MIAMI – Friday, September 28, 2023, marks World Heart Day and a recent study is revealing a new risk for heart disease among men.
The research, reviewed by the American Heart Association, focused on men who say they have stressful jobs and also feel they exert high efforts for low reward.
“And what they found following these folks over time is that they had a 50 percent increase in significant heart disease than folks who did not have job stress or effort reward imbalance,” said Dr. Allan Stewart, a cardiac surgeon with HCA Florida Mercy Hospital.
Researchers said the study highlights the pressing need to proactively address stressful working conditions and create healthier work environments.
COVID IMPACT ON HEART DISEASE AND STROKE
Researchers at the national institutes of health now have a clearer idea of why COVID infection increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.
The study found that the virus can directly infect the arteries of the heart and cause the fatty plaque inside the arteries to become highly inflamed.
Though previous studies have shown that Covid can directly infect tissues such as the brain and lungs, less was known about its effect on the coronary arteries.
SLEEP AND BRAIN AGING.
A new study led by researchers at the university of Miami Miller School of Medicine reinforces the importance of sleep duration on brain aging.
Researchers recruited just over 2,300 Hispanic participants, ages 35 to 85, to undergo neuroimaging and subsequently self-report sleep duration.
Using M.R.I., the researchers found increased sleep, more than 9 hours per night, was associated with smaller brain volume and smaller regions of gray and occipital matter, especially in those 50 and older.
This most recent study complements previous research showing that long sleep duration predicts cognitive decline, pointing to both functional and structural brain changes in this at-risk group.