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FRIDAY, May 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Asthma can be a tough disease to control, but to control it you first need to know if you have it.A chronic condition, there are telltale symptoms that crop up when an asthma attack strikes and knowing what those are could help you avoid a life-threatening emergency.According to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma affects 7.8% of Americans. Asthma occurs when the airways become inflamed and narrow, which hinders airflow. More mucus is produced, which further blocks the air from moving in and out of the lungs. When something in the environment causes irritation, tiny muscles squeeze the airways, narrowing them even more. This is called an asthma attack, according to the Asthma and Allergy...

FRIDAY, May 12, 2023 (American Heart Association News) -- Women who have high blood pressure before they become pregnant may be twice as likely as those who don't to develop cardiovascular disease within a decade of giving birth, new research finds.And if their pregnancies involve complications, they are up to 10 times more likely to develop premature cardiovascular problems, according to the study, published Friday in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.The findings highlight the importance of blood pressure screenings for women of childbearing age and add to evidence suggesting pregnancy may unmask or accelerate underlying heart problems, said study co-author Fergus McCarthy, a perinatal researcher and senior lecturer in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at...

FRIDAY, May 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Millions of Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, but a new study finds Black and Hispanic adults get the drugs less often than white people do.“This adds to the known racial and ethnic disparities already highly prevalent in heart disease,” said lead author Dr. Ambarish Pandey, an assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “These findings have the potential to affect how we screen for and treat people who do not have heart disease but may have risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking,” he said in a medical center news release.Using national survey data and examining risk factors for heart disease, researchers found about 38% of white...

FRIDAY, May 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) – If you’re one of the millions of folks with sleep apnea, you may be more likely to develop long COVID, a new study suggests.Adults with obstructive sleep apnea were 75% more likely to experience long COVID symptoms than people without the disorder, which is marked by pauses in breathing during sleep.People with long COVID experience new, lingering or worsening symptoms for more than four weeks after their initial COVID infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Exactly how, or even if, sleep apnea sets the stage for long COVID isn’t fully understood, but researchers have some theories. “The link between sleep apnea and long COVID could be due to shared risk factors such as obesity,” said study author...