Heart attack

Researchers suggest the 1918 influenza pandemic caused a wave of heart disease in the 20th century. With new evidence showing the impact of COVID on our hearts, could this recent pandemic be setting us up for another century of cardiac problems?

A new pacemaker is thinner than a human hair, wireless and operated entirely by light from an optic fiber. The non-invasive device could help regulate heart activity or even stimulate neurons in a set pattern to treat conditions like Parkinson’s.

It can be hard to motivate yourself to take preventative measures against heart attack, if you don't know if you're even at risk of having one. According to new research, however, a standard blood test can now provide that information.

The first drug to prevent heart attack and stroke cell damage is now one step closer to reality, after the K’gari funnel-web spider venom molecule Hi1a got a green light from independent safety studies, and more is learnt about its unique efficacy.

A new study has found that a traditional Chinese medicine reduced complications following a serious heart attack, including future heart attacks, stroke and death, and its benefits can last up to a year.

Right now, drug developers have high hopes on Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitors for treating advanced cancers. But a team of scientists has found it also shows huge promise in calming inflammation, and could be used to treat gout and heart failure.

Heart tissue normally can't regenerate after an injury. But now, scientists at Max Planck have shown in mice that reprogramming the energy metabolism of the heart allows it to regenerate after a heart attack, which could open new therapies.

A high resting heart rate, considered anything above 100 beats per minute, has been linked to an elevated risk of serious cardiovascular conditions such as coronary artery disease and stroke. Knowing how genes impact this is vital for preventative care.

Researchers have found that red blood cells have an innate ability to trigger a pathway that protects the heart from injury during periods of low oxygen, such as during a heart attack. The discovery could lead to new drugs that activate this pathway.

It's enough to give you heartburn: previously linked to a higher risk of stroke and heart attack, the prolonged use of common, popular acid reflux medicines has now been connected to an increased likelihood of developing age-related dementia.

For the first time, scientists have discovered how a change in the ACTA2 gene can cause heart disease in otherwise adults who have normal cholesterol levels and no other risk factors. This could lead to early detection of an often silent killer.

High levels of a common genetic ‘bad’ cholesterol protein has again turned up in the blood of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients. While one in five of us have this gene variant that can sneakily spike cholesterol levels, medical help is on the way.