Heart Disease

Last Sunday, we lost former U.S. Sen. George McGovern ("Liberal icon fought Nixon, Vietnam War," Oct. 22). Although many will recall his disastrous 1972 loss to Richard Nixon and his subsequent leadership in getting us out of Vietnam, his truly lasting legacy will be his war on hunger and malnutrition. In 1977, following extensive public hearings, Senator McGovern's Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs published Dietary Goals for the United States, a precursor to today's Dietary Guidelines.

Early menopause may mean a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine . The researchers say the risk can be twice as high, and doctors should help women avoid early menopause if possible. “If physicians know a patient has entered menopause before her 46th birthday, they can be extra vigilant in making recommendations and providing treatments to help prevent heart attacks and stroke,” Dhananjay Vaidya, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine in Hopkins'  School of Medicine and leader of the study, said in a statement.

Women who enter menopause before their 46th birthday are twice as likely to suffer a stroke or coronary heart disease, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. The risk from early menopause is true no matter the ethnic or racial background of a woman, the study found. Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of American women. The results are the same for women who enter menopause naturally as those who have hysterectomies or ovary removal, said Dhananjay Vaidya, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and leader of the study published.

All newborns in Maryland will be screened for critical congenital heart disease beginning Sept. 1, state health officials announced Wednesday. CCHD is any heart defect present at birth that can potentially cause serious illness or death in the first weeks of life. The federal government in 2011 listed CCHD as one of the diseases it recommends screening for in newborns.  New Jersey and Indiana are also now screening for CCHD with other states planning to begin in the near future, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Baltimore city is looking for someone to develop a mobile app that helps people reduce their risk of heart disease. The city is one of four chosen by the  theU.S. Department of Health and Human Servicesto take part in a contest dubbed The Million Hearts Risk Check Challenge that includes creation of the app. The app should help consumers take a heart health risk assessment and find places to get their blood pressure and cholesterol checked. It will then provide a way for patients to use the results to work with a doctor to develop a plan to improve their heart health.

Dr. William Allan Dear Jr., an internist and former head of the division of nuclear medicine at Mercy Medical Center who also was a practicing magician, died July 20 of heart disease at Union Memorial Hospital. The longtime Guilford resident was 80. "He was the father of nuclear medicine at Mercy," said Dr. Louis E. Grenzer, a Baltimore internist and cardiologist who had known Dr. Dear since they both were residents at Mercy. "In the early 1970s, when they were new, he was doing the first echocardiograms and ultrasounds at Mercy.

Baltimore health officials have been staring at a daunting statistic for years: life expectancy in the richest neighborhoods is 20 years longer than in the poorest ones. But a plan unveiled recently aims to battle the intractable health problems causing the gap, including high rates of HIV infection, heart disease and violence.   An interactive map  created by The Baltimore Sun using city data illustrates many of the stark differences between city neighborhoods:   The median income for Roland Park is 90,000 while in Upton it is 13,000.

Letter writer Gilbert Ross implies that there is no comparison between eating pizza and smoking ("Eating a slice a pizza is not the same as smoking a cigarette," May 10). As a physician, I disagree. Both tobacco and processed meats increase risk for cancer, heart disease and premature death. In fact, processed meat and other unhealthful foods kill more Americans annually than does tobacco. But this isn't just my opinion. A large body of research supports the link between processed meat and poor health.

Kathy Brown wasn't always much of a chef - but she was an educator. When Brown, the former head of Grace Christian School, was diagnosed with amyloidosis of the heart in April 2008, she began experimenting with recipes to suit her new low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar diet. Compelled to share what she'd learned, Brown started compiling a heart-friendly cookbook for other patients. While Brown later received a successful heart transplant, the 62-year-old died in December 2010 before she could finish the book.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is looking for a few good men and women to volunteer for a battle it's waging at home — against disease. Actually, more than a few are needed. Officials overseeing health care for the nation's veterans are undertaking what may be the largest effort of its kind in the nation, to collect medical records and blood samples from a million former service members for a bank of genetic information. The idea is to give researchers enough DNA and other data to link specific genes to mental and physical maladies, from post-traumatic stress disorder to heart disease, and eventually develop new preventive measures or treatments.