AIFG Blogs

The American Heart Association is teaming up with researchersfrom the University of California-San Francisco to create a digitally basedresearch network to study heart disease and stroke.

The Health eHeart Studywill  use technology, such as smartphones and computers, to track people’shealth and habits over many years.. The research is expected to provideinformation on what causes cardiovascular disease and how to fight it.

The study has been positionedas a “digital Framingham” in the footsteps of the renowned Framingham HeartStudy, which launched in 1948 and continues to follow cardiovasculardevelopment over decades in three generations of participants.

Researchers hope to sign up asmany as 1 million people to participate. Anyone can join the study, which isbeing featured in a CNBC documentary airing tonight at 9 p.m. EDT.

Cost, fear and a lack of information may prevent minorities in urban communities from learning and performing CPR, but free training or incentives like transportation to courses could help, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Six focus groups that included 42 residents in Columbus, Ohio, were interviewed about their knowledge of CPR and training in CPR. Most were 30 or older, African-American and female, and half lived in economically struggling, high-crime neighborhoods.

Money — for the class, childcare and transportation — was the biggest barrier to learning CPR.

Fear of performing CPR — especially on children and kids — was also a big factor. They didn’t know that Hands-Only CPR can save a life. Study participants also were afraid that performing CPR on a stranger would threaten their personal safety, lead to problems with the police or put them at risk of being sued.

And lack of information about the importance of CPR and where to receive training was another major hurdle. Eighty-eight percent were familiar with CPR, but only 43 percent had taken a course within the past three years.

“Our research suggests a community-based approach is needed, such as partnering with local churches,” said Comilla Sasson, M.D., lead researcher and emergency medicine expert and assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “Bringing our knowledge and expertise about CPR to their doorstep, instead of the other way around, could help address these issues and reduce healthcare disparities among minorities requiring immediate medical care.”

Making CPR classes free or providing allowances for childcare, gift cards for food or bus tokens for transportation was one way study participants said CPR awareness could be increased. Other ideas:

• Combining CPR training with basic first aid training, offering certification or academic credit or promoting CPR as a job skill to help residents advance their professional careers; and
• Emphasizing that CPR starts at home to save the lives of family members and loved ones.

Summer is the perfect time to take advantage of fresh fruits and vegetables available in grocery markets and from local growers.Not only are they refreshing during the summer, but they also help prevent heart disease and stroke. If you enjoy gardening, try planting a few vegetable seeds and see what happens. Get out of your box this summer and add some color to your diet!

If you’re like me, you are on a strict budget which can make eating healthy a challenge. Farmer’s Markets are abundant with fresh goods at reasonable prices, and are often organically grown. To find a local Farmer’s Market, search your town’s website or search on localharvest.org. Here are some tips for buying the right items at your local Farmer’s Market:

If Farmer’s Markets aren’t your thing, or you don’t have any nearby, you can find good deals on fresh produce right at your local grocery store. Again, make sure you know what’s in season to get the most bang for your buck. Sometimes frozen produce can be less expensive and better fit for one or two person households. This will ensure you get the recommended 4.5 cups daily of fruits and vegetables within your budget.

For more recommendations and advice on seasonal produce, visit the American Heart Association’s website: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Seasonal-Produce—Spring-and-Summer_UCM_441181_Article.jsp.

-Danielle K.

Representatives of about 170 research organizations will meet with House and Senate offices in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to urge Congress to invest in the National Institutes of Health for the health and economic security of our nation. The event is called a Rally for Medical Research Hill Day, and the American Heart Association is proud to be involved.

Research has long been a major priority of the American Heart Association. Our organization has invested upwards of $3.5 billion into research, more than any organization outside the federal government. Decade after decade, we have seen how research provides answers where none were available.

American Heart Association President Mariell Jessup, M.D., who will be among the volunteers in Washington, D.C., details how the AHA advocates for further research  in the latest Huffington Post column from American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown.

With summer coming to an end and fall starting to roll in, it seems like everyone with a garden is offering up extra vegetables they may have available. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have no luck growing tomatoes. Luckily, I have a few friends that have perfected the art of growing tomatoes here and decided to share their bounty. With a 5-gallon bag filled to the top with cherry tomatoes, I knew I needed to find recipes that would allow us to enjoy the early fall flavor — and to use a lot of tomatoes. This recipe hit both marks. Simple and quick to prepare, this healthy dish is packed with flavor — within the first few bites, I knew this would be a favorite I’ll make again and again.

First off, let’s start off with the tomatoes. I’d highly recommend using the most ripe tomatoes you can find – the flavor of the tomatoes in the dish is fantastic, but you also have a sweet treat to enjoy as you cook.

After measuring out the tomatoes, it’s time to get the other ingredients together. To go along with the simple theme of this recipe, most of the ingredients are items you likely already have in your pantry: olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

The main ingredient: green beans. If you have fresh green beans from your garden – great! If not, you easily could substitute frozen beans that have been defrosted.

Once the beans are cooked to tender-crisp (or to your preferred texture), it’s time to add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds or just until it becomes fragrant. Then, add the tomatoes, stir and cook until the tomatoes just begin to break down.

Remove the pan from heat, stir in the vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Then, sit down and enjoy a healthy dish with a taste of fall — no matter what the actual weather is outside. Delicious!

To see the full recipe, please go to http://bit.ly/Rz4es0.

What am I doing in Kentucky, you ask? Well, long story short, I moved down here in August to hopefully find a job in Richmond because, for some reason I don’t know, I felt like this was where my next step was. I decided that I wouldn’t know if it was true unless I came here and gave it a shot.

Obese children quadruple their risk and overweight children double their risk of developing high blood pressure in adulthood, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

Researchers tracked the growth and blood pressure of 1,117 healthy adolescents from Indianapolis for 27 years, starting in 1986, and found:

• During childhood, 68 percent of the kids were a normal weight, 16 percent were overweight and 16 percent were obese. As adults, 119 of the participants were diagnosed with high blood pressure.
• Six percent of normal weight children had high blood pressure as adults.
• Fourteen percent of overweight children had high blood pressure as adults.
• Twenty-six percent of obese children had high blood pressure as adults.

The findings highlight the public health threat posed by overweight and obesity in childhood. One in three U.S. children and teens are overweight or obese, meaning their body mass index is at least the 85th percentile or at least the 95th percentile for their age and gender respectively. Body mass index is the relationship between height and weight.

The study results are also part of the growing body of evidence that heart disease may start in childhood, said Sara E. Watson, M.D., study author and a pediatric endocrinology fellow at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Ind.

“It is important that pediatricians counsel patients on the risk of high blood pressure associated with overweight and obesity, and stress that a healthy diet, including reducing salt intake and exercise, may help reduce this risk,” Watson said. “Interventions to prevent and treat obesity will play an important role in decreasing the significant burden of high blood pressure in adulthood.”

The study was funded by the National Institute of Health, Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University Purdue University Signature Center Grant Initiative.

Kids with just occasional spikes in blood pressure during childhood are at much higher risk of having high blood pressure as adults, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

“It’s important that primary care providers not ignore elevated blood pressure readings,” said Stephen R. Daniels, M.D., national American Heart Association spokesperson and pediatrician-in-chief and L. Joseph Butterfield Chair of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, Colo. “In children with elevated readings, it’s important to follow blood pressure and make sure that children and families work on lifestyle factors — avoiding obesity, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet and to not starting smoking.”

After factoring in age, gender and weight, researchers found that adults had up to four times the rate of high blood pressure if they had high blood pressure readings during childhood. Only 9 percent of adults who had no high blood pressure readings during childhood had high blood pressure, compared to 18 percent who had one high reading and 35 percent who had two or more high readings.

The study also found that 59 percent of adults with high blood pressure had been overweight or obese as children. Childhood obesity is a risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease in adulthood.

Researchers tracked 1,117 adolescent children for 27 years, starting in 1986 — by adulthood, 119 of them were diagnosed with high blood pressure. Blood pressure was taken by school nurses or at regular doctor visits.

Robert Wazelle regularly frequents the wood shops of Oregon, searching for freshly hewn cedar burls. He has long used these knotted clumps of dense wood to make sculptures resembling undersea coral .

But while perusing lumber one day last summer, Wazelle found a burl unlike any he’d ever seen.

“I came upon this burl and immediately said ‘Wow that really looks like a heart!’” Wazelle said. “It just blew me away, it was so special. As soon as I found it, I knew it needed to end up at a place like the American Heart Association.”

From his workshop in O’Brien, Ore., the self-taught artist spent weeks transforming the burl into a heart worthy of the American Heart Association.

Wazelle used an industrial grinder for the first rough cuts. A chisel and hammer helped unveil more distinctive arteries. Fine tuning was done with a Dremel rotary tool, followed by several weeks of hand sanding. The heart sculpture was topped off with a natural varnish and a coat of polyurethane seal.

Earlier this summer, Wazelle drove to the AHA’s national center in nearby Dallas and donated his wooden heart sculpture. He said he was already nearby at the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, Texas, selling walking sticks and other carvings.

Wazelle, 65, said he has never had any heart issues that might have brought him to the American Heart Association before his heart sculpture was created.  It just made sense, he said, to give it to the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization devoted to fighting cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

“We’re thrilled that the American Heart Association was the first thing that came to mind when Robert began his sculpture,” said Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association. “And we’re thankful to Robert for his beautiful donation to our important cause of building healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. His heart sculpture will be prominently displayed in our Dallas headquarters for years to come.”

Despite numerous smoke-free and anti-tobacco laws, India tobacco controls are not being well implemented, says an international report released on Thursday.

The result is that the ravages of tobacco could kill 1.5 million in India each year by 2020, if more people don’t kick the habit, said the report released Thursday by the International Tobacco Control Project.

“A combination of factors including low levels of awareness of the risks of tobacco use, partial rather than comprehensive smokefree legislation, poor enforcement of existing smokefree laws and the relative affordability of tobacco means that few current tobacco users say they are ready to quit,” the report says.

The TCP India Survey conducted face to face interviews with 8,000 tobacco users and 2,400 non-tobacco users.

India has an estimated 270 million tobacco users. Public health experts have long warned that tobacco use also  imposes severe financial stress on families and a huge economic burden on the nation. India’s last estimated direct healthcare costs of tobacco in 2004 at about $1.7 billion.

Worldwide, the number of deaths caused by tobacco is expected to rise from 5.4 million a year now to more than 8 million by 2030, according to the World Health Organization.

Lazy days of summer? Not so fast.  The three-month period between Memorial Day and Labor Day can be one of the busiest  - and most stressful - time of the year.  With the kids home from school, vacations on the horizon, and an increased social calendar, summer can take its toll on the most calm person.  Take a look at some of the tips below to help you make it through the crazy days of summer.

Summertime stress is a part of life, but you can make it more manageable by staying organized, planning your time wisely, and taking time to take care of yourself.

- Kristine Ritter Wilhelm