Heart Disease

STAR JONES is a lawyer, author and celebrated TV personality who is perhaps best known for her larger-than-life personality and "tell it like it is" candidness. She once tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds, underwent gastric-bypass surgery 10 years ago and has maintained her weight loss. But in 2010, at age 47, she faced her biggest health crisis so far when she was diagnosed with heart disease and had open-heart surgery to repair her aortic valve. Now a proud spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, Star was in Philly recently as the keynote speaker at the 10th annual Go Red For Women Luncheon.

Chronic constipation, heart disease and death Q: I had always believed that Elvis Presley died at 42 from a heart attack. However, I've recently read that his longtime physician George Nichopoulos believes Elvis died from chronic constipation. How does someone die from that? A: According to the autopsy report, hypertensive cardiovascular disease and a "colon problem" were the likely contributing factors to his premature death from a heart attack. It has been reported by his now-retired personal physician that Elvis suffered for years from chronic constipation and that his colon was markedly distended at autopsy.

Heart disease in women Does a heart attack really feel like an elephant on your chest? Not always, particularly if you are a woman. A study last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that women, especially those under 45, were less likely than men to have chest pain before a heart attack. Symptoms can be more subtle: nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, and discomfort in the neck or back. Subtlety can be dangerous: For both sexes, the absence of the classic chest ache was linked to delayed hospital trips, slower care and a higher death rate.

WASHINGTON - Be happy - it seems to be good for your heart. Scientists have long known that Type A personalities and people who are chronically angry, anxious, or depressed have a higher risk of heart attacks. Now a Harvard review of the flip side of that psychology concludes that being upbeat and optimistic just might help protect against heart disease. Rather than focusing only on how to lessen heart risks, "it might also be useful to focus on how we might bolster the positive side of things," said lead researcher Julia Boehm of the Harvard School of Public Health.

San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Thomas Herrion had heart disease and evidence of previous heart trouble when he collapsed and died after a preseason game last month in Denver, an official in county coroner's office said yesterday. The coroner's findings confirmed the beliefs of Herrion's family and friends, who were certain drugs played no role in Herrion's death Aug. 20. Herrion's heart condition was caused by factors that are often nearly undetectable, though fairly rare in a 23-year-old athlete in good physical condition.

More than 30,000 cardiologists from around the world met in Orlando, Fla., last week to hear the latest research on heart disease. New findings on vitamin E, cholesterol and heart disease among African Americans were part of the research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 45th annual conference. The new cholesterol study - of people who've already had heart attacks - found that cholesterol-lowering drugs can cut their risk of another heart attack - or death - significantly.

An elderly woman who was found dead inside her burning South Philadelphia home Monday afternoon had died of heart disease before the fire occurred, the Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday. Jeff Moran, a spokesman for the Medical Examiner, identified the woman as Dorothy Powell, 84. Firefighters encountered heavy fire on the first floor of the home on the 2100 block of Pierce Street in Point Breeze, Executive Chief Richard Davison said. He said firefighters found Powell dead inside the home.

It's time to pump it up - your bicycle, that is. Sunday morning, you can hit the road for the fifth annual Girls with Gears: A Women's Cycling Event, to be held at Limerick Community Park. The event is sponsored by Bikesport in Trappe and CAROL for Heart Inc. CAROL, a nonprofit, aims to "eradicate women's heart disease through increased awareness and education. " "Almost every minute, a woman in the U.S. dies of heart disease. Nearly five times as many women (200,000)

Silent, symptomless heart disease is more dangerous and far more likely to result in a heart attack than the kind accompanied by warning chest pains, researchers reported yesterday. The finding, from one of the first long-term studies of silent ischemia, highlights the need for people at high risk of heart disease to undergo diagnostic tests, said Dr. Gordon Walters of the Medical University of South Carolina. "The people we're talking about here classically are middle-aged men who smoke, have a family history (of heart disease)

High-strung, ambitious men with Type A personalities are almost twice as likely as less aggressive men to survive heart disease, according to a study released yesterday that challenges the advice that heart-attack victims should slow down and relax. The surprising findings also cast new doubt on the theory that Type A behavior puts people at higher risk of getting heart disease in the first place. That idea has already been questioned by several other researchers in recent years.

STAR JONES is a lawyer, author and celebrated TV personality who is perhaps best known for her larger-than-life personality and "tell it like it is" candidness. She once tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds, underwent gastric-bypass surgery 10 years ago and has maintained her weight loss. But in 2010, at age 47, she faced her biggest health crisis so far when she was diagnosed with heart disease and had open-heart surgery to repair her aortic valve. Now a proud spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, Star was in Philly recently as the keynote speaker at the 10th annual Go Red For Women Luncheon.

A woman found dead inside her burning South Philadelphia home Monday afternoon died of heart disease before the fire occurred, the Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday. Jeff Moran, a spokesman for the medical examiner, identified the woman as Dorothy Powell, 84, of the 2100 block of Pierce Street in Point Breeze. - Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman

An elderly woman who was found dead inside her burning South Philadelphia home Monday afternoon had died of heart disease before the fire occurred, the Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday. Jeff Moran, a spokesman for the Medical Examiner, identified the woman as Dorothy Powell, 84. Firefighters encountered heavy fire on the first floor of the home on the 2100 block of Pierce Street in Point Breeze, Executive Chief Richard Davison said. He said firefighters found Powell dead inside the home.

Small plates make small eaters Everyone who has ever read a diet book knows this tip: Use a smaller plate, and you are likely to put less food on it. Now researchers have found the same is true for children taking food at school lunch. A study showed the "food environment" - conditions around eating - counts, the researchers from universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia said. The researchers repeatedly watched 42 first graders serve themselves lunch at school, using plates and bowls of adult size and half as large.

SEVERAL years ago, I wrote about health care in Japan, where the government had begun charging corporations for their overweight employees. The Japanese tackle diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and heart disease with a tape measure first: A waist circumference greater than 33.5 inches for women and 35.5 inches for men is enough to trigger a fine for an employer. My readers scoffed at this strategy, reacting with laughter and a lot of eye-rolling. Fast-forward to today. With health-care costs soaring in the United States, many companies have started to penalize overweight employees.

The cost of caring for dementia patients has reached $109 billion annually, exceeding that for heart disease and cancer, and will double by the time the youngest baby boomers reach their 70s, according to a study. Dementia is characterized by a group of symptoms that prevent people from carrying out the tasks of daily living. Reduced mental function makes it impossible for them to do things like keep track of medications or finances. In more severe cases, patients lose the ability to handle basic tasks like bathing and dressing.

FOR CENTURIES, African-Americans have valiantly fought against every vicious and brutal inhumanity known to mankind - chattel slavery, rape, lynching - as well as pernicious, everyday racism in the forms of segregation, and discrimination in employment, housing and education. While it is true that significant achievements have been made, including the election of an African-American president, those achievements are not reflected in the current state of African-American health. Virtually every health expert and institution - including the Centers for Disease Control and the federal Office of Minority Health - says that African-Americans are dying at a disproportionate and alarmingly higher rate than other demographic groups from every major disease.

IT'S A SMOGGY SUMMER DAY. The air feels thick. Most people know their lungs might suffer on such days. But increasingly, medical researchers are seeing harmful effects from air pollution on the heart, as well. "Inhaling a heart attack" is how one publication put it. Air pollution has both short- and long-term effects that can injure the heart and blood vessels, causing or exacerbating strokes, congestive heart failure, clogged arteries and other problems, research has shown.