tagged w/ American Heart Association
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From omnivore to vegan: The dietary education of Bill Clinton
By David S. Martin, CNN
August 18, 2011 7:15 a.m. EDT
CNN...
Editor's note: Tune in as Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the signs, tests and lifestyle changes that could make cardiac problems a thing of the past on "The Last Heart Attack," Sunday 8 p.m. ET.
[Click on photo to watch video.]
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(CNN) -- By the time he reached the White House, Bill Clinton's appetite was legend. He loved hamburgers, steaks, chicken enchiladas, barbecue and french fries but wasn't too picky. At one campaign stop in New Hampshire, he reportedly bought a dozen doughnuts and was working his way through the box until an aide stopped him.
Former President Clinton now considers himself a vegan. He's dropped more than 20 pounds, and he says he's healthier than ever. His dramatic dietary transformation took almost two decades and came about only after a pair of heart procedures and some advice from a trusted doctor.
His dietary saga began in 1993, when first lady Hillary Clinton decided to inaugurate a new, healthier diet for her husband. In a meeting, she asked Dr. Dean Ornish to work with the White House chefs, who were accustomed to high fat, French cuisine.
"The president did like unhealthy foods, and we were able to put soy burgers in White House, for example, and get foods that were delicious and nutritious," said Ornish, director and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California. Other new menu items included such healthy fare as stir fry vegetables with tofu, and salmon with vegetables.
Even with the revamped White House menu, Clinton battled his weight throughout his two terms as president. At his annual physical in 1999, the White House physician noted the president had put on 18 pounds since a checkup two years earlier. The prescription: refocus on exercise and a low-calorie diet.
Clinton didn't know it, but weight was not his biggest health concern. The 42nd president has a family history of heart disease, and plaque was building up in the coronary arteries leading to his heart, undetected by White House doctors.
In 2004, less than four years after leaving office, the 58-year-old Clinton felt what he described as a tightness in his chest as he returned home from New Orleans, where he was promoting his memoir, "My Life." Days later, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery to restore blood flow to his heart.
"I was lucky I did not die of a heart attack," Clinton told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. After the surgery, the former president cut down on his calories and lowered the cholesterol in his diet, but his heart troubles were not over.
Last year, the former president went to Haiti to support the relief efforts but he felt weak. When he returned home, he learned he needed another heart procedure: two stents to open one of the veins from his bypass surgery, which had become, in Clinton's words, "pretty bent and ugly."
Ornish recalls meeting with Clinton a few days after his angioplasty. "I shared with him that because of his genetics, moderate changes in diet and lifestyle weren't enough to keep his disease from progressing. However, our research showed that more intensive changes change actually reverse progression of heart disease in most people."
"I told him, 'The friends that mean the most to me are the ones that tell me what I need to hear, not necessarily what I want to hear. And you need to know your genes are not your fate. And I say this not to blame you but to empower you. And I'm happy to work with you to whatever extent you want,'" Ornish recalled. They met a few days later, he said.
"I essentially concluded that I had played Russian roulette," Clinton said, "because even though I had changed my diet some and cut down on the caloric total of my ingestion and cut back on much of the cholesterol in the food I was eating, I still -- without any scientific basis to support what I did -- was taking in a lot of extra cholesterol without knowing if my body would produce enough of the enzyme to support it, and clearly it didn't or I wouldn't have had that blockage. So that's when I made a decision to really change."
The former president now says he consumes no meat, no dairy, no eggs, almost no oil.
"I like the vegetables, the fruits, the beans, the stuff I eat now," Clinton told Gupta.
The former president's goal is to avoid any food that could damage his blood vessels. His dietary guides are Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., who directs the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program at The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. Both doctors have concluded that a plant-based diet can prevent and, in some cases, actually reverse heart disease.
"All my blood tests are good, and my vital signs are good, and I feel good, and I also have, believe it or not, more energy," Clinton said. His latest goal: getting his weight down to 185, what he weighed when he was 13 years old.
Clinton is trying to spread his newfound zeal for healthy eating to children. The Clinton Foundation has teamed up with the American Heart Association and is helping 12,000 schools promote exercise and offer better lunches so decades from now, today's children will not face the same heart troubles he has.
"It's turning a ship around before it hits the iceberg, but I think we're beginning to turn it around," Clinton said.
.From omnivore to vegan: The dietary education of Bill Clinton
By David S. Martin,... more
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On college campuses, where the constant hustle and bustle of student events, athletics and activities may lead to the occasional accident, being prepared for the unexpected is vital – for some individuals more than others. This article outlines five individuals on college campuses who may want to consider seeking first aid and/or CPR training. Visit http://www.healthedsolutions.com for more information.On college campuses, where the constant hustle and bustle of student events, athletics... more
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Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) is designed to help pediatric healthcare providers efficiently and effectively manage critically ill infants and children in emergency situations. Healthcare providers often remember the PALS primary assessment procedure through a simple and convenient acronym—ABCDE. This article explains this assessment procedure.
http://www.healthedsolutions.com/Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) is designed to help pediatric healthcare... more
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Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) is designed to help pediatric healthcare providers efficiently and effectively manage critically ill infants and children in emergency situations. Healthcare providers often remember the PALS primary assessment procedure through a simple and convenient acronym—ABCDE. This article explains this assessment procedure.
http://www.healthedsolutions.com/Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) is designed to help pediatric healthcare... more
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Statistics reveal that 80 percent of individuals experiencing sudden cardiac arrest collapse at home. However, according to the American Heart Association, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can buy valuable time by maintaining some blood flow to the heart and brain until trained emergency assistance arrives. By knowing CPR techniques and first aid basics, you might just save a loved one’s life.Statistics reveal that 80 percent of individuals experiencing sudden cardiac arrest... more
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Talk about an unlikely pairing. Nintendo and the American Heart Association are teaming up to promote the Wii. The AHA is allowing Nintendo to market the games as a healthy choice.Talk about an unlikely pairing. Nintendo and the American Heart Association are... more
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When we heard that Nintendo and the American Heart Association would be making an announcement today, we (and most everyone else) assumed that it would have something to do with Nintendo's forthcoming Vitality Sensor. As it turns out, however, it's something altogether more surprising -- the AHA has announced that it's actually putting its stamp of approval on the Wii itself (as well as Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort). That's obviously a first for a video game console, and fairly unprecedented for the AHA -- as ABC News points out, the association hasn't seen fit to put its seal on other "active" things like baseball bats. It apparently had some small incentive to do so in this case, however, as the organization says it will be receiving a cool $1.5 million from Nintendo over three years as a result of the partnership. Head on past the break to see the AHA president explain the arrangement.When we heard that Nintendo and the American Heart Association would be making an... more
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The Power Awards Concert will be hosted by Comedian George Wilborn and will feature artists, such as Smokie Norful, Cassandra Wilson and Myron Butler. For more information visit PowerToEndStroke.org.The Power Awards Concert will be hosted by Comedian George Wilborn and will feature... more
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By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN
February 18, 2010 5:24 p.m. EST
(CNN) -- When Eugenie Smith's hands started tingling, she figured her biking gloves needed more padding. When she felt out of breath after a short walk on a treadmill, she assumed it was pneumonia. When her chest hurt, Smith chalked it up to indigestion.
She was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Smith was actually having a heart attack, and needed three stents. She was 46 at the time, and in otherwise perfect health.
While it may sound odd to miss the signs of something as monumental as a heart attack, cardiologists say they see it quite often.
It happens "ALL THE TIME!!!" Dr. Kenneth Rosenfield, an interventional cardiologist, wrote in an e-mail. "Every week. Seriously."
Rosenfield says a "Hollywood heart attack" -- the kind where you collapse to the ground clutching your chest -- is the exception, not the rule. "We need to do a better job of letting people know what are all of the types of symptoms that can indicate a heart attack," he says.
Smith couldn't agree more. Looking back at her heart attack eight years ago, she now sees she had symptoms for six months and missed them. "My message to everyone is simple: If your symptoms are frequent do not hesitate. Have them checked before it is too late," she says.
Former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized last week and received two stents after he experienced brief periods of discomfort over several days. Clinton, who'd undergone bypass surgery in 2004, said he began feeling tired around Christmas. "I didn't really notice it until about four days ago when I felt a little bit of pain in my chest, and I thought I had to check it out," he said.
Video: Heart attack warning signs
The signs that you're having a heart attack -- or that your arteries are so clogged up you're about to have one -- vary from person to person. You can listen to heart attack patients describe what it felt like to them, and the American Heart Association, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and the Mayo Clinic have lists of heart attack symptoms and warning signs.
Here's a list of some of the more common signs:
1. Chest discomfort
While not everyone feels it, chest pain or discomfort is still the most common sign of a heart attack, according to the American Heart Association.
The pain isn't necessarily overwhelming. "It was a relatively mild pain that I kept expecting to go away, but it never did," says Duane Marcus, 56, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, who had a heart attack two weeks ago.
Rolanda Perkins, who had a heart attack just over four years ago at age 39, says at first she ignored her chest pain because she thought it was indigestion. "I figured I could go to the doctor in the morning, but morning came for me at about 3:30 [a.m.] when the pain got worse and I had a shortness of breath," she remembers. "I knew that something was wrong."
In recent years Perkins, who lives in Tennessee, has completed two half-marathons. Now she tells people to listen to their bodies. "My body was speaking to me, and I was not listening," she says.
2. Discomfort in other parts of the upper body
Rob, an Atlanta businessman who asked that his last name not be used, said pressure behind his ears while working out on the stair-stepper was the first sign that something wasn't right.
He was 50 and on vacation at the time, and he didn't think much of it. But when he got back home he also started to experience a bit of tightness in his chest while exercising.
It seemed so strange that he walked into a cardiologist's office without an appointment and insisted on seeing the doctor. He had bypass surgery the next day.
Rosenfield, head of vascular medicine and intervention at the Massachusetts General Hospital, says pain in a variety of places can indicate a heart attack.
More on heart issues at Matters of the Heart
"I often tell my patients that they should be mindful of any symptom from the waist up which seems different or unusual," he says, including "heaviness, pressure, squeezing, aching, or discomfort in the chest, back, neck, shoulders, or arms, wrists, elbows, between the shoulder blades, aching in the jaw, throat, or even gums or earlobes."
Of course, discomfort in any of those areas could mean myriad other problems and not a heart attack at all.
So how do you know the difference?
Rosenfield says pay particularly close attention if you have a personal or family history of heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Other reasons to be on guard is if the symptoms are particularly intense, happen for no apparent reason, if they get worse with exercise, if they don't go away, or if they go away and come back.
3. Gastrointestinal problems
When Dr. Malissa Wood's father complained about stomach pain and nausea, she paid close attention because he said it felt different from ulcer problems he'd had in the past, and because he had a history of high blood pressure and vascular disease.
Wood, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, made sure her father received quick attention, and it turned out his right coronary artery was 92 percent blocked, requiring stents and bypass surgery.
4. Flulike symptoms
Dr. Robert Superko says he's seen it many times: A patient's routine EKG will show signs of an old heart attack, but when he asks whether the patient has had a heart attack the person says no, adding, "But, oh yeah, doc, last year I had a really bad flu."
Superko, a cardiologist and author of the book "Before the Heart Attacks," says significant fatigue, feeling exhausted for several days, gastrointestinal problems (see above) and a general feeling of not being well can be signs of a heart attack or heart problems -- and they're easy to miss. "You can see how people could just write it off as the flu," he says.
5. Shortness of breath
Shortness of breath can be a sign of a heart attack even if you don't have any chest pain or discomfort.
CNN's Sabriya Rice contributed to this report.
Visit this link to see/read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/18/heart.attack.chest.pains/index.html?hpt=C2By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN
February 18, 2010 5:24 p.m. EST
(CNN) -- When Eugenie... more
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Corporate Social Responsibility News: Boar's Head Salt Campaign + Work with American Heart Association; Companiesandmarkets.com's Report on Microfinance in India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxJ8NcjCjv8Corporate Social Responsibility News: Boar's Head Salt Campaign + Work with... more
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Meditation is good for the body as well as the mind, scientists have discovered, as the practice significantly reduces the risk of a heart attack for people with heart disease.
Patients with heart disease who practised Transcendental Meditation cut their chances of a heart attack, stroke and death by half, compared with non-meditating patients, the first study of its kind has found.
Stress is a major factor in heart disease and meditation experts say the technique can help control it.
Transcendental Meditation, practised by the Beatles and based on an ancient tradition of enlightenment in India, involves sitting quietly and concentrating to focus the mind inwards by silently repeating a mantra. The practice is said to induce inner peace by allowing thoughts to flow in and out of the mind.
The results of the research are being presented at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Orlando, Florida.
The researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in collaboration with the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, calculated heart attacks, strokes and deaths as one result and found a 47 per cent reduction in meditating patients.
They also had lower blood pressure and significant reductions in their stress levels, the researchers said.Meditation is good for the body as well as the mind, scientists have discovered, as... more
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Gary Terry collapsed just 18 feet from an automated external defibrillator AED that he and his group -- the American Heart Association -- helped to install just eight months earlier.
Full article at link.Gary Terry collapsed just 18 feet from an automated external defibrillator AED that he... more
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islek
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3 years ago
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BY KANYE WEST AND RA'AH AHWAR/REGINALD"LATE REGGIESTRATION"LOFTON...LET'S GET HEALTHY!
This is what Start! is all about — employees stepping away from their desks to get some quick and easy physical activity at work. Remember, walking can help a person reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke. And healthier employees help you reduce healthcare costs. So why wouldn’t you want employees up and moving?
Recommendations:
Moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activities for at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week.
Physical activity can be accumulated (e.g., 10 minute sessions) throughout the day. It's important to include physical activity as part of the regular routine.
Moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity for 60–90 minutes daily to help lose weight or maintain weight.
Step 3. You’ve set a regimen and devised a plan. But is what you’re doing enough? Are you pushing yourself too hard? Not hard enough?
One way to figure it out is to take the talk test. It’s a simple way to measure intensity.
A person working out at a light intensity level should be able to sing while doing the activity.
Someone exercising at a moderate intensity level should be able to carry on a conversation comfortably while engaging in the activity.
If a person becomes winded or too out of breath to carry on a conversation, the activity can be considered vigorous.BY KANYE WEST AND RA'AH AHWAR/REGINALD"LATE... more
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Sleep-deprived teenagers are at greater risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks - and their mobile phones, computer games and iPods could be to blame, research suggests.
A study of teens aged 13 to 16 found those who slept less than 6½ hours a night were up to three times more likely to have elevated blood pressure.
Researchers said the "technological invasion of the bedroom" was responsible for creating a generation of sleep-starved youngsters.
The study, published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, looked at the sleeping patterns of 238 teenagers and found that the duration of sleep directly affected blood pressure.
Those who had trouble nodding off at night or waking up in the morning were also at increased risk.
It is the first study of its kind to look at the link between sleep and blood pressure in healthy teens.
The author of the research, Susan Redline from University Hospital's Sleep Disorders Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, said "sleep insufficiency" was often related to mobile phones, music and computers in the bedroom.
"There are teens who text message or listen to music all night, compounded by early school hours. Adolescents need nine hours of sleep," Professor Redline said.
"Parents should optimise sleep quality for their family with regular sleep and wake times and bedrooms should be quiet, dark and conducive to sleep."
High blood pressure in childhood is linked to heart disease in adulthood.
Professor Redline said the results could have huge public health implications.Sleep-deprived teenagers are at greater risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks... more
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Its all about different types of fats and its effectes on our healthy lifestyle.
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