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MONDAY, Nov. 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 1 in 5 people with hypertension may be unintentionally taking a drug for another condition that causes their blood pressure to climb even higher, a new study suggests.Left untreated or undertreated, high blood pressure will increase your risk for heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and vision problems by damaging blood vessels. Lifestyle changes such as weight loss, restricting salt intake, and/or medication can help move your blood pressure numbers back into the normal range. But asking your doctor whether any drugs you are taking for other conditions might be pushing those numbers up is worth the effort, the researchers said."The risk of [drugs] raising blood pressure may be simply overlooked, particularly for patients using these...

MONDAY, Nov. 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A heart condition, myocarditis, has been found in a number of U.S. college athletes who have had COVID-19, a new study finds.Myocarditis has also been linked in some young people to the COVID vaccine. But the odds are far greater that this inflammation of the heart muscle will occur in those who get COVID infection itself, experts said. "We're still learning about how the virus attacks the heart," said lead researcher Dr. Jean Jeudy, a professor of radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Myocarditis is part of the body's reaction to fighting the infection, but it's also in response to the virus trying to attack the heart."Myocarditis is usually caused by a viral or bacterial infection. It can affect the heart’s rhythm...

MONDAY, Nov. 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Repetitive head hits are common in football, and they're also linked to debilitating brain injuries.But rendering a definitive diagnosis typically means waiting for autopsy results after the player has died.Now, a new study suggests that brain scans can reliably spot troubling signs of sports-inflicted neurological damage while a person is still alive. The research also showed that more brain lesions show up on the scans the longer football players have engaged in the sport."A routine [MRI] scan might be able to capture long-term harm to the brain in people who have been exposed to repetitive hits to the head, like those from American football and other contact sports," concluded study author Michael Alosco. Alosco is co-director of the...

MONDAY, Nov. 29, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- The National Football League over the past decade has launched concussion protocols in response to scientific studies showing repeated head injuries during play could cause serious neurological disorders. Now, a new study funded by the NFL finds the odds of having a stroke are much higher for former players with 10 or more concussions.The study looked at 979 men ages 50 and older who played at least one year in the NFL. The players self-reported incidents of concussion and stroke.The group's overall frequency of strokes – 3.4% – was lower than the general male population of comparable age. But for the 27% of participants who reported at least 10 concussions in their lifetime, the odds of having a stroke was 5.5 times higher...