Heart Disease

When it comes to dying of heart disease, where you were born and your status in society are more important than the color of your skin, researchers said yesterday.Blacks have long been known to be more likely than whites to die from heart disease and strokes, and many researchers have attributed the disparity to racial differences.But environmental factors -- including diet, smoking, lifestyle, poverty and even racism itself -- are more important in determining that risk than any inherent racial differences, according to two new studies published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Keeping physically fit significantly protects women against heart disease, which kills 255,000 women each year, according to a landmark study being released today. Chicago researchers who tracked more than 5,700 women for eight years discovered that the least fit were three times as likely to die of coronary artery disease during that period as women at peak physical capacity. "You can be completely healthy, have no cardiac risk factors, but if you're not able to achieve a good exercise capacity or physical fitness ... you're at high risk of dying," said Dr. Martha Gulati, lead author of the study and a cardiologist at Rush University Medical Center.

In response to harsh criticism in the last few years about the amount of saturated fat in the American diet, many food manufacturers have reluctantly switched from palm and coconut oils and lard to partially hydrogenated vegetable oils made from soybean and corn oils.Now, in a stunning example of revisionist nutrition, new data show these oils -- found in margarine, vegetable shortening and a host of products ranging from doughnuts and pies to cookies and crackers -- may cause heart disease.

TCAn article being published today raises the possibility that margarine and other processed foods could be the cause of 30,000 of the nation's heart disease deaths.The fact that margarine may be a major factor in heart problems is not new. A year ago, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health announced findings that margarine can increase the risk for heart disease in women by as much as 70 percent. But the numbers in today's American Journal of Public Health article were seen as alarming and came under immediate attack.

Last summer, when a large study found that estrogen didn't protect women from heart disease, cardiologists were stunned. But a new report, to be released today, could explain why: A genetic change might be blocking blood vessels' ability to respond to estrogen and get its benefits.In diseased arteries, physicians found that genes involved in letting estrogen into cells had been switched off.Published in September's issue of the journal Cardiovascular Research, the finding links estrogen, menopause and atherosclerosis, an important and sometimes controversial connection for which the science is still evolving.

Gaithersburg-based IGEN International Inc. said yesterday that it has acquired worldwide licensing rights to an amino acid compound that it hopes to use to develop a breakthrough test for detecting signs of heart disease.The market for an easy-to-use, accurate test for heart disease could be vast, said analysts, although it is unclear whether the test IGEN hopes to develop would displace electrocardiograms and other sophisticated technology used to detect heart trouble.Specific terms of IGEN's deal with Medinnova SF of Norway were not disclosed.

WASHINGTON -- Cancer deaths will double in many countries and heart diseases will soar worldwide over the next 25 years, the World Health Organization predicts, in part because of lethal habits spreading from the United States.The rise in these diseases will be especially troublesome for developing countries already battling infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, WHO says in its annual report, being released today.A big part of the cause of the increase, the report's author said, is that the United States has helped sell cigarette smoking and a fatty diet to the world.

AS DEVELOPING countries see improvements in health care and living conditions, more children are surviving infancy and adults are living longer than their parents and grandparents. That is good news. All the same time, longer life spans combined with habits associated with affluence create new medical challenges.The World Health Organization predicts a sharp rise in diseases connected with unhealthy habits. Smoking, with its links to heart disease and various forms of cancer, comes in for an especially critical eye. Already, smoking accounts for one in seven cancer deaths worldwide.

Death rates from cardiovascular diseases have plummeted by 60 percent since 1950, a federal agency is announcing today, indicating that the advance against the leading killer of Americans has been one of the major public health achievements of the 20th century. It has been known for years that death rates from heart attacks and strokes have been falling. But this report, in summarizing trends over a century, dramatically illustrates what has been accomplished, experts said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in today's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that deaths from strokes have declined steadily since the beginning of the century, while those from heart disease peaked in the 1960s and have been falling since.

Government scientists have abruptly halted a landmark study of hormone therapy for post-menopausal women, saying it increased rather than lowered the risk of heart disease and stroke and raised the chance of breast cancer. Although the chances of a woman developing these diseases remained small, five years on the combination estrogen-progestin therapy raised the risk of stroke by 41 percent, heart attack by 29 percent, cardiovascular disease by 22 percent and breast cancer by 26 percent.