Roundup: Younger Women Face Higher Risks of Re-hospitalization After Heart Attack; Smoking Rate Falls to New Low, But Use of e-Cigs is Up; and More News

Women 55 and Younger Face Higher Risks Than Men of Re-hospitalization After Heart Attack

Women aged 55 and younger have a nearly 1.5 times higher risk than that of men of being re-hospitalized after a heart attack from coronary related complications – driven in large part by risk factors such as obesity and diabetes, according to a new study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Previous studies have indicated that women aged 55 years and younger have about twice the risk of in-hospital death from a heart attack than similarly aged men. However, it was unclear whether women also experience a higher risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular complications a year after leaving the hospital following treatment for a heart attack, said the NIH in a news release.

Researchers reviewed data from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of NIH, on 2,979 patients – 2,007 women and 972 men – at 103 U.S. hospitals. The data focused on risk factors related to outcomes among women and men who have had heart attacks. The participants were an average age of 48 years and from ethnically and racially diverse populations. For men and women, coronary-related complications — those such as heart attacks and angina are related to blood vessel blockage – were the leading cause of rehospitalization.

The NIH states: “The biggest sex disparities showed up in non-cardiac rehospitalizations, which were more than twice as high (or 2.10 times higher) in women than men. These were hospitalizations caused by events not related to heart disease or stroke, such as digestive problems, depression, bleeding, and pneumonia.”

The factors fueling the higher non-cardiac rates are unclear, but researchers found a higher percentage of women than men tended to identify as low income (48 percent vs. 31 percent) and had a more extensive history of depression (49 percent vs. 24 percent). “Low income” is not a medical measure, but it is often linked  to “poor health status due to limited access to healthcare,” said the NIH.

“Future research on non-cardiac risk factors after hospital discharge following heart attack could lead to the development of targeted strategies that can narrow this equity gap,” said Gina S. Wei, M.D., MPH, associate director of NHLBI’s Division of Cardiovascular Sciences and NHLBI’s senior scientific advisor on women’s health. “We look forward to more studies in this area.”

CDC: U.S. Cigarette Smoking Rate Falls to New Low, But Use of e-Cigarettes Still Climbing

The percentage of U.S. adults who smoked cigarettes fell to another historic low last year, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, e-cigarettes are increasing in popularity for about 1 in 17 adults.

CDC preliminary findings based on survey responses found that cigarette smoking is down to about 11 percent of U.S. adults. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, similar surveys found that about half of Americans smoked. It wasn't until the 1960s when rates began to gradually fall after the U.S. Surgeon General started issuing warnings about the link between smoking and cancer. 

Smoking remains the single largest preventable cause of death and illness in the world — responsible for about 90 percent of lung cancer cases, says the CDC. Smoking causes about 80 percent of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Cigarette smoking increases risk for death from all causes in men and women.

The current survey from the CDC found that e-cigarette use, also referred to as "vaping," rose to nearly 6 percent last year,  up from about 4.9 percent the year before. Experts say e-cigs, or vaping devices, can cause serious health issues and can entice young users to try traditional tobacco products. Both cigarettes and vaping devices contain nicotine, which is the ingredient that makes them highly addictive.

E-cigarettes contain other harmful substances, including certain amounts of metals and chemicals, some of which have unknown, long-term effects that are still being studied. The CDC states that “e-cigarettes are not safe for youth, young adults, and pregnant women, as well as adults who do not currently use tobacco products.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states there is not enough evidence to support claims that e-cigarettes are effective tools to help people quit smoking traditional cigarettes.

Muscle Strengthening Exercise Releases Signals That Boost Brain Health, Study Finds

Regular exercise, both aerobic and muscle-strengthening, is a vital component of healthy living. A new study adds yet another benefit. Researchers said they found that chemical signals from contracting muscle cells caused hippocampal neurons in the brain to generate larger and more frequent electrical signals — “a sign of robust growth and health.”

The hippocampus is a complex brain structure embedded deep into temporal lobe. It plays a vital role in learning and memory. 

“The hippocampus is a crucial area for learning and memory, and therefore cognitive health,” said Ki Yun Lee, a Ph.D. student in mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the study's lead author, in a news release. “Understanding how exercise benefits the hippocampus could therefore lead to exercise-based treatments for a variety of conditions including Alzheimer’s disease.”

The study’s findings are published in the journal Neuroscience. The researchers collected small muscle cell samples from mice and grew them in the lab.  When the muscle cells matured, they began to contract on their own, releasing their chemical signals into the cell culture dishes in the lab.

"Using several measures, including immunofluorescent and calcium imaging to track cell growth and multi-electrode arrays to record neuronal electrical activity, they examined how exposure to these chemical signals affected the hippocampal cells," states a news release. Chemical signals from contracting muscle cells caused hippocampal neurons to generate larger and more frequent electrical signals, they said.

Determining the “chemical pathway between muscle contraction and the growth and regulation of hippocampal neurons” is just the first step in better understanding how exercise helps improve brain health, researchers said.