Trail mix vs. Granola bar

So you’re going hiking for the day, and you want to pack an easy, tasty snack to keep yourself refueled.  Which should you take along with you – trail mix or a granola bar?

Answer: While both can be high in calories, and you should be mindful of how much you’re consuming, trail mix is the better choice.

Trail mix is a bit higher in both calories and fats than a granola bar, but most of the fats are heart-healthy.  Plus, the nuts in trail mix provide you with more protein and fiber, which will give you more energy and keep you fuller longer.

Typically – though it depends on the brand – trail mix also has less sodium and sugar.

Keep in mind when you’re buying (or mixing) trail mix that any additions, like chocolate or yogurt bits, can pile on extra calories.  Also, you really don’t need that much – a small handful every hour should be enough to keep you satisfied.

So now that you’re armed with the right snack, get out there and enjoy the great outdoors.  It’s beautiful out.  Happy trails, everyone!

Patients who suffer from chronic chest pain may benefit from an injection of stem cells into the heart, according to a new study.

Currently 850,000 Americans have chest pains that do not subside even with medicine, angioplasty or surgery, researchers say.

However, results from an experimental treatment indicate that stem cell injections can reduce the number of chest pain episodes by half, as well as improve exercise capability in those patients.

The study was the first randomized, controlled trial of stem-cell therapy to show significant improvements in both chest pain and exercise tolerance – which are both affected negatively by refractory angina, or chronic chest pain.

“One exciting potential of this procedure is that it will offer these folks an opportunity to get part of their lives back,” said Douglas Losordo, M.D., lead researcher and professor of medicine and director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Researchers used patients’ CD34+ stem cells, which circulate through the blood and play a role in forming new blood vessels.

In the study, 167 patients at 26 U.S. medical centers were randomized to one of three injection groups: low dose (100,000 CD34+ cells/kg body weight); high dose (500,000 CD34+ cells/kg body weight); or a placebo.

Using a catheter threaded into the heart, the researchers then injected the cells into muscle identified as receiving insufficient blood.  The injection was meant to create new vessels in the diseased heart muscle to improve blood flow to the area and reduce pain.

They found that a year after treatment, the low-dose group had about half as many episodes of chest pain as the placebo group.  They were also able to tolerate double the amount of exercise.

“It translates as going from being able to watch television to being able to walk at a normal pace or going from being able to walk slowly to being able to ride a bike,” Losordo said.

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

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.

Colorado researchers have found that high levels of a specific hormone can predict which kidney patients will develop heart problems, require dialysis or die prematurely.

“This discovery allows us to predict at-risk patients before they require dialysis,” said lead researcher Michel Chonchol, MD. “That’s critical because approximately 23 percent of patients on dialysis die in the first year.”

Chonchol and his colleagues at the University of Colorado studied the blood plasma of patients with advanced kidney disease and found that levels of a hormone called fibroblast growth factor-23, or FGF-23, increased as kidney function deteriorated.

The hormone in question is responsible for regulating phosphorous levels in the body. As the kidneys fail, they are rendered incapable of excreting phosphorous which causes FGF-23 levels to rise.

The higher the level of the hormone in the body, the greater the chance the patient will die, though researchers are uncertain exactly how the hormone affects the body.

By the time the patient is down to 30 or 40 percent kidney function, the levels of FGF-23 can predict who will die, have a heart attack or require dialysis, the researchers said. Nearly 50 percent of deaths in kidney patients are due to cardiovascular problems like heart attacks.

Until now, doctors relied on measuring phosphorous to assess a patient’s condition.
“Prior to a patient going on dialysis the phosphorous levels shoot up,” Chonchol said.

However, the researchers found that FGF-23 levels actually increase long before phosphorous levels jump. Being able to identify problematic conditions earlier will allow doctors to intervene with drugs that can lower phosphorous and in turn lower the levels of the hormone.

“This has provided us a critical marker to look for,” Chonchol said, “A marker that could save lives.”

Kidney disease affects 20 million Americans and is a growing problem due to obesity and diabetes.

“The best ways to prevent kidney disease is through blood pressure control, diet, exercise and maintaining a healthy body weight,” Chonchol said.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Regular exercise, low salt intake, clear arteries and…a good marriage?

Researchers say that all of these factors have a huge impact on heart health. Put into numbers, happily wedded people who undergo coronary bypass surgery are more than three times as likely to be alive 15 years later as their unmarried counterparts.

“There is something in a good relationship that helps people stay on track” said Professor Kathleen King, study author.

University or Rochester researchers report that marital satisfaction is just as essential for survival after bypass surgery as more traditional risk factors such as tobacco use, obesity and high blood pressure.

There does appear to be a gender difference, however. For men, it appears that simply being married is enough to reap the benefits – though the more satisfying the marriage, the higher the survival rates – but for women, the quality of the marriage is paramount in predicting survival.

Unhappy marriages provided essentially no survival benefit for women, but satisfying marriages increased the survival rate nearly fourfold, according to the study.

“Wives need to feel satisfied in their relationships to reap a health dividend,” said study co-author Professor Harry Reis. “But the payoff for marital bliss is even greater for women than for men.”

For the study, the researchers followed 225 people who had bypass surgery between 1987 and 1990. They asked the married participants to rate their relationship satisfaction one year after surgery and adjusted for other conventional risk factors such as age, education and tobacco use.

Fifteen years after surgery, 83 percent of happily wedded men and women were still alive. In comparison, only 28 percent of unhappy married women were still alive, while 27 percent of single women survived.

For men, as mentioned earlier, the quality of the marriage was less important. Sixty percent of unhappily married men were still alive. However, only 36 percent of single men remained alive.

King said the study points to the importance of ongoing relationships for both men and women. Supportive spouses are more likely to encourage healthy behavior, like increased exercise or smoking cessation, which are critical to long-term survival from heart disease.

It could also be nurturing marriage provides patients with sustained motivation to care for oneself and a powerful reason to “stick around so they can stay in the relationship that they like, King explained.

The study was published in Health Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association.

New cardiac CT techniques deliver images that are equal in accuracy but expose children to much lower radiation doses than traditional scans, according to scientists.

The new technology, called coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA), is expected “significantly decrease” the need for anesthesia and the invasive access risk of coronary imaging, according to researchers.

CTA images, they explained, are acquired without having to access the heart, and all patients age seven or older do not require sedation for the procedure.

Furthermore, CTA can be tailored to decrease certain risks for individual patients, depending on their health and circumstances.

Because children tend to have higher heart rates, it is typically necessary to administer beta blockade medication to slow their heart in order to get clearer images.

The procedure can lower radiation exposure by seven-fold, the researchers said.