairment," which researchers say is a common risk factor for dementia. The women also underwent MRIs to assess the size of their hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in verbal memory and learning.

The study, conducted by Teresa Look it up-Ambrose and her colleagues at the physical therapy department of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, was published online April 8 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

For six months, the women did twice weekly hour-long sessions of either aerobic exercise (brisk walking); resistance training such as weights, lunges and squats, or balance and muscle toning exercises.

Twenty-nine of the women had their hippocampus size checked again after completing these exercise programs. Those who did the full six months of aerobic training showed significant enlargement of the hippocampus, but this change did not occur in those from the other groups, according to a journal news release.

However, there was some indication that the increase in hippocampus size was associated with poorer verbal memory, the researchers reported.

This suggests that the link between brain volume and mental abilities is complex and requires more research, the authors said. While the study found an association between aerobic exercise and hippocampus size, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

However, the authors said that the findings do indicate that aerobic exercise does slow the shrinkage of the hippocampus in women who are at risk of developing dementia. They recommended regular aerobic exercise to keep mild cognitive impairment at bay.

A new case of dementia is diagnosed worldwide every four seconds, and the number of people with dementia is expected to rise to more than 115 million by 2050, according to the researchers.

Study finding : Drinking Milk May Slow Knee Arthritis in Women

Milk may be a useful weapon against arthritis of the knee for women, but the same can't be said for yogurt or cheese, a new study says.

The more low-fat or fat-free milk women drank, the slower the progression of osteoarthritis of the knee, according to the study funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Milk consumption did not show the same benefit for men, however.

Researchers led by Dr. Bing Lu of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston also found that eating higher amounts of cheese had the opposite effect, speeding the progression of knee arthritis in women.

Taking in higher amounts of yogurt had no effect on knee arthritis in either women or men, the study found.

Osteoarthritis is the leading form of arthritis and affects nearly 27 million Americans aged 25 and older, the researchers noted, and knee arthritis tends to be more common and severe in women.

The study, published April 7 in Arthritis Care & Research, "is the largest study to investigate the impact of dairy intake in the progression of knee osteoarthritis," Lu said in a journal news release. He believes that, based on these and other findings, "milk consumption plays an important role in bone health."

The new study involved 1,260 women and almost 900 men with knee arthritis who provided information about their dietary habits. Their knees were assessed at the start of the study and again 12, 24, 36 and 48 months later.

While the study found an association between milk intake and knee health, it could not prove cause-and effect.

"Our findings indicate that women who frequently drink milk may reduce the progression of osteoarthritis. Further study of milk intake and delay in osteoarthritis progression are needed," Lu concluded in the news release.

Two experts in nutrition believe milk may have a role to play in maintaining healthy knees.

"Certainly more research is needed, but it would be reasonable to encourage women with osteoarthritis to consider low-fat and fat-free milk as one more tool to combat the progression of [the disease]," said Christine Santori, a registered dietitian and program manager of the Center for Weight Management at Syosset Hospital in Syosset, N.Y.

Marlo Mittler is a nutritionist at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, in New Hyde Park, N.Y. She said that "milk has long been known to play an important role in bone health. It contains the nutrients, such as phosphorus, calcium, protein and fortified with vitamin D, that are essential for daily life."

According to Mittler, "the actual component of milk that allows it to play a preventive role in osteoarthritis progression still needs to be explored. It is also important to note that it is not whole milk but the low-fat and fat-free milk that shows to be effective in the delay."

She said that estrogen's role in bone health may help explain why milk intake seems to help ward off arthritis in the knees of women but not men. Calcium may also affect bone health in women in a different way than it does for men, she added.

According to Mittler, the high fat content of cheese may explain why that food actually sped knee arthritis progression.

Santori added that drinking milk is not the only route to healthier knees.

"There are steps you can take to reduce symptoms," she said. "Most importantly, maintain a healthy weight not only to reduce pressure on the joints but also to reduce the inflammatory action of fat tissue. Consuming vitamin C for cartilage production as well as omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and other anti-inflammatory agents may also be beneficial."