How fast can you run a mile?

Your answer may predict your risk of a heart attack or stroke in the next decade or so, according to two new studies.

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers say that how fast a middle-age person can run a mile can help predict the risk of dying of heart attack or stroke decades later for men and could be an early indicator of cardiovascular disease for women.

The researchers analyzed the heart disease risk of 45 to 65 year-old men based on fitness levels and other traditional risk factors such as age, blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking habits.

They found that fitness levels among middleaged men show marked differences in risk for cardiovascular disease.

For instance, a 55-year-old man runs a mile in 15 minutes has a 30 percent lifetime risk of developing heart disease. In contrast, a 55-year-old who runs a mile in eight minutes has a lifetime risk of less than 10 percent.

“Heart disease tends to cluster at older ages, but if you want to prevent it, our research suggests that the prescription for prevention needs to occur earlier – when a person is in his 40s and 50s,” said Dr. Jarett Berry, assistant professor of internal medicine and a corresponding author on both studies.

According to the results, a high fitness level can lower the risk of heart disease even when other risk factors are present.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in industrialized nations.  It is especially lethal for women, whose risk for heart disease is hard to assess and rises dramatically as they age.

The fitness test, researchers said, were particularly helpful in identifying women at risk for heart disease over the long term.

The studies mark the first time fitness levels have been used to attempt to predict risk for heart disease.

They were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Circulation.

An analysis of heart disease and stroke statistics collected from 192 countries by the World Health Organization shows that the relative burden of the two diseases is closely linked to national income.

University of California researchers found that developing countries tend to suffer more death and disability by stroke than heart disease.  Meanwhile, the United States and other countries with higher national incomes tend to experience the opposite.

This finding may help health officials design tailored interventions to best fit the needs of developing countries, the researchers say.

“In general, heart disease is still the number one cause of death worldwide, but there is quite a lot of variation across the globe,” said Anthony  Kim, MD, MAS, assistant professor of neurology at UCSF .

For instance, there was a wide variation in the mortality rate for stroke highlighted by the new research.  Rates ranged from a worldwide low of 25 deaths per 100,000 in the island nation of Seychelles to a high of 249 deaths per 100,000 in Kyrgyzstan – a rate nearly 10 times greater.

In the United States, there are approximately 45 deaths per 100,000 people due to stroke.

Heart disease and stroke are similar in that they are both are caused by reduced or restricted blood flow to vital organs and share many of the same common risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, physical inactivity and smoking.

However, because they affect very different tissues – the heart and the brain – they diverge in terms of symptoms, approaches to critical care, follow-up treatment and the duration and cost of recovery.

“There was a striking association with national income,” Kim said.

In the United States, for instance, heart disease is the number one killer and stroke the number four, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This also holds true for the Middle East, most of North America, Australia and much of Western Europe.

The opposite is true in many developing countries. Stroke  is more prevalent in China, many parts of Africa, Asia and South America.

Overall, nearly 40 percent of all nations have a greater burden of stroke compared to heart disease.

“This is significant,” said Kim, “because knowing that the burden of stroke is higher in some countries focuses attention on developing a better understanding of the reasons for this pattern of disease and may help public health officials to prioritize resources appropriately.”

The study was published in the journal Circulation.

Stroke rates are rising among adolescents and young adults, according to a new study, which blames the increased prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and obesity for the higher rates.

Ischemic stroke hospitalizations increased 37 percent between 1995 and 2008 among adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 44.

Of the patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke, researchers found that one third of patients aged 15 to 34 years and over half aged 35 to 44 years were also diagnosed with hypertension. One-fourth of patients aged 35 to 44 years also had diabetes.

Additionally, a quarter of females and a third of males aged 15 to 44 were regular tobacco users.

“We identified significant increasing trends in ischemic stroke hospitalizations among adolescents and young adults,” said Mary George, M.D., a medical officer with CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. “Our results from national surveillance data accentuate the need for public health initiatives to reduce the prevalence of risk factors for stroke among adolescents and young adults.”

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and is one of the top 10 causes of childhood death.

Nearly 90 percent of all cases are attributed to ischemic stroke, which occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked by blood clots or a build up of plaque inside blood vessels.

The researchers recommended that adolescents and their guardians minimize stroke risk factors by eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and foods low in sodium and saturated fat, maintaining a healthy weight, engaging in regular physical activity and not smoking.

The study was published in the journal Annals of Neurology.

You already know that high fructose corn syrup is bad for your waistline, but what you may not know is that it’s also bad for your heart.

A new study has found that adults who consumed high amounts of high fructose corn syrup as a part of their daily diet had increased cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood, which have both been shown to be risk factors for heart disease.

While the American Heart Association recommends that people consume only five percent of calories as added sugar, the The Dietary Guidelines for Americans lists 25 percent as the upper limit for consumption of calories from sugar.

To investigate this discrepancy, researchers put young, healthy adults on specific diets for two weeks.  One group was assigned to consume fructose, high fructose corn syrup or glucose as 25 percent of their daily calories.

They found that, after two weeks, the adults in the high fructose and high fructose corn syrup group exhibited increased levels of LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and a protein that causes plaque and may lead to vascular disease.

Interestingly, high consumption of glucose did not show the same effect.

“These results suggest that consumption of sugar may promote heart disease,” summarized senior author Kimber Stanhope, PhD, of the University of California, Davis. “Additionally our findings provide evidence that the upper limit of 25 percent of daily calories consumed as added sugar as suggested by The Dietary Guidelines for American 2010 may need to be re-evaluated.”

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Americans are spending about half their food budget in restaurants, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This latest study, conducted by Texas A&M University Researchers, surveyed parents and children from over 300 families in Houston. The questions measured parental work schedules, parenting style, family meal ritual perceptions, and time children spent in an automobile with their parents.

The results indicate that families in which both parents have standard work schedules and children spend more time in an automobile with their parents are more likely to frequent fast food restaurants.

Researchers also found a specific link between the amount of times fathers eat at fast food restaurants and the amount of times children do.

It is widely known that restaurant food, as compared to food prepared at home, is often higher in calories, saturated fat and sodium.  In light of the obesity epidemic in America, researchers are recommending that parents take their children out to eat less often in order to model and establish more healthful eating habits.

The study was published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Death rates are falling among people with high blood pressure – but are still much higher than those without, according to researchers.

Results from two national health surveys show that death rates have fallen from 18.8 deaths for every 1000 people to 14.3 among those suffering from hypertension.  This is still 57 percent higher than those who do not have high blood pressure, who boast a considerably lower 9.1 mortality rate.

Men who have high blood pressure were more likely to die than women (7.7 death rate compared to 1.9), though their death rate fell more sharply over the time periods studied.  Women, however, were more likely to suffer from additional complications related to high blood pressure.

“Compared with hypertensive men, women gained more weight, were more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and were less likely to quit smoking,” said Earl Ford, M.D., M.P.H., study author and medical officer with the U.S. Public Health Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a press release.

Ford recommends that hypertension patients focus on lowering their blood pressure, as well as stop smoking, control their weight as best they can, have their lipid levels measured (and if needed, be treated), and get tested for diabetes.

The study was published in the journal Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.