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FRIDAY, May 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Low-income Americans are much less likely to be screened for heart disease or to receive counseling about controlling risk factors, a new study finds. Heart health screenings -- such as regular blood pressure and cholesterol checks -- and counseling to improve diet, increase exercise or quit smoking play important roles in reducing heart disease risk. Income has long been associated with heart disease risk, but the connection between income and heart disease preventive care is less well understood, according to the study presented Friday at a virtual meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA). Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. For the study, the researchers...

FRIDAY, May 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Want to give your brain a boost? Go for a swim, take a walk, or spin your partner on the living room floor. A new study finds that aerobic exercise can improve older adults' thinking and memory, even if they're longtime couch potatoes. This type of exercise increases blood flow to the brain and counters the effects of normal aging, according to the study published online May 13 in the journal Neurology. "As we all find out eventually, we lose a bit mentally and physically as we age. But even if you start an exercise program later in life, the benefit to your brain may be immense," said study author Marc Poulin, of the University of Calgary School of Medicine in Canada. "Sure, aerobic exercise gets blood moving through your body. As our study...

FRIDAY, May 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In the race to find treatments for COVID-19, the antiviral drug remdesivir has gotten much of the attention. But researchers say a class of long-used drugs called interferons also looks promising. Trials testing the medications are underway in several countries. A small study published last week in The Lancet found that a three-drug regimen, containing an interferon, helped hospitalized COVID-19 patients go home a few days sooner. But there should be a bigger research push to test interferons as stand-alone treatments, said Eleanor Fish, a professor of immunology at the University of Toronto in Canada. In Wuhan, China, where the pandemic originated, doctors used the drug interferon alfa-2b to treat some hospitalized patients who were not yet...

FRIDAY, May 15, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- An agonizing headache jolted Whitney Spotts awake in the middle of the night. She hoped she wasn't getting sick because she was enjoying a rare long weekend with her husband, Eric, and their 18-month-old daughter. The following day, Whitney stayed in bed with excruciating pain behind her forehead. Later she started vomiting. It was probably a bad case of the flu, thought Whitney, who worked as an emergency room physician assistant. Later that night, Eric noticed his wife's speech was slurred and the right side of her face was drooping. He didn't know the cause but was alarmed enough to get her medical care. The emergency room doctors ordered a CT scan and immediately saw blood in Whitney's brain. She'd suffered a stroke. They...