So your father had a heart attack at an early age. You're young and healthy; you eat right and don't smoke. How much danger can you be in? In fact, a new study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that the blood vessels in many people like you show signs of disease very early on. Previous studies demonstrated that individuals with a family history of premature coronary artery disease are themselves at high risk but did not indicate when the disease might start to manifest. The new results fill in that gap, revealing that abnormalities known to lead to atherosclerosis can be detected in children as young as six years old.

Investigators compared two groups of healthy young people; subjects in one group had a parental history of premature heart attack, whereas the others did not. On the surface, the groups did not differ significantly. In terms of traditional measures for heart disease risk, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking, they were well matched. But when the researchers peered into their vessels using high-resolution ultrasound, the differences were striking. Children with a parent who had suffered a heart attack before the age of 60 had vessels that were on average 11 percent thicker and 55 percent less reactive (in terms of restoring normal blood flow after using a blood pressure cuff) than those of participants in the control group.

"These results could have important clinical implications," said University of Buffalo researcher Maurizio Trevisan, the lead author on the study. "[They] need to be further explored so we can better understand the causes and disease path of coronary heart disease, and plan early intervention strategies that may save lives."

1 Comments

1. 1. brate 06:27 AM 9/11/09

   According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the nation's single leading cause of death for both men and women. At least 58.8 million people in this country suffer from some form of heart disease.
   And on the whole, cardiovascular diseases (the combination of heart disease and stroke) kill some 950,000 Americans every year.
   In fact, according to the American Heart Association, almost 150,00 Americans killed by cardiovascular disease each year are under the age of 65. And one out of every 20 people below the age of 40 has heart disease.
   Depression is increasing day by day because of global economy meltdown these days. A lot of work load to the corporate has led them to be unhealthy. The over work load is disrupting their health schedules, and hence their health concerns are creating a problem. Many corporate employees are reporting to have a severe headache, and heart pains due to increased tension and stress being levied on them. Being one of them, I was having a severe pain on heart and head because of bundles of work being thrust on us. Many of the co-employees were experiencing the same, and many have already gone sick because of unscheduled work, high stress environment round the clock, no exercise, improper food. This was giving a distinguishable impact on the companies work efficiency. And at that time, a corporate wellness program served by a medical service provider elite health was initiated by the company. It was quite an appreciable step to hire a medical service to monitor the health of employees. This decision really ameliorated the working efficiency of the company, which was a direct advantage to the company.
   

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