High blood pressure during pregnancy may signal later heart disease risk

High blood pressure during pregnancy -- even once or twice during routine medical care -- can signal substantially higher risks of heart and kidney disease and diabetes, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

"All of the later life risks were similar in pregnant women who could otherwise be considered low-risk -- those who were young, normal weight, non-smokers, with no diabetes during pregnancy," said Tuija Männistö, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Rockville, Md.

Studies have shown higher heart and kidney disease risk in women with preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy-related disease marked with high blood pressure and measurable protein in the urine.

In the new study, researchers looked at less serious forms of high blood pressure that are much more common in pregnant women. For 40 years, they followed Finnish women who had babies in 1966. They calculated the risk of heart or kidney disease or diabetes in later life among women with high blood pressure during pregnancy, comparing them to women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.

They found:

• One-third of the women had at least one high blood pressure measurement during pregnancy.
• Women who had any high blood pressure during pregnancy had 14 percent to over 100 percent higher risk of cardiovascular diseases later in life, compared to women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.
• Women who had any high blood pressure during pregnancy were 2 to 5 times more likely to die from heart attacks than women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.
• Women who had high blood pressure during pregnancy and healthy blood pressure levels after pregnancy had a 1.6- to 2.5-fold higher risk of having high blood pressure requiring medication or hospitalization later in life.
• Women who had high blood pressure during pregnancy had a 1.4- to 2.2-fold higher risk of having diabetes in later life.
• Women who had transient high blood pressure with and without measurable protein in the urine had a 1.9- to 2.8-fold higher risk of kidney disease in later life, compared to women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy. Transient high blood pressure is temporary high blood pressure that later returns to normal.

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The Things to Not Eat When You Have a Yeast Infection

An overgrowth of the fungus Candida albicans causes a condition know as candidiasis, also called a yeast infection. Yeast infections often affect dark, moist areas of your body such as your mouth, genital area, intestines, urinary tract or skin folds. While no scientific evidence proves that dietary changes help improve yeast infections, avoiding certain foods may help enhance your body’s ability to control the overgrowth of Candida albicans.

Simple Carbohydrates

Avoid sugary drinks such as fruit juice and soda.

Simple carbohydrates such as sugar, refined grains, fructose and glucose provide yeast infections with a source of food. The lack of nutrients in many simple carbohydrate foods also limits your intake of vitamins and minerals your immune system needs to fight candidiasis, advises Nicole Kuhl, the director of nutrition and full-time health coach at Lifespan Medicine in Santa Monica, California. Avoid simple sugars by eliminating most fruits, fruit juices, sodas, milk, alcohol, candy, pre-packaged meals and snacks, white breads, regular pasta, syrups, table sugar and white rice from your diet. Some high-carbohydrate vegetables such as peas, squash, lima beans and potatoes also provide your body with simple carbohydrates.

Yeast

Avoid alcohol while you have a yeast infection as it may promote yeast growth. 

Foods made with yeast or containing yeast may also promote yeast growth. The University of Maryland Medical Center suggests that avoiding alcohol, peanuts and most cheeses may help control a yeast infection. Other foods sources of yeast include vinegar, bread, rolls, soft pretzels, pizza dough, pastries and bagels.

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Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Eye Diseases

If you want lasting vision, eat your fish and nuts: The omega-3 fatty acids in these foods may protect against two leading causes of human blindness, a new study in mice has found.

The results showed omega-3s help regulate blood vessel growth in our eyes. That means the fatty acids could help prevent eye diseases such as retinopathy, caused by an overgrowth of leaky blood vessels in the eyes, and age-related macular degeneration, caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels, said study researcher Dr. Lois Smith, an ophthalmologist at Children's Hospital Boston.

The fatty acids also activated proteins that improve insulin sensitivity, Smith said. Those proteins are the same ones targeted by type 2 diabetes drugs such as Avandia, so the finding shows that fatty acids could be used to improve insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes, she said.
"Although more clinical studies need to be done, it appears possible that similar to mice, patients would have improved insulin sensitivity with omega-3 fatty acids, with no increased risk of heart disease," Smith told MyHealthNewsDaily.

To get the same beneficial health effects as the mice in the study, humans would have to consume 2 grams a day of omega-3 compounds docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EHA), either as a supplement or in food, she said.

The study was published today (Feb. 9) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Aspirin and fatty acids

Researchers also found that aspirin doesn't counteract the protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids.

This finding is especially important because aspirin is a good treatment for heart disease, and heart disease is a risk factor for macular degeneration, said Dr. Mina Chung, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, who was not involved with the study.

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How Much Does Alcohol Raise Blood Pressure?

Few beverages get as much mixed press as alcohol. While moderate alcohol consumption may provide benefits that include reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes, consuming too much often damages the liver and contributes to alcoholism. The effect alcohol has on your blood pressure is also related to how much you drink, and heavy drinking causes it to rise.

High Blood Pressure: The Silent Killer
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States, and high blood pressure, or hypertension as it is also known, is often a precursor to heart disease, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. High blood pressure is termed the silent killer because many people with high blood pressure are unaware they have it until it manifests as heart disease.

Alcohol and Blood Pressure
Heavy drinking, defined as having more than three alcoholic drinks per day, may contribute to high blood pressure by interfering with blood flow. Additionally, excessive alcoholic intake pushes nutrients away from your heart, which weakens it. One alcoholic drink is defined as 12 oz. of beer, 5 oz. of wine, or 1.5 oz. of distilled spirits.

Effects
How much does heavy drinking contribute to high blood pressure? About 2 to 4 mm/Hg in systolic blood pressure and 1 to 2 mm/Hg in diastolic blood pressure, notes Sheldon G. Sheps, M.D., of MayoClinic.com. Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading and diastolic appears as the bottom number. Cutting back from heavy to moderate drinking has a marked impact on blood pressure. Moderate drinking is two drinks per day for men younger than 65, but if you are an older man or a woman, you should not exceed one drink daily. One drink a day for women of any age is considered moderate.

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Simple Diabetic & Hypertension Meal Plan

Diabetes increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. It's critical to control other risk factors such as obesity, elevated cholesterol levels and hypertension. The American Diabetes Association says that as many as two out of three diabetics have hypertension and that because of the increased risk of heart disease, people with diabetes should work to keep blood pressure levels below 130/80 mmHG.

Hypertension and Diabetes

High blood pressure, or hypertension, forces your heart to work harder to pump blood throughout your body. According to the ADA, when your heart works harder, your risk for diabetic complications increases. Although there are many causes of hypertension, a high-sodium diet is most often to blame. Sodium attracts water and excess sodium increases blood volume -- that's what increases the pressure in your circulatory system. Following a low-sodium diet can lower blood pressure in as little as 14 days.

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developed the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, diet to lower blood pressure with a well-balanced nutrient-dense eating plan. Sodium intake is limited to 1,500 mg per day; carbohydrates make up 55 percent of calories, 18 percent come from protein and 27 percent from fat. Saturated fat and dietary cholesterol are very limited, which helps control "bad" LDL cholesterol levels, another risk factor for cardiovascular disease. These nutritional guidelines fit perfectly with the University of Maryland Medical Center's general diabetic dietary guidelines -- that between 44 and 65 percent of your calories come from carbohydrates, between 12 and 20 percent from protein and between 25 and 35 percent from fat.

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Weight gain after quitting smoking does not negate health benefits

An analysis of data from the Framingham Offspring Study -- a long-term study that follows children of participants in the original Framingham Heart Study -- may have answered a question that has troubled individuals considering stopping smoking: do the health effects of any weight gained after quitting outweigh the known cardiovascular benefits of smoking cessation? The report in the March 13 issue of JAMA concludes that the benefits of stopping smoking far exceed any weight-gain associated risk.

 "Among people without diabetes, those who stopped smoking had a 50 percent reduction in the risk for heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death, and accounting for any weight increase didn't change that risk reduction," says James Meigs, MD, MPH, of the General Medicine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) senior author of the JAMA report. "In patients with diabetes -- among whom weight gain is a particular concern -- we saw the same pattern of a large risk reduction regardless of weight gained."
No study has previously investigated whether smoking-cessation-associated weight gain increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. One did look at the effects on risk factors such as blood pressure and lipid levels, but none have analyzed the actual occurence of cardiovascular events. Participants in the Framingham Offspring Study, which began in 1971, have a comprehensive medical exam and history taken every four to six years. The current investigation analyzed data from participant visits conducted from the mid 1980s into the mid-2000s, which covering the third to eighth visits for the overall study. The number of participants at each exam cycle ranged from almost 2,400 to about 3,250, totalling 11,148 individual person-exams.
Based on information gathered at each exam, participants were categorized as never smokers, current smokers, recent quitters -- who had stopped smoking since their last exam -- and long-term quitters. At the third study visit, 31 percent of participants were current smokers, and by the eighth visit only 13 percent continued to smoke. A general trend toward weight gain was seen across all study participants. Smokers, never smokers, and long-term quitters gained an average of 1 to 2 pounds between study visits, while recent quitters had gained an average of 5 to 10 pounds since their previous visit. But no matter how much weight they gained, the risk of cardiovascular events in the six years after quitting dropped in half for participants without diabetes. A similar drop in the incidence of cardiovascular events was seen in participants with diabetes, but it did not reach statistical significance, probably because less than 15 percent of the overall group was know to have diabetes.

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Good night's sleep 'protects heart'

Seven or more hours' sleep a night boosts the benefits to the heart of a healthy lifestyle, research suggests.

According to a large study, traditional advice on exercise, diet, drinking and smoking reduced deaths from heart disease or stroke, but even more lives were saved by also having enough sleep.

Advice on getting enough sleep could have a substantial impact on public health, say European researchers.

In theory, many heart and stroke deaths could be prevented or postponed.

A team in the Netherlands tracked heart disease and strokes in more than 14,000 men and women for more than a decade.

By the end of the study, about 600 individuals had suffered heart disease or stroke, and 129 died.

The study found that deaths were less likely in people who followed all four positive lifestyle recommendations - taking exercise, eating a healthy diet, drinking alcohol in moderation, and not smoking.

Observing all four behaviours was associated with a 57% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 67% lower risk of dying from stroke or heart disease, they say.

But when sufficient sleep - seven or more hours a night - was added to the other four lifestyle factors, the beneficial effect was amplified - resulting in a 65% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and an 83% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

The researchers say other studies have shown a link between poor sleep and cardiovascular disease, but this is the first to look at whether sleep - added to the other four healthy lifestyle recommendations - can further reduce risk.

"If all participants adhered to all five healthy lifestyle factors, 36% of composite cardiovascular disease [heart disease or stroke] and 57% of fatal cardiovascular disease could theoretically be prevented or postponed," say the researchers, from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, and Wageningen University.

"The public health impact of sufficient sleep duration, in addition to the traditional healthy lifestyle factors, could be substantial."

Commenting on the work, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Prof Grethe S Tell, of the University of Bergen, Norway, said the benefits of sleep should be considered by public health experts and parents alike.

"The main message of the study is that we need to consider sleep as an important factor for health," she told BBC News.

"From a public health point of view we should encourage people to get enough sleep and like all other healthy lifestyle factors this needs to be taught at home."

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Eye Floaters & Omega 3

Omega-3 fatty acids will not prevent or treat common eye floaters, which often increase with aging. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil might help reduce your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy if you have diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy can lead to retina tears or detachments, which can cause flashes of light, floaters or vision loss. Omega-3 fatty acids might also help treat inflammation in the interior chambers of the eye, which can cause floaters associated with vitreous detachment. Ask your doctor before taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements to reduce floaters.

Common Floaters
Aging causes most eye floaters. The center of your eyeball contains a gel called vitreous humor. The gel helps maintain the shape of your eyeball. As you get older, the gel starts to liquefy in the center. Small pieces of gel that haven't liquefied float in the liquid, appearing briefly as they float across your line of vision. Your eye adapts to floaters over time and they become less visible to you. Omega-3 fatty acid therapy will not help with these types of floaters, which generally require no medical treatment.

Diabetic Retinopathy and Floaters
Diabetes can damage blood vessels, including blood vessels in the retina of the eye. Leaking blood vessels in the retina can cause fluid to accumulate under the retina, causing a retinal detachment or tear. Omega-3 fatty acids might have some benefit in prevention of diabetic retinopathy, although this has not been conclusively proven. One animal study, carried out by researchers from the Children's Hospital Boston and published in the July 2007 issue of "Nature Medicine," looked at the effect of omega-3 fatty acid on the retina in mice with diabetes. Researchers found that omega-3 fatty acids could reduce development of abnormal blood vessels in the retina that can lead to tears and detachment and help damaged areas heal faster.

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