A reduction in carbohydrate consumption can promote the loss of belly fat, even with little or no weight loss, according to a new study.

When paired with weight loss, however, a moderately-reduced carbohydrate diet can help achieve a reduction of total body fat.

University of Alabama researchers say that these changes could help reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, stroke and coronary artery disease, which can all be spurred by excess abdominal fat.

Lead researcher Barbara Gower, PhD, a professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and her team observed 69 overweight but healthy men and women over a period of 16 weeks.

Participants either received a low-fat diet or a reduced-carb diet.  The low-fat diet contained 55 percent of calories from carbohydrates and 27 percent from fat, while the reduced-carb diet contained 43 percent calories from carbohydrates and 39 percent calories from fat.  Protein made up the remaining 18 percent of calories in each diet.

Over the course of 16 weeks, the reduced-carb diet resulted in a 15 percent greater loss of deep abdominal fat than the low-fat diet.

“A modest reduction in carbohydrate-containing foods may help [dieters] preferentially lose fat, rather than lean tissue,” Gower said in a press release. “The moderately reduced carbohydrate diet allows a variety of foods to meet personal preferences.”

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

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.

Not only are smokers twice as likely to have strokes, they are almost a decade younger than non-smokers when they have them, according to a new study.

Researchers studied nearly 1000 stroke patients between January 2009 and March 2011 and found that the average age of stroke patients who smoked was 58, compared to age 67 for non-smokers.

“The information from this study provides yet another important piece of evidence about the significance of helping people stop smoking,” said study author Dr. Andrew Pipe from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. “It also alerts the neurology community to the importance of addressing smoking in stroke patients.”

Smoking can cause a build-up of debris inside of blood vessels, a condition called atherosclerosis, which contributes to a higher likelihood of clots forming.

The study found that smokers have double the risk of a stroke caused by a dislodged blood clot (ischemic stroke) and four times the risk of a stroke caused by a ruptured blood vessel (hemorrhagic stroke).
Furthermore, smokers have a greater chance of complications and recurrent stroke. Patients who have a minor stroke are 10 times more likely to suffer a major one, especially if they keep smoking.

“It’s scandalous that [people] continue to die in large numbers from stroke, heart disease, cancers and a host of other diseases for which the tobacco industry is responsible,” Pipe said.

If a person stops smoking, their risk for stroke or heart disease decreases dramatically. Within 18 months to two years of quitting, the risks of stroke for ex-smokers are about the same as for non-smokers, the study indicated.

“Stroke is preventable,” said Dr. Sharma, Deputy Director of the Canadian Stroke Network. “This study highlights the sizeable role smoking has on stroke. Quitting smoking, controlling blood pressure, following a healthy diet and being physically active significantly reduce the risk of stroke.”

Government and medical intervention policies that promote health eating could cut the death rate for cardiovascular disease by half, according to new data.

British researchers found that intervention policies aimed at reducing unhealthy eating habits can have a significant effect on cardiovascular disease rates in a population.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the United States. It is responsible for approximately one out of every four deaths.

Poor diet is one of the major causes of cardiovascular disease, though prior research has shown that small improvements can make a positive and rapid impact.

The study in question pointed to six foods that could slash the cardiovascular disease rate, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, vegetable oils and seafood. Meanwhile, cutting out excess starch, animal fat, salt and trans fats could also decrease the risk of heart disease.

The researchers also pointed out specific population-wide programs that were effective and inexpensive in decreasing heart disease rates. These included pricing policies that subsidized healthier foods and taxed less healthy ones, improved transportation and marketing of healthier foods, strict guidelines of food marketing to children and increased support of local markets that provide healthy foods.

Whilst drug and hospital based prevention are successful for high-risk individuals with cardiovascular diseases, these methods are relatively costly and not sustainable in many countries.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal.

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.