Category: heart-health

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement on Wednesday, April 1, requesting that manufacturers immediately pull all forms of ranitidine, sold as the brand-name drug Zantac, from the market, and advised consumers to stop taking it. The move comes after an ongoing investigation revealed that the level of the contaminant and probable… Continue reading Zantac Products Will No Longer Be Prescribed or Sold Due to Cancer Risk

While getting ready to wash her hair at the end of a busy week, Shemeka Campbell suddenly felt weak and dizzy. Her heart was racing, too. Campbell decided to lie down, hoping rest would help. But when she woke up the following morning, she didn’t feel much better. “I was still short of breath and… Continue reading A Young Woman Uses Her Congestive Heart Disease Diagnosis to Raise Awareness of Heart Health

Doctors have long known that Black patients have worse outcomes after heart transplants than members of other racial groups, but a new study has shed light on exactly which segment of the population is skewing the numbers. It turns out that older Black heart transplant patients have outcomes similar to non-Black patients, but young Black… Continue reading Young Black Adults Are at Much Higher Risk of Death After Heart Transplant

At the end of March, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical companies that make and sell the blood thinner Xarelto (rivaroxaban), agreed to pay out $775 million to resolve more than 25,000 lawsuits alleging that the medication failed to provide sufficient warning about its potential bleeding risks. Since 2011 when the U.S. Food and… Continue reading Xarelto Firms Settle $775 Million in Lawsuits Over Bleeding Risks

For most of her life, Lisa Salberg has followed her heart. As a person born with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), she didn’t have much of a choice. HCM — which causes a portion of the heart muscle to abnormally thicken — has dictated most of her waking hours. The condition led her through years of treatments… Continue reading Woman Uses Lifelong Struggle With Cardiomyopathy to Help Others

Are blueberries nature’s perfect fruit? For those trying to keep a strong heart and reduce the risk of heart disease, they very well might be. Let's look at some numbers. Just one cup of blueberries a day can provide loads of nutrients: 24 percent of your daily intake of vitamin C, 36 percent of vitamin… Continue reading Why Blueberries Are the Superfood for Your Heart

Routine mammograms can do more than detect breast cancer. A new study suggests that breast imaging may also serve as an early warning for heart disease. The study focused on what’s known as breast arterial calcification, calcium deposits within breast tissue that look like white flecks on a mammogram and can sometimes indicate precancerous cells… Continue reading Why Mammograms May Be Good for Your Heart

Walmart has become the latest in a growing list of stores and pharmacies to halt the sale of Zantac because of potential impurities in the heartburn medication. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement in September alerting healthcare professionals and consumers that low levels of the probable human carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) was found in some ranitidine… Continue reading What You Need to Know About Contaminants Found in Zantac

When you think of being in the hospital after surgery or another medical reason, you probably don’t think about dangerous blood clots, but clotting is actually one of the biggest risks associated with a hospital stay. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 1 out of 10 hospital deaths are related… Continue reading What You Need to Know About Hospital-Associated Venous Thromboembolism

The 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva had already made headlines at the Olympics in Beijing for landing two quadruple jumps on February 7, a feat no other female competitor has ever pulled off at the games. Then came the news that a drug test she’d taken in advance of a competition in December 2021… Continue reading What Is the Heart Drug Behind the Olympic Skating Controversy?