It's the million dollar question for people with high blood pressure: Which is more important, your genes or your diet? A new report published in the current issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows a direct correlation between sodium -- or salt -- intake and high blood pressure.

In a study of more than 11,000 people, researchers found that those who ate more salt were the ones with high blood pressure -- regardless of what form they had of a particular gene involved in blood pressure regulation. Although this certainly doesn't close the book on the genes-versus-diet debate, it's a compelling reason for people with high blood pressure to watch how much salt they eat. As Dr. Paul Conlin points out in an editorial accompanying the report, there’s no sense worrying about your genes, but you can control your sodium intake. According to the American Heart Association, people with high blood pressure or other cardiovascular risk factors should eat less than 1,500 mg of salt each day...  Read more

When someone's having a stroke, every second counts. But according to a report in the current issue of Stroke, most stroke victims don't get treatment quickly enough. The study had some other interesting findings:

• People were treated more quickly when they arrived by ambulance.
• Treatment was faster in hospitals that were certified stroke centers.
• Women were less likely than men to get timely treatment.

What does "timely treatment" mean? The clock starts ticking the moment a blood clot blocks a vessel in the brain. The clot-busting drug tPA can limit brain damage, but there's a catch: The drug needs to be given within the first three hours.

Here's what you should know if you or someone you're caring for is at risk for a stroke:

Know the signs of stroke. I've listed the warning signs before, but they're worth repeating:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body...  Read more

If you're concerned that your parent might be depressed, take note: New research suggests that depression may increase the risk of stroke in elderly patients.

Researchers found that 85-year-olds with depression had almost three times the risk of having a stroke within three years. "The possible risk reduction of stroke is thus one more reason why individuals with depression should be diagnosed and adequately treated," the authors write in their report, published in the current issue of Stroke.

The National Institute of Mental Health lists these warning signs of depression:

• Persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" feelings
• Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
• Irritability, restlessness
• Loss of interest in activities or hobbies that once brought pleasure
• Fatigue and decreased energy
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions...  Read more

Does your parent breathe easy at night? New research suggests a possible link between nighttime heart attacks and the breathing disorder sleep apnea.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic studied the breathing patterns of 92 people admitted to the hospital after heart attacks. "For those who had heart attacks at night, the vast majority had undiagnosed sleep apnea," said cardiologist Virend Somers, the study's lead author. "So, perhaps sleep apnea is acting as a trigger for nighttime heart attacks."

How can you tell if someone has sleep apnea? The most common sign is loud snoring, often interrupted by pauses followed by choking or gasping. Some other signs of sleep apnea include:

• Morning headaches
• Memory or learning problems and not being able to concentrate
• Feeling irritable, depressed, or having mood swings or personality changes
• Urination at night
• A dry throat when you wake up

If you think your parent might have sleep apnea, talk to his regular doctor...  Read more

If you or your parent has to give up alcohol for medical reasons, take note: New research suggests that stopping moderate drinking may lead to depression.

In a study recently published in Neuropsychopharmacology, mice that were allowed to drink for 28 days appeared depressed 14 days after the alcohol was taken away. The mice also showed decreased brain cell development in an area of the brain important for learning, memory, and mood regulation.

But don't reach for a wineglass yet: The researchers also found that giving the mice antidepressants during the 14 days of abstinence prevented depression and restored the brain's ability to make new cells.

The take-home message? When giving up alcohol, look out for signs of depression.

Image by Flickr user piddy77 used under the Creative Commons attribution license.

Now hear this: a new study published in last week's Stroke: Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that sudden hearing loss may be a sign of a future stroke.

Researchers in Taiwan studied five-year follow-up data on patients who were hospitalized for an acute episode of sudden hearing loss. Compared to patients who were hospitalized for an appendectomy, the hearing loss patients were significantly more likely to suffer a stroke. And the strokes didn't happen right away: More than half of them occurred by the end of the second year after the episode of hearing loss.

The researchers themselves point out that the study was fairly limited, so these findings should be considered preliminary. Still, they recommend that people who experience a sudden loss of hearing undergo a comprehensive neurological exam and blood testing to gauge their stroke risk.

So if your parent complains of a...  Read more

I've written before about the importance of being able to recognize the signs of stroke. But what if your parent -- or you -- had a stroke and never even noticed?

In a report published in the latest issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers found that almost 11 percent of seemingly healthy, middle-aged study participants had some brain damage from one or more "silent" strokes. The researchers also found a correlation between silent stroke and cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, and thickening or partial blockage of the carotid arteries.

Also known as silent cerebral infarction, a silent stroke is a true stroke that causes actual brain injury without any noticeable symptoms. People who've had a silent stroke have a higher risk of having more strokes, and are more likely to suffer from vascular dementia later in life.

This...  Read more

Last week, USA Today ran this interesting piece on vascular dementia. Also called multi-infarct dementia, vascular dementia is caused by multiple strokes that disrupt blood flow to the brain, leading to damaged tissue. The symptoms are very similar to those of Alzheimer's disease, and the two types of dementia often occur together.

Although the USA Today piece focused on a woman in her 30s, vascular dementia usually begins between the ages of 60 and 75. And since it's the second leading cause of dementia in the US (after Alzheimer's), I thought I'd list some blogs and resources especially for those of you caring for people with vascular dementia:

• In his memoir Dementia Diary: A Caregiver's Journal, Bob Tell writes about his mother's 16-year decline into what he calls "the opaque fog of dementia." Check out Bob's blog for more about vascular dementia and his experiences caring for his mother...  Read more

This week Carol O'Dell, Caring.com's Family Advisor and author of the memoir Mothering Mother, wrote a fantastic piece about one of those frightening topics we'd all rather not think about: elder suicide. But the fact that seniors have the highest suicide rates of any age group is one that we simply can't afford to ignore.

Why are older people at such high risk for suicide? Depression is the biggest culprit, and it's a condition that often goes undiagnosed in seniors. Some other factors that lead to suicide include debilitating illness, chronic pain, financial difficulties, isolation, and loss of a loved one or pet.

What can you do if you think your parent or loved one might be depressed or at risk for suicide? One of the most important things is to know the warning signs of suicide:

• Talking or reading about death and suicide
• Making statements of hopelessness or suicide threats
• Not sleeping...  Read more

Last week I wrote about how nearly half of heart disease patients aren't familiar with the signs of heart attack. Now I'd like to point out a related issue: Women, especially those under the age of 55, may miss or ignore heart attack warning signs.

In a study presented last month at the American Heart Association's Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke, researchers interviewed 30 women who'd suffered heart attacks at a young age (average age 48). Most of the women didn't realize they were having heart attacks, attributing their symptoms instead to indigestion, fatigue, or stress.

Why are young women less likely to recognize a heart attack? Here are some of the reasons given by the women in this study:

• They thought they were too young to have a heart attack.
• They had atypical symptoms, such as jaw or neck pain, abdominal discomfort, nausea, or fatigue...  Read more

Did you know that a person with heart disease has a five to seven times greater risk of having a heart attack compared with someone with a healthy heart? In light of those numbers, you'd think that someone with heart disease would be familiar with the signs of a heart attack…right?

Wrong. New research shows that nearly half of patients with a history of heart disease not only don't know the signs of heart attack, they don't see themselves as being at increased risk. The odds of surviving a heart attack improve if treatment begins within an hour of symptom onset, so it's crucial to seek treatment as soon as possible. But if patients don't know the signs, they might not realize they're having a heart attack. And if they don't know they're at greater risk, they might attribute their symptoms to something else.

So if your parent has heart disease, now's the time for you both to boost your heart attack IQ...  Read more

More than a third of stroke survivors develop depression -- a complication that may triple their odds of dying within 10 years. New research suggests that doctors may want to treat stroke patients with antidepressants before they develop depression.

Stroke patients in the study were treated either with a sugar pill (placebo), a low dose of an antidepressant (escitalopram, trade name Lexapro), or talk therapy. After a year, 22 percent of the placebo group developed depression, compared with only 8.5 percent of patients who received Lexapro and 12 percent of those who had talk therapy.

Depression can hamper stroke recovery and make patients less likely to take medications or participate in rehabilitation. And as anyone with a depressed relative well knows, depression can wreak havoc with the rest of the family. So any treatment that can prevent depression in stroke patients seems like a great idea...  Read more

As National Stroke Awareness Month draws to a close, I bring you news from New Zealand researchers: Stroke patients are at a high risk for falling after leaving the hospital. In fact, people who've had strokes fall almost twice as often as those who haven't had strokes.

Published in this month's issue of Stroke magazine, the study revealed that more than a third of stroke survivors reported at least one fall within six months after a stroke. The researchers reported a number of other interesting findings, including:

• Women were more likely than men to suffer an injury from falling.
• People who had fallen during the year before a stroke were much more likely to fall after a stroke.
• Depressed people were almost 1.5 times more likely to fall than those who weren't depressed.

According to the study's lead author Ngaire Kerse, "There is an opportunity to offer fall prevention strategies as part of...  Read more

Patients who've undergone cardiac bypass surgery often develop problems with cognitive skills, like memory and language. In the past, this mental decline has often been blamed on the bypass pump used during surgery. A new study from Johns Hopkins suggests that coronary artery disease itself may actually be the culprit.

Researchers looked at cognitive function (including memory, motor speed, attention, and the ability to plan ahead) over six years in two groups of heart patients: Those who had bypass surgery, and those who received nonsurgical treatments such as medications and stents.

The results were dramatic: Patients in both groups experienced an almost identical decline in cognitive skills. This suggests that coronary artery disease itself, and not bypass surgery, is responsible for long-term loss of mental function.

Believe it or not, this may actually be good news for heart patients.

Stroke blogger David Dansereau has written a terrific piece on a controversy brewing in the stroke world. In honor of National Stroke Awareness Month, both the National Stroke Association and the Stroke Collaborative want to educate people about how to recognize stroke symptoms and get help right away. Unfortunately, the two organizations are at odds about how best to get the message out.

The National Stroke Association is focusing its efforts on teaching people how to recognize stroke symptoms and Act F.A.S.T.

Face: Ask the person to smile. Does one end of the face droop?

Arm: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Does the speech sound slurred or strange?

Time: If you observe any of these signs, it's time to call 911.

According to Jonathan Bitz of the National Stroke Association, "F.A.S.T. is a proven vehicle for identifying the most common symptoms of ischemic (clot-caused) stroke...  Read more