Happiness key to a healthy heart
New medical research shows staying cheerful reduces the chances of dying from a heart attack.Doctors already knew that anxiety and grumpiness causes stress which increases the likelihood of a cardiac arrest. But the latest study claims to show that having a ‘sense of wellbeing’ does not just prevent this increased risk, it actually reduces the odds.
And just like the song in Monty Python’s life of Brian, cardiologists said they define wellbeing as someone who tends to “look on the bright side of life.” However, the study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore also warned that being cheerful is something people are born with.
Air Pollution raises heart failure risk
The tiniest amounts of air pollution increase the risk of dying from heart failure, scientists claim. Exhaust fumes have the worst impact, and a small reduction in emissions could mean thousands of heart attacks are avoided and millions of pounds spent on treatment saved, according to the research.
Scientists analysed four million heart failure cases and identified a link between a minute rise in pollution levels and higher numbers of people taken to hospital or dying from heart failure. The study found that increases in pollution levels by as little as one part per billion caused an increase in people hospitalised or dying from heart failure. And it also found a small reduction in pollutants could prolong the lives of heart failure patients by up to eight months. In the UK there are 750,000 cases of heart failure every year.
Working shift can harm women fertility
Those whose rotas varied took longer to conceive a child, and were more likely to suffer menstrual disruption, according to the study.Women who only worked night shifts did not suffer when trying to conceive, but were significantly more likely to have a miscarriage, it found.Researchers analysed all studies on the subject since 1969, providing data on 119,345 women.
They found that those whose shifts varied, mixing up daytime, evening and night working, had an 80 per cent higher rate of subfertility — meaning that they were unable to conceive within 12 months — compared with those working regular hours.Women working irregular patterns also had a 33 per cent higher rate of menstrual disruption, according to the findings.