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THURSDAY, Feb. 9, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Many football fans fondly remember Rick Arrington as the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback from 1970 to 1973, but his daughter’s memories are tainted by years spent watching her dad suffer from late-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).A degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma, CTE causes depression, suicidal thoughts, aggression and mood swings. Eventually, folks have problems with thinking and memory, and may ultimately develop dementia. Repeated blows to the head — even if they don’t cause concussions — are considered the main risk factor for CTE.Speaking about her father’s illness for the first time at a recent benefit for the Concussion Legacy...

THURSDAY, Feb. 9, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors have discovered a way to extend the short shelf life of donor hearts, which could hopefully make more of the organs available to desperate recipients.Valproic acid (Depakote), which is approved to treat seizures, boosts production of an enzyme that increases the length of time donated hearts can be stored and transported.The drug also could improve the hearts’ function after they are transplanted, according to the study published Feb. 8 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.Hundreds of thousands of heart failure patients are waiting for a donor heart in the United States, but only around 4,000 heart transplants are conducted each year, the researchers said in background notes.One reason is that a heart can survive outside a...

THURSDAY, Feb. 9, 2023 (American Heart Association News) -- Dr. Anezi Uzendu should not be here to explain what a cardiac arrest looks like. He's alive only because strangers at a gym understood – and acted.In 2016, Uzendu, then a 25-year-old medical resident, was playing a pickup basketball game at a gym in Birmingham, Alabama. He doesn't recall what happened, but he's told he scored, then collapsed."First, they kind of thought I was joking," he said. "But then they realized I wasn't breathing."He'd just become one of roughly 350,000 U.S. adults annually who have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. In most cases, the story – and the patient's life – ends there. Uzendu's did not because of what happened next."People at the gym recognized that I was having a cardiac arrest and...

THURSDAY, Feb. 9, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- In the United States alone, more than 800,000 heart attacks occur each year. That number will likely continue to rise: The American College of Cardiology predicts significant increases in heart disease and cardiovascular risk factors across the country by 2060. And a recent poll from Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center found heart attacks can even occur in groups you may not suspect, like young people.So, exactly what is a heart attack and what symptoms spell trouble?Heart attacks are life-threatening emergencies and need to be treated immediately. They cause damage to your heart that can lead to serious health issues or even death. “The earlier you come in for medical care, the earlier we can start therapy and the less damage...