6 Signs of Chronic Inflammation You Shouldn’t Ignore

Cleveland HeartLab diet, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits

You may have heard about inflammation from your doctor or read about it on the Internet. There are 2 kinds: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is part of the normal healing process. It causes the redness, warmth, swelling, and pain you feel when you cut yourself or get a splinter. But when inflammation sticks around for a while, it can …

The Inflammation-Lowering Diet You Might Not Have Heard Of

Cleveland HeartLab diet, inflammation, lifestyle habits

If you have high blood pressure, you may be familiar with the DASH diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This plant-based eating pattern was designed to bring down harmful blood pressure levels and it is very effective. Research has shown that the DASH diet greatly lowers blood pressure, compared to the typical American diet, even when the …

What to Know About the Link Between Cancer and Heart Disease

Cleveland HeartLab cancer, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits

When you are diagnosed with cancer, heart disease is the last thing on your mind. But there’s a growing awareness of a link between cancer and heart problems. Recent research in Nature Communications that looked at more than 7 million cancer survivors showed that the risk of death from heart disease among cancer patients is 2 times greater than that …

How the Road to Menopause Affects Your Heart

Cleveland HeartLab heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits, women's health

If you’re getting close to menopause, you’re probably not looking forward to annoying symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. But you may not realize that there’s a bigger health concern: a higher risk for heart disease. Doctors have known for a while that the risk for heart attacks and strokes in women after menopause is greater than for women …

COVID-19 and Your Heart

Cleveland HeartLab blood pressure, COVID-19, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits

Since COVID-19 started spreading around the world earlier this year, doctors have realized that it is especially dangerous for people with heart problems and risk factors for heart disease like high blood pressure. COVID-19 mostly affects the lungs, but when the lungs don’t work well, it puts a strain on the heart.  If you already have a heart condition, high …

The Unexpected Heart Benefit of Getting the Shingles Shot

Cleveland HeartLab heart attack and stroke, inflammation, Stroke

You probably know a few ways to prevent problems like strokes and heart attacks. These include things like eating a heart-friendly diet, walking or being physically active regularly, and not smoking. Now there’s a surprising new way to avoid heart attacks and strokes—the shingles vaccine. Shingles results from the same virus (herpes zoster) that gave you chicken pox as a …

Say Yes to Fish Oil!

Cleveland Heartlab cholesterol, diabetes, diet, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, Stroke, vitamins and supplements, women's health

Confused if you should be taking a fish oil supplement? That’s not surprising. Sometimes headlines say the omega-3 fatty acids in them can lower heart risks. Others say the opposite. But the data in favor of fish oil has been growing. Two recent studies show a strong benefit – especially if you don’t like or can’t eat fish itself. The …

The Not-So-Sweet Link Between Sugar and Heart Disease

Cleveland Heartlab blood pressure, diabetes, diet, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, Stroke, women's health

To keep your heart healthy, you’ve probably heard it’s good to eat only small amounts of saturated fats like butter and full-fat dairy as well as carbs like white bread and starchy vegetables. But one food ingredient doesn’t get enough attention when it comes to heart health: sugar. More and more research shows that the sweet stuff can be rough …

The 300-Calorie Secret to a Better Heart

Cleveland Heartlab blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, diet, inflammation, lifestyle habits, women's health

You expect to lose weight when you eat less. But what if eating a little less also lowered your blood pressure, improved your cholesterol, reduced inflammation in your body, and helped with blood sugar control? Looks like it does. That was the surprising finding of a recent study in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. It followed 218 people ages 21 …

The Surprising Link Between Depression and Heart Disease

Cleveland Heartlab blood pressure, cholesterol, diet, exercise, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits

You might have heard that people who are depressed are more likely to have heart disease. People who have heart disease are also more likely to get the blues. Having both heart disease and depression is worse for your health than just having heart disease. A 2017 study found that people diagnosed with depression after they’d had a heart attack …

Top Herbs for Your Heart

Cleveland Heartlab blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, diet, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, Stroke, women's health

A healthy diet is the first step toward a healthier heart. Eating lots of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, healthy fats like olive oil, and lean protein like fish and chicken, can’t be beat for preventing heart attacks and strokes.   But how you prepare these foods also makes a big difference. A variety of herbs have been shown to give …

You Probably Don’t Get Enough of this Hidden Heart Helper

Cleveland Heartlab cholesterol, diet, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits, Stroke

Heart-healthy diets include plenty of vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, and whole-grain bread and pasta. One thing these foods have in common is fiber. Fiber is good for your body in many ways and especially good for your heart. The results of a large review study just released by the World Health Organization (WHO) are …

The Wonderful Ways Dark Chocolate Helps Your Heart

Cleveland Heartlab blood pressure, cholesterol, diet, inflammation

Exercise. Eat healthy. Stay slim. Lower your stress. This “to-do” list is great for a healthy heart, but it may not sound like fun. Thank goodness, there’s chocolate! Hundreds of studies have found that chocolate—specifically, dark chocolate— keeps the heart and blood vessels in good shape. Here are some of the ways this delicious treat helps the heart: It may …

5 Everyday Habits to Lower Inflammation and Help Your Heart and Brain Health

Cleveland Heartlab diet, exercise, inflammation

It can take years for hidden inflammation to harm your health, raising your risk for heart attacks and stroke. Fortunately this damage can be reversed. Over time, a poor diet (too much sugar, for example), lack of exercise, a smoking habit, and other personal lifestyle choices may lead to low levels of long-term, continuing inflammation. This type of inflammation can …

A New Risk Factor for Heart Attack

Cleveland Heartlab heart attack and stroke, inflammation

The 3 million Americans with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease often have severe diarrhea and stomach pain, lose weight, and  feel tired. They may sometimes develop blockages in their bowels or have trouble digesting food, which can put their very lives at risk. On top of all that, new research presented recently at the American College …

POTUS’s Teachable Moment

Cleveland Heartlab heart attack and stroke, inflammation

What the President’s Physical Exam Results Can Teach Us About Heart Health While cardiologists have debated the finer points of the President of the United State’s recent health report, his yearly check-up is raising awareness of heart disease risk indicators that can help gauge risk over time. Among the more common risk factors, the President’s body mass index (BMI), 29.9, …

Detecting Hidden Heart Disease Before it Harms

Cleveland Heartlab heart attack and stroke, inflammation

People who are slim, don’t smoke, and don’t have diabetes usually don’t worry too much about their hearts. Those with good control of their blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose levels, even less so. But an alarming new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology may soon change that calculus. Researchers from Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos …

The Cardiac Risks of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Cleveland Heartlab inflammation

As if the chronic pain and mobility challenges of rheumatoid arthritis weren’t burdensome enough, it’s becoming clearer that people with the disease face another serious health threat—a greater risk for heart disease. Some 1.5 million Americans, a majority of them women, have this form of arthritis, an autoimmune disease that happens when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, …

Lutein and Your Heart

Cleveland Heartlab diet, inflammation

A New Anti-Inflammatory Nutrient Lutein, a nutrient that’s related to beta-carotene and vitamin A, is often thought of as the vision vitamin. It’s used as a supplement to prevent eye-related conditions including macular degeneration, cataracts, and retinitis pigmentosa. But new research from Linköping University in Sweden suggests that there’s a vital new role for this vitamin known as a carotenoid, …

The New Heart Threat for Young Adults

Cleveland Heartlab inflammation, Stroke

About 90 percent of strokes each year in the U.S. occur in people age 50 and older. Yet alarming new research shows that significantly more young adults are experiencing stroke, even as rates among older people may be improving. The new data, from the Centers for Disease Control, found a significant increase in hospitalizations due to stroke among men and …

Gout: A New Heart Disease Risk Factor?

Cleveland Heartlab inflammation

For the 8 million Americans who suffer from gout, sudden and severe attacks of pain in the joints aren’t the only things to worry about. A new study in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases shows that the majority of people presenting with this common form of arthritis are at a very high risk for cardiovascular disease and prevention tactics should …

Dental Hygiene and Your Heart

Cleveland Heartlab inflammation

Healthy Teeth and Gums—More Important Than Ever for Your Heart Gum disease, when bacteria-laden plaque accumulates around the teeth, has long been linked to poorer health—particularly heart health. Inflammation is believed to be behind the connection. Now it looks as though another common dental infection may be just as harmful. Called apical periodontitis, the condition results in inflammatory lesions that …

The Flu Shot and Your Heart

Cleveland Heartlab heart attack and stroke, inflammation

Fall is the time for colorful foliage, cooler temperatures—and the beginning of cold and flu season. No mere nuisance, flu costs the U.S. more than $10 billion and takes about 3,600 lives each year. Vaccination is a powerful weapon against the seasonal illness, which poses particular health risks to the very young and the elderly. But flu shots also have …

Stress, the Heart, and Inflammation

Cleveland Heartlab blood pressure, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits

Racing through traffic. Meeting a deadline. Giving a presentation. These and other stressors take a toll on your immediate health, increasing blood pressure, heart rate, and the release of harmful hormones like cortisol. But it’s the long-term effects you may really need to worry about. Chronic stress is associated not only with complaints like insomnia, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal distress, …

Sitting is the New Smoking

Cleveland Heartlab diabetes, exercise, heart attack and stroke, inflammation, lifestyle habits

Is Sitting the New Smoking? The headlines on the health dangers of sitting are hard to ignore. Inactivity has been recognized as an independent risk factor for heart attack and stroke—as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. Now the American Heart Association (AHA) has issued a strongly worded advisory aimed at getting people up and moving, even those who are already physically …

Summer’s Inflammation-Fighting Foods

Cleveland Heartlab diet, inflammation

Fruits and vegetables, the stars of a healthy plant-based diet, have long been recognized as powerful weapons against inflammation, which underlies cardiovascular disease as well as cancer and many other chronic inflammatory conditions. Scientists credit bioactive compounds present in these plant foods, such as carotenoids and flavonoids, for the inflammation-quelling properties. With the summer’s bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables, …

Silent Heart Attacks

Cleveland Heartlab biomarkers, heart attack and stroke, inflammation

Silent and Deadly: The Growing Danger of Symptomless Heart Attacks A heart attack can be a vital wake-up call for people with cardiovascular disease—a chance to embrace radical changes to improve heart health, and if medical help is sought quickly, even avoid heart damage. But what if the heart attack goes undetected because there are no symptoms? According to alarming …

A Surprising Heart Disease Risk Factor for Women – Especially Younger Women

Cleveland Heartlab heart attack and stroke, inflammation, women's health

Women with endometriosis—the growth of uterine tissue outside the uterus—tend to focus their concerns on health problems such as debilitating pelvic pain and infertility. But new research suggests that women with the condition may also face another more deadly health threat: heart disease. Endometriosis, which strikes women of reproductive age, particularly in the later childbearing years, is characterized by the …

3 New Tests to Predict Heart Attack and Stroke Risk

Cleveland Heartlab biomarkers, inflammation, metabolic syndrome, TMAO

Three new blood tests can help identify hidden risk for a heart attack or stroke in seemingly healthy patients—before symptoms strike. The new tests, now available through Cleveland HeartLab (CHL), check levels of certain biomarkers that have been linked to cardiovascular danger in peer-reviewed studies. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading killer of men and women, accounting for one in …

Inflammation Could Be the Top Threat to Your Health: Natural Ways to Fight It

Cleveland Heartlab diet, inflammation, lifestyle habits, vitamins and supplements

“Acute inflammatory response is often necessary to save your life, and yet chronic inflammatory response could lead to death,” because it’s been linked to everything from heart disease and stroke to Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and many other fatal conditions, Dr. Mark Kestner recently reported in an article titled, “Chronic inflammation will probably be what kills you.” New …

The Diet that Helps Prevent Heart Attack, Stroke and Inflammation

Cleveland Heartlab biomarkers, blood pressure, cholesterol, diet, inflammation

Even if you’re not overweight, cutting calories could lower inflammation by nearly 50 percent, improve other major risk factors for heart attack and stroke, including blood pressure and cholesterol, and even add years to your life, suggests a new National Institute on Aging (NIA) study. The findings, which were published in Journal of Gerontology: Medical Science, “are quite intriguing,” said …

What 90% of Women Don’t Know About Their Stroke Risks

Cleveland Heartlab biomarkers, inflammation, women's health

Only about one in ten women can correctly identify female-specific risks for stroke, according to a national survey released by Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center. That’s concerning, given that stroke is the third leading cause of death in American women and the top cause of long-term disability, reports the National Stroke Foundation. “What women don’t know about stroke …

Novel Biomarker Test for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Now Available from Cleveland HeartLab

Cleveland Heartlab biomarkers, diabetes, inflammation

A novel biomarker called ADMA/SDMA is an independent predictor of heart attack risk and may also identify patients with diabetes, pre-diabetes or kidney disease, according to recent peer-reviewed studies. The ADMA/SDMA biomarker blood test, now available through Cleveland HeartLab (CHL), measures levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA). Elevated levels of these biomarkers can signal damage to the …

5 Surprising CVD Risks

Cleveland Heartlab inflammation, lifestyle habits, vitamins and supplements

Intriguing new research is helping solve the mystery of why some seemingly healthy people suffer heart attacks and other cardiovascular events, despite lacking any of the traditional risk factors. Indeed, if the five leading cardiovascular threats–smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and obesity–were entirely eliminated, only half of deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) would be prevented, according …

The Vitamin That Fights Inflammation

Cleveland Heartlab cancer, diabetes, inflammation, vitamins and supplements

A new study is the first to show that combining weight loss with an inexpensive vitamin supplement can reduce chronic inflammation more than weight loss alone. Chronic inflammation has been linked to a wide range of disorders, from cardiovascular disease to type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and even cancer. The findings from a randomized clinical trial at Fred Hutchinson …

4 Tasty Anti-Inflammatory Herbs and Spices That Boost Heart Health

Cleveland Heartlab diabetes, diet, heart attack and stroke, inflammation

Used as a natural “medicine” for thousands of years, certain herbs and spices really do have amazing health benefits, including fighting chronic inflammation, which has been linked to a wide range of conditions, from heart disease to diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and even cancer, according to new studies. Here’s a look at four delicious seasonings that rank as anti-inflammatory standouts. Curcumin: The …

Dangerous Cluster of Heart Disease & Diabetes Risks Affects 35% of Americans

Cleveland Heartlab diabetes, inflammation, metabolic syndrome

More than one in three US adults have metabolic syndrome, a combination of at least three of five pre-disease-state factors, that doubles risk for heart disease and quintuples the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  The study reported that from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012, overall rates of metabolic syndrome …

What a Practice Analysis May Reveal About the Health of Your Practice

Cleveland Heartlab biomarkers, heart attack and stroke, inflammation

Every day, about 2,150 Americans die from heart disease, stroke and other forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD)–one every 40 seconds, according to “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics–2015 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association.” CVD remains the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more lives than all forms of cancer combined. These are frightening statistics. Cleveland …

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Help Fight Depression and Inflammation

Cleveland Heartlab diet, inflammation, vitamins and supplements

Omega-3 fatty acids may help treat depression, new research suggests. Found in oily fish, walnuts, flaxseed and other foods, as well as supplements, omega-3 fatty acids fight inflammation, which has been implicated in a wide range of disorders from cardiovascular disease to type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, as we recently reported. Now researchers are examining the link between inflammation …

Inflammation Testing Could Prevent 10% of Heart Attacks and Strokes, Saving $187 Million, Study Finds

Cleveland Heartlab heart attack and stroke, inflammation

A new peer-reviewed study model published in the Journal of Medical Economics, suggests that thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be avoided–and millions of dollars in healthcare costs saved–by using inflammation testing to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment. The study model analyzed the clinical and financial impact of adding Cleveland HeartLab’s (CHL) inflammation testing to standard cholesterol screening. …

5 Ways to Tell If You Have Chronic Inflammation

Cleveland Heartlab diabetes, diet, exercise, inflammation, lifestyle habits

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and cancer have shared risk factors, including systemic inflammation, University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator Tim Byers, MD, MPH reported at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2015. For example, says Dr. Byers, “Obesity leads to a chronic inflammatory state and circulating growth factors that have adverse effects on the heart, and can also …