November 16, 2009, 8:00 AM CT

Delivering antioxidant to injured heart cells

Scientists at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed microscopic polymer beads that can deliver an antioxidant enzyme made naturally by the body into the heart.

Injecting the enzyme-containing particles into rats' hearts after a simulated heart attack reduced the number of dying cells and resulted in improved heart function days later.

Michael Davis, PhD, is presenting the results Sunday evening at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando. Davis is assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

The enzyme in the particles, called superoxide dismutase (SOD), soaks up toxic free radicals produced when cells are deprived of blood during a heart attack. Previously researchers have tried injecting SOD by itself into injured animals, but it doesn't seem to last long enough in the body to have any beneficial effects.

"Our goal is to have a treatment to blunt the permanent damage of a heart attack and reduce the probability of heart failure during the later part of life," Davis says. "This is a way to get extra amounts of a beneficial antioxidant protein to the cells that need it".

The simulated heart attacks caused a 20 percent decrease in the ability of the rats' hearts to pump blood that was completely prevented by the particles, he says......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

November 16, 2009, 7:53 AM CT

Vitamin D deficiency and cardiovascular disease

While mothers have known that feeding their kids milk builds strong bones, a newly released study by scientists at the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City suggests that Vitamin D contributes to a strong and healthy heart as well and that inadequate levels of the vitamin may significantly increase a person's risk of stroke, heart disease, and death, even among people who've never had heart disease.

For more than a year, the Intermountain Medical Center research team followed 27,686 patients who were 50 years of age or older with no previous history of cardiovascular disease. The participants had their blood Vitamin D levels tested during routine clinical care. The patients were divided into three groups based on their Vitamin D levels normal (over 30 nanograms per milliliter), low (15-30 ng/ml), or very low (less than 15 ng/ml). The patients were then followed to see if they developed some form of heart disease.

Scientists observed that patients with very low levels of Vitamin D were 77 percent more likely to die, 45 percent more likely to develop coronary artery disease, and 78 percent were more likely to have a stroke than patients with normal levels. Patients with very low levels of Vitamin D were also twice as likely to develop heart failure than those with normal Vitamin D levels......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

November 10, 2009, 8:25 AM CT

Waiting time for chest pain

Emory University Rollins School of Public Health scientists will present Nov. 10 on a range of topics at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in Philadelphia, including a study that examined compliance with national recommendations that a doctor screen chest pain patients within 10 minutes of their arrival to the Emergency Department (ED).

Additional public health research findings from Emory researchers are highlighted below.

Disparities in emergency room waiting times for chest pain patients

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend an electrocardiogram be performed and shown to a doctor within 10 minutes of a chest pain patient's arrival to the emergency department (ED). Emory scientists examined disparities in waiting times to see a doctor for patients complaining of chest pain.

They observed that only 30 percent of all chest pain patients were seen within the recommended 10 minutes. In addition, racial disparities affected all chest pain patients. African Americans were seen by an ED doctor later than whites, scientists noted.

Data were extracted from the 2003-2006 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Untangling the Web: An exploratory look at the impact of parental discipline and primary caregiver support on high-risk taking behavior........ Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

November 5, 2009, 8:45 AM CT

How the heart is formed?

While studying how the heart is formed, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine serendipitously found a novel cellular source of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common type of abnormal heart beat. Jonathan Epstein, MD, William Wikoff Smith Professor, and Chair, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Vickas Patel, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, have identified a population of cells in the atria of the heart and pulmonary veins of humans and mice that appear to be the seat of AF. The finding may lead to a more precise way to treat AF, with reduced side effects. Their findings appear online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

This group of cells expresses the protein DCT, which is also involved in making the skin pigment melanin and in the detoxification of free radicals. The scientists also showed that the DCT-expressing cells in the mouse heart were a distinct cell type from heart-muscle cells and pigment-producing cells, eventhough they conduct electrical currents important for coordinated contraction of the heart. The location of these cells in the pulmonary veins suggested their possible role in AF because AF can arise in these blood vessels. Atrial fibrillation is a very common and debilitating disease that greatly affects quality of life......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

November 4, 2009, 8:04 AM CT

Heart disease risk among post-menopausal women

Postmenopausal women who have higher testosterone levels appears to be at greater risk of heart disease, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome in comparison to women with lower testosterone levels, as per a newly released study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). This new information is an important step, say researchers, in understanding the role that hormones play in women's health.

"For a number of years, androgens like testosterone were thought to play a significant role in men only and to be largely irrelevant in women," said Anne Cappola, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. "It is now largely accepted that premenopausal women with polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition in which androgens are elevated, have increased health risks. However, the clinical relevance of testosterone in women over the age of 65 had remained uncertain until this recent study".

In this study, scientists measured levels of testosterone in 344 women, aged 65-98 years. They observed that women with the highest testosterone levels in the top 25 percent of this study group were three times as likely to have coronary heart disease in comparison to women with lower testosterone levels. These women were also three times as likely to have a group of metabolic risk factors called the metabolic syndrome in comparison to women with lower testosterone levels......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 26, 2009, 7:43 AM CT

Obesity, blood pressure and cholesterol

Obese patients taking medications to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol levels are less likely to reach recommended targets for these cardiovascular disease risk factors than their normal weight counterparts, as per new research presented at the 2009 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress hosted by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Dr. Vineet Bhan, a resident at the University of Toronto, sought to determine whether there were differences in reaching guideline-recommended targets for blood pressure and cholesterol levels as per body mass index (BMI) in a large number of individuals deemed to be at high risk for heart disease and stroke.

"In Canada, these high risk patients frequently do not reach their blood pressure and cholesterol targets," says Dr. Bhan. "The goal of our study was to see if obesity could be a factor."

He says that other studies have looked at obese individuals in the general population and found they were more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. "This, to our knowledge, is the first study looking at patients with established cardiovascular disease who are on therapy to see how obesity relates to the control of these risk factors," he says.

The study recruited 7,357 high risk patients who had a history of coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, or diabetes plus additional cardiovascular risk factors from nine Canadian provinces. This observational study, based on two outpatient registries, took place from 2001 to 2004, recruiting 95 per cent of the patients from family doctor offices. The registries were led by senior co-author, Dr. Shaun Goodman, and coordinated by the Canadian Heart Research Centre......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 26, 2009, 7:41 AM CT

Women do have same the heart attack symptoms as men

The gender difference between men and women is a lot smaller than we've been led to believe when it comes to heart attack symptoms, as per a newly released study presented to the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

"Both the media and some patient educational materials frequently suggest that women experience symptoms of a heart attack very differently from men," says cardiac nurse Martha Mackay, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research clinical research fellow and doctoral student at the UBC School of Nursing. "These findings suggest that this is simply not the case".

Her team's study of 305 consecutive patients undergoing angioplasty − which briefly causes symptoms similar to a heart attack − found no gender differences in rates of chest discomfort or other 'typical' symptoms such as arm discomfort, shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, indigestion-like symptoms, and clammy skin.

While both women and men may experience typical or non-typical symptoms, the major difference was that female patients were more likely to have both the classic symptoms of heart attack plus throat, jaw, and neck discomfort.

"Clear educational messages need to be crafted to ensure that both women and healthcare professionals realize the classic symptoms are equally common in men and women," says Mackay......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 26, 2009, 7:30 AM CT

Survival after heart attack improves

In recent years, women, especially younger women, experienced larger improvements in hospital mortality after myocardial infarction (MI) than men, as per a research studyreported in the Oct. 26, 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine

Over the last decade several studies showed that younger women, but not older ones, are more likely to die in the hospital after MI than age-matched men. A team of Emory University scientists examined whether such mortality differences have declined in recent years.

"We observed that the number of younger women who die in the hospital after a heart attack, compared with men in the same age group, has narrowed over the last few years," says study leader Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, professor of medicine (cardiology), and director of the Emory Program in Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and Epidemiology. Vaccarino says changes in patient characteristics and therapys over time accounted in part for the changing mortality trends.

Often referred to as a heart attack, MI occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart is interrupted. This decreased blood supply is usually due to blockage of a coronary artery and if left untreated can cause damage and/or death (infarction) of heart muscle tissue.

The scientists investigated MI mortality trends as per sex and age in five age groups during a 12-year period from 1994 to 2006. The study population included 916,380 MI patients from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction (NRMI) who had a confirmed diagnosis of MI......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 15, 2009, 5:42 PM CT

Cost Effectiveness of Blood Pressure Device

A study conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) demonstrates that, for certain patient populations, an experimental device that lowers blood pressure appears to be a cost effective therapy. The implantable device, called Rheos, is in advanced stages of testing for individuals with drug resistant hypertension.

The study - which appears this month in the Journal of Clinical High blood pressure - used data from two large population-based studies and compared the occurence rate of adverse health events such as stroke and heart attack for groups of individuals with and without the blood pressure lowering benefit of the device. Scientists then projected the health care costs linked to those events over a patient's lifetime. The results show that if Rheos continues to perform at a level consistent the initial findings in ongoing clinical trials, then the device is a cost effective way to control hypertension.

"Our goal was to determine whether or not the benefit of Rheos would offset the higher upfront costs," said Kate C. Young, Ph.D., MPH, an instructor in the departments of Surgery and Neurology at URMC and main author of the study. "What we found is that the device's cost effectiveness is dependent upon the degree to which it can reduce blood pressure and the starting point of the patient"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 12, 2009, 7:19 AM CT

Mending broken hearts

By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living "heart patch" to repair heart tissue damaged by disease.

In a series of experiments using mouse embryonic stem cells, the bioengineers used a novel mold of their own design to fashion a three-dimensional "patch" made up of heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes. The new tissue exhibited the two most important attributes of heart muscle cells - the ability to contract and to conduct electrical impulses. The mold looks much like a piece of Chex cereal in which scientists varied the shape and length of the pores to control the direction and orientation of the growing cells.

The scientists grew the cells in an environment much like that found in natural tissues. They encapsulated the cells within a gel composed of the blood-clotting protein fibrin, which provided mechanical support to the cells, allowing them to form a three-dimensional structure. They also observed that the cardiomyocytes flourished only in the presence of a class of "helper" cells known as cardiac fibroblasts, which comprise as much as 60 percent of all cells present in a human heart.

"If you tried to grow cardiomyocytes alone, they develop into an unorganized ball of cells," said Brian Liau, graduate student in biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Liau, who works in the laboratory of assistant professor Nenad Bursac, presented the results of his latest experiments during the annual scientific sessions of the Biomedical Engineering Society in Pittsburgh......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 9, 2009, 7:13 AM CT

Patients who received refurbished pacemakers

Patients who received refurbished pacemakers donated from Detroit area funeral homes survived without complications from the devices, as per a case series reported by the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.

The pacemakers were implanted in 12 patients at the University of Philippines- Philippine General Hospital who could not afford advanced cardiac care and were confined to their beds as they waited for a permanent pacemaker.

All donated pacemakers functioned normally at six months, and most importantly there were no device complications such as infections. The study appears online ahead of print in the Oct. 13 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology

The argument for pacemaker reuse has been debated for decades. But the idea is gaining ground as U-M cardiology experts report promising results of providing donated pacemakers to underserved nations.

"In light of the widening health care disparity seen between the industrialized world and developing nations, we feel that pacemaker reuse is an ethical obligation to address the medical needs of those who could not afford treatment otherwise," says co-author Timir Baman, M.D., cardiology fellow at the U-M Cardiovascular Center.

Based on surveys showing a majority of heart patients were interested in donating their pacemakers after death, U-M has launched Project My Heart Your Heart......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 6, 2009, 7:06 AM CT

How stiff are your arteries?

How far you can reach beyond your toes from a sitting position - normally used to define the flexibility of a person's body - appears to be an indicator of how stiff your arteries are.

A study in the American Journal of Physiology has observed that, among people 40 years old and older, performance on the sit-and-reach test could be used to assess the flexibility of the arteries. Because arterial stiffness often precedes cardiovascular disease, the results suggest that this simple test could become a quick measure of an individual's risk for early mortality from heart attack or stroke.

"Our findings have potentially important clinical implications because trunk flexibility can be easily reviewed," said one of the authors, Kenta Yamamoto. "This simple test might help to prevent age-related arterial stiffening".

It is not known why arterial flexibility would be correlation to the flexibility of the body in middle age and older people. But the authors say that one possibility is that stretching exercises may set into motion physiological reactions that slow down age-related arterial stiffening.

The study "Poor trunk flexibility is linked to arterial stiffening" appears in the American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory Physiology. The authors are: Kenta Yamamoto of the University of North Texas and the National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Japan; Hiroshi Kawano, Yuko Gando and Mitsuru Higuchi of Waseda University, Japan; Motoyuki Iemitsu of International Pacific University, Japan; Haruka Murakami, Michiya Tanimoto, Yumi Ohmori, Izumi Tabata, Motohiko Miyachi of the National Institute of Health and Nutrition; and Kiyoshi Sanada of Ritsumeikan University, Japan. The American Physiological Society published the study......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 20, 2009, 6:51 PM CT

Genetic link between cardiac arrhythmias and thyroid

Genes previously known to be essential to the coordinated, rhythmic electrical activity of cardiac muscle -- a healthy heartbeat -- have now also been found to play a key role in thyroid hormone (TH) biosynthesis, as per Weill Cornell Medical College researchers.

The authors' findings, published online this week by the peer-evaluated journal Nature Medicine, suggest that mutations of either of two gene products -- proteins called KCNE2 and KCNQ1 -- already known to be involved in human cardiac arrhythmias, could also cause thyroid dysfunction.

"It has long been known that the thyroid influences cardiac function and cardiac arrhythmias," says study senior author Dr. Geoffrey W. Abbott, associate professor of pharmacology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, "but our findings demonstrate a novel genetic link between inherited cardiac arrhythmia and thyroid dysfunction".

Additionally, it is the authors' suggestion that evaluation of the thyroid status of patients with KCNE2- and KCNQ1-linked cardiac arrhythmias could in some cases reveal a potential endocrine component to their cardiac arrhythmias that may not have been previously determined. This, in turn, could indicate therapy of the thyroid condition, with potentially beneficial effects on cardiac function......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 15, 2009, 9:43 PM CT

Oxygen-saturated blood reduces levels of damaged heart tissue

Results of a clinical trial published recently in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions demonstrate that an infusion of blood that is "supersaturated" with oxygen (SS02) can reduce the amount of damaged heart muscle immediately following a life-threatening heart attack.

"The benefit of this treatment increased with the scope of the heart attack," said Gregg W. Stone, M.D., main author and professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of cardiovascular research and education in the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Stone is also the immediate past chairman of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York. "The data show that heart muscle can be saved even after severe heart attack".

The AMIHOT-II study focused on patients having the most serious types of heart attacks those with anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMIs) and on patients treated within 6 hours. Of the 733,000 Americans who suffer acute coronary syndromes (i.e. heart attack or chest pain) each year, 361,000 (almost half) have a STEMI, as per the American Heart Association. When a large area of the heart is damaged, heart failure is more likely, and catheter-based percutaneous coronary intervention is a procedure that can effectively open blocked arteries in STEMI patients, Dr. Stone said......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 14, 2009, 11:59 PM CT

Common Pain Cream Could Protect Heart During Attack

New research from the University of Cincinnati shows that a common, over-the-counter pain salve rubbed on the skin during a heart attack could serve as a cardiac-protectant, preventing or reducing damage to the heart while interventions are administered.

These findings appear in the Sept. 14 edition of the journal Circulation.

Keith Jones, PhD, a researcher in the department of pharmacology and cell biophysics, and researchers in his lab have observed that applying capsaicin to specific skin locations in mice caused sensory nerves in the skin to trigger signals in the nervous system. These signals activate cellular "pro-survival" pathways in the heart which protect the muscle.

Capsaicin is the main component of chili peppers and produces a hot sensation. It is also the active ingredient in several topical medications used for temporary pain relief.

Capsaicin is approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Jones is working with Neal Weintraub, MD, a UC Health heart specialist and director of UC's cardiovascular diseases division, and other clinicians to construct a translational plan to test capsaicin in a human population.

"Topical capsaicin has no known serious adverse effects and could be easily applied in an ambulance or emergency room setting well in advance of coronary tissue death," Jones says. "If proven effective in humans, this treatment has the potential to reduce injury and/or death in the event of a coronary blockage, thereby reducing the extent and consequences of heart attack."........ Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 31, 2009, 10:08 PM CT

How much omega-3 fatty acid do we need

A team of French researchers have found the dose of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) that is "just right" for preventing cardiovascular disease in healthy men. In a research report appearing in the September 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), the researchers show that a 200 mg dose of DHA per day is enough to affect biochemical markers that reliably predict cardiovascular problems, such as those correlation to aging, atherosclerosis, and diabetes. This study is the first to identify how much DHA is necessary to promote optimal heart health.

"This study shows that regularly consuming small amounts of DHA is likely to improve the health status of people, particularly in regards to cardiovascular function," said Michel Lagarde, co-author of the study.

To determine the optimal dose of DHA, Lagarde and his colleagues examined the effects of increasing doses of DHA on 12 healthy male volunteers between ages of 53 and 65. These men consumed doses of DHA at 200, 400, 800, and 1600 mg per day for two weeks for each dose amount, with DHA being the only omega-3 fatty acid in their diet. Blood and urine samples were collected before and after each dose and at eight weeks after DHA supplementation stopped. The scientists then examined these samples for biochemical markers indicating the effects of each dose on the volunteers......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 31, 2009, 9:22 PM CT

Carbon monoxide linked to heart problems

New Haven, Conn.Exposure to carbon monoxide, even at levels well below national limits, is linked to an increased risk of hospitalization for the elderly with heart problems, as per a research studypublished recently in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association

The nationwide study of 126 urban communities, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, observed that an increase in carbon monoxide of 1 part per million in the maximum daily one-hour exposure is linked to a 0.96 percent increase in the risk of hospitalization from cardiovascular disease among people over the age of 65.

This link holds true even when carbon monoxide levels are less than 1 part per million, which is well below the EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 35 parts per million. This finding suggests an under-recognized health risk to seniors. Currently, the EPA is evaluating the scientific evidence on the link between carbon monoxide and health to determine whether the health-based standard should be modified.

"This evidence indicates that exposure to current carbon monoxide levels may still pose a public health threat," said Michelle Bell, the study's lead investigator and associate professor of environmental health at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. "Higher levels of carbon monoxide were linked to higher risk of hospitalizations for cardiovascular heart disease"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 24, 2009, 10:41 PM CT

Low-carb diets linked to atherosclerosis

Even as low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets have proven successful at helping individuals rapidly lose weight, little is known about the diets' long-term effects on vascular health.

Now, a study led by a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides some of the first data on this subject, demonstrating that mice placed on a 12-week low carbohydrate/high-protein diet showed a significant increase in atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the heart's arteries and a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. The findings also showed that the diet led to an impaired ability to form new blood vessels in tissues deprived of blood flow, as might occur during a heart attack.

Described in today's Online Version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study also observed that standard markers of cardiovascular risk, including cholesterol, were not changed in the animals fed the low-carb diet, despite the clear evidence of increased vascular disease.

"It's very difficult to know in clinical studies how diets affect vascular health," says senior author Anthony Rosenzweig, MD, Director of Cardiovascular Research in BIDMC's CardioVascular Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "We, therefore, tend to rely on easily measured serum markers [such as cholesterol], which have been surprisingly reassuring in individuals on low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets, who do typically lose weight. But our research suggests that, at least in animals, these diets could be having adverse cardiovascular effects that are not reflected in simple serum markers"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 20, 2009, 6:45 AM CT

Anti-Aging Gene Linked to High Blood Pressure

Scientists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have shown the first link between a newly discovered anti-aging gene and high blood pressure. The results, which appear this month in the journal Hypertension, offer new clues on how we age and how we might live longer.

Persistent hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a risk factor for stroke, heart attack, heart failure, arterial aneurysm and is the leading cause of chronic kidney failure. Even a modest elevation of arterial blood pressure leads to shortened life expectancy.

Researchers, led by principal investigator Zhongjie Sun, tested the effect of an anti-aging gene called klotho on reducing hypertension. They observed that by increasing the expression of the gene in laboratory models, they not only stopped blood pressure from continuing to rise, but succeeded in lowering it. Perhaps most impressive was the complete reversal of kidney damage, which is linked to prolonged hypertension and often leads to kidney failure.

"One single injection of the klotho gene can reduce high blood pressure for at least 12 weeks and possibly longer. Klotho is also available as a protein and, conceivably, we could ingest it as a powder much like we do with protein drinks," said Sun, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiovascular expert at the OU College of Medicine......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

August 18, 2009, 11:07 PM CT

Ancient Chinese herbal formulas on heart health

New research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston suggests that ancient Chinese herbal formulas used primarily for cardiovascular indications including heart disease may produce large amounts of artery-widening nitric oxide. Findings of the preclinical study by researchers in the university's Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) appear in the Sept. 15 print issue of the journal Free Radical Biology & Medicine

Nitric oxide is crucial to the cardiovascular system because it signals the inner walls of blood vessels to relax, which facilitates the flow of blood through the heart and circulatory system. The messenger molecule also eliminates dangerous clots, lowers hypertension and reduces artery-clogging plaque formation.

The results from this study reveal that ancient Chinese herbal formulas "have profound nitric oxide bioactivity primarily through the enhancement of nitric oxide in the inner walls of blood vessels, but also through their ability to convert nitrite and nitrate into nitric oxide," said Nathan S. Bryan, Ph.D., the study's senior author and an IMM assistant professor.

Herbal formulas are a major component of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), which also include acupuncture and massage. "TCMs have provided leads to safe medications in cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes," said C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., IMM director and CEO. "The opportunity for Dr. Bryan's work is outstanding given that cardiac disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source