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THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Among Mexican Americans, too much abdominal fat predicts the beginning of a buildup of plaque in the arteries called atherosclerosis – an early indication of heart disease. But new research shows this is only true for those who were born in the United States. "From a clinical perspective, this suggests we should probably be targeting second- or higher-generation Hispanics with public health initiatives to improve their cardiometabolic risk," said lead author Dr. Susan T. Laing, a professor of medicine at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. In the study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers used ultrasound to measure the wall thickness...

THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Breast cancer in men is rare. But because it's not often suspected in men, diagnosis often comes only after a tumor has begun to spread throughout the body, new research shows. "Approximately one-half of males with breast cancer received a diagnosis after it had already spread," either to nearby or distant tissues, said a team of researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Late diagnosis can be lethal: Overall, five-year survival with male breast cancer diagnosed early was nearly 99%, but it dropped to about 26% for men whose tumors had already spread to "distant" sites upon diagnosis. Nearly one in every 10 cases of male breast cancer (8.7%) were diagnosed at a late stage, the CDC team found. "Men tend to get...

THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Younger women who suffer a heart attack are more likely than men to die in the decade after surgery, a new study finds. It included more than 400 women and nearly 1,700 men, average age 45, who had a first heart attack between 2000 and 2016. During an average follow-up of more than 11 years, there were no statistically significant differences between men and women for deaths while in the hospital, or for heart-related deaths. However, women had a 1.6-fold increased risk of dying from other causes during the follow-up, according to the study published Oct. 14 in the European Heart Journal. "Cardiovascular deaths occurred in 73 men and 21 women, 4.4% versus 5.3% respectively, over a median follow-up time of 11.2 years," said study leader...

THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Want to give your kids an immune system boost? Try letting them play in the dirt more often, a new study suggests. Researchers in Finland found that when they brought nature into daycare playgrounds -- including forest soil and vegetation -- preschoolers' immune function showed a change for the better. In simple terms, it shifted to a less inflammatory state. That immune system redirect was also accompanied by some changes in the children's microbiome -- the vast collection of bacteria and other microbes that naturally live on and in the body. Research has revealed those bugs to be vital in normal body processes -- from metabolism to brain function to immune system regulation. It's too early to know whether bringing the forest to urban...