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WEDNESDAY, May 26, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- Less than half of U.S. women entering pregnancy have good heart health, and those rates are falling, according to new research.Experts already knew poor heart health can have dire consequences for mothers-to-be. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of a mother's death during pregnancy and postpartum, making up 26.5% of pregnancy-related deaths, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.The new study sought to find out if heart health was declining before women became pregnant, and if so, in which parts of the country.Researchers looked at data from all U.S. women, ages 20-44, who gave birth from 2016 to 2018. Then they zoomed in on how many of them had "favorable cardiometabolic health"...

WEDNESDAY, May 26, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- Many people know too much salt in their diet is a bad thing. Not nearly as many know exactly why."They're surprised at the degree to which it can affect them," said Dr. Cheryl Laffer, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. "And at the amount of salt that there is in the American diet."According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 90% of Americans age 2 and older eat too much sodium. Most of it is in the form of salt, also known as sodium chloride.Here are six things salt does to the body – and what you can do to protect yourself.Let's start with the heart.With the circulatory system, salt's effects are "a very simple plumbing problem," said Dr. Fernando Elijovich, a...

MIÉRCOLES, 26 de mayo de 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- Mucha gente sabe que el exceso de sal en su alimentación es algo malo, pero no hay tantos que sepan exactamente por qué."Se sorprenden del grado en que puede afectarles", afirma la Dra. Cheryl Laffer, profesora de medicina de la Universidad de Vanderbilt, en Nashville, Tennessee, "así como de la cantidad de sal que contiene la alimentación estadounidense".De acuerdo con los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades, casi un 90% de los estadounidenses mayores de dos años consumen demasiado sodio, con la mayor parte en forma de sal que también se conoce como cloruro de sodio.Estas son seis cosas que la sal ocasiona en el cuerpo, y lo que puede hacer para protegerse.Empecemos por el corazón.En el...

WEDNESDAY, May 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have discovered that when patients who have type 2 diabetes and asthma take a certain class of medication to control their blood sugar, their asthma symptoms also improved.Not only could this help diabetes patients who may have less asthma control on asthma medicines, but it could potentially open up new treatment options for those who don't have diabetes.The study showed that patients who are started taking these medications reported both less asthma exacerbation, with less need for oral steroids and fewer asthma-related symptoms over a six-month period, said study author Dr. Katherine Cahill, medical director of clinical asthma research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, Tenn. "What this means for us is that...