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Moderate fish consumption was associated with lower long-term cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in high-risk individuals and those with existing vascular disease but not in the general population, according to a large pooled analysis.
In the largely CVD-naïve PURE study cohort, individuals who ate 350 g (or four servings of fish) a week were not better off than peers with little or no fish intake in terms of major CVD events (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.86-1.04) or total mortality (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.88-1.05) over a median 9.1 years of follow-up.
By contrast, moderate fish consumption at 175 g (two servings) per week was associated with reduced risk of major CVD (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.73-0.96) and total mortality (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.74-0.91) among the smaller ONTARGET, TRANSCEND, and ORIGIN cohorts of people with vascular disease or diabetes. Risk did not sink further with greater fish intake in this group.
12:38 End
Rick Lange: Household transmission of COVID.
Elizabeth: A worldwide look at glycemic index and its multiple consequences.
Rick: And the early effectiveness of COVID vaccines.
Elizabeth: That s what we re talking about this week on
TT HealthWatch, your weekly look at the medical headlines from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso. I m Elizabeth Tracey, a Baltimore-based medical journalist.
Rick: And I m Rick Lange, president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, where I m also dean of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.
Elizabeth: Rick, I think I d like to start with
JAMA Network Open. This is a research letter that you re going to take a look at, looking at household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and how the electronic health record may help even supplant contact tracing, potentially.
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Across the world, consumption of foods with a high glycemic index was a predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death, researchers reported from an observational study.
Compared with people eating foods with a low glycemic index, those eating higher-ranking carbohydrates were at greater risk of CVD events, such as CV death, MI, stroke, and heart failure, and all-cause mortality over a median 9.5 years of follow-up.
This was true whether study participants had preexisting CVD at baseline (adjusted HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.25-1.82) or not (adjusted HR 1.21, 95% CI 1.11-1.34), according to David Jenkins, MD, PhD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues in the PURE group.
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The same ketones involved in diabetic ketoacidosis could have a protective role in cardiovascular disease (CVD), animal and human studies suggested.
Emerging evidence points to several cardiovascular benefits to these metabolites, according to B. Daan Westenbrink, MD, PhD, of University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues:
Fuel for cardiac energetics: ketones act as ancillary fuel for the failing heart given that they require less oxygen per molecule of ATP generated
Pleiotropic effects on other cellular processes: ketones are linked to improved endothelial function, protection from oxidative stress, direct targeting of inflammation, and slowdown of pathological cardiac remodeling
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The last decade saw middle-income countries enjoying improved access to cardiovascular medications, but they remain far from closing the considerable gap with richer countries.
Cardiovascular drug sales grew about 10 times faster from 2008 to 2018 in middle-income countries than in high-income countries (annual growth rate 9.96% vs 0.98%), according to a large pharmaceutical sales database probed by Esther Chan, PhD, of the University of Hong Kong, and colleagues.
As a result, the 15-fold gap in total cardiovascular medicine sales between the two country types in 2008 (27.69 vs 410.54 defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day) shrank to a six-fold gap in 2018 (71.57 vs 452.52 defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day), reported Chan s group in the February 23 issue of the