Even controlling for the fact that people who don’t brush are more unhealthy, British scientists found that brushing your teeth twice a day reduces your risk of heart disease. Unlike all those bullshit cancer studies, this is real science. [SciAm]

via:Heart

U.S. foreign policy should should rely more on diplomacy and “soft power,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a speech at Kansas State University on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports. ”U.S. foreign policy is still too dominated by the military - too dependent upon the generals and admirals who lead our major overseas commands and not enough on the State Department,” Mullen said, the AFP reports.

The news service continues: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary [Rodham] Clinton ‘have called for more funding and more emphasis on our soft power, and I could not agree with them more, the admiral said” (2/3).

In a “shift in thinking, Mullen said in his speech that policymakers now and in the future should consider the U.S. military not as a last-resort solution in a crisis, but as part of early American responses to conflicts and disasters,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “‘Military forces are some of the most flexible and adaptable tools available to policymakers,’ Mullen said. ‘Before a shot is even fired, we can bolster a diplomatic argument, support a friend or deter an enemy.’ Mullen emphasized that military power must be used alongside other government tools,” the newspaper writes (Barnes, 3/4)…. (more…)

Talking about women and heart disease at the Woodland Park Senior Center, Sandy Nebl was both light-hearted and deadly serious.

“Heart disease is the Number One killer of women,” said Nebl, chief clinical officer at Pikes Peak Regional Hospital. “Nothing even comes close to heart disease. One in 24 women will die of heart disease.”

Heart disease is a plumbing problem on a highway of vains and arteries, she said, adding, “When any place on that highway starts to get plugged up, we’ve got a problem. We have coronary arteries on the heart and if they plug up, you have a heart attack.”

As well, problems occur if the valves in the heart slow down or aren’t working right. “They need to be replaced; congestive heart failure means the heart has stretched out and is not working efficiently,” Nebl said.

Heart failure, for instance, can be preceded by swelling in the ankles, out-of-the-ordinary fatigue, dizziness, heart flutters and nausea. “For the most part there are treatments for that; many times medicines will help quite a bit, actually,” Nebl said.

However, there are other factors that affect heart disease, among them, fat, bad diet, genetics, age, gender, family history, blood pressure, smoking, cholesterol, exercise and weight.

“This is a conversation you should be having with your physician or physician’s assistant,” she said.

Having delivered the cautionary news, Nebl offered up a counterpoint. “The good news is that there are things you can do to prevent and/or control heart disease,” she said. “I’ve been in health care for 30 years and I’m here to tell you there is no condition that gets better if you ignore it.”

Nebl concluded with a zinger, an antidote to premature death from heart disease. “Enjoy people. The people we did heart surgery on, I can almost predict the ones who were going to do well,” she said. “A lot of it was their attitude. It made a huge difference with their recovery. Surround yourself with positive people who support what you’re trying to do.”… (more…)

The Republican, who has a long history of heart problems, was said to be “resting comfortably” at George Washington University Hospital in the capital.

The 69-year-old received an angiogram test so doctors could examine his coronary arteries, according to NBC News. (more…)

CHICAGO, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Newer CT technology that can capture an image of a beating heart in a single beat may offer one way of reducing a patient’s exposure to excess radiation, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said patients who got a type of heart scan called coronary angiography using the newer CT scanner technology received 91 percent less radiation than those who were scanned the traditional way using a computed tomography or CT scanner. “The amount of radiation that a patient would receive is about a 10th of that as compared to using the most traditional protocol,” Dr. Andrew Einstein of Columbia University Medical Center in New York, whose study appears in the journal Radiology, said in a telephone interview. Radiation exposure from medical scans became a major concern of patients and lawmakers last fall after more than 200 patients were exposed to excess radiation during brain scans at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. DOSE REDUCTION Although heart CTs only accounted for 2.3 million out of 65 to 70 million CT scans performed in 2006, they are worrisome because they deliver high radiation doses, Einstein said. “Since these are relatively high-dose tests, the ability to reduce the dose is a good thing,” he said. Heart CTs offer a noninvasive way to look for blockages in heart arteries…. (more…)