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A person's waist size is a predictor of heart health

(World health - EU Monitor 09/04/2009)

Adding to the growing evidence that a person's waist size is an important indicator of heart health, a study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that larger waist circumference is associated with increased risk of heart failure in middle-aged and older populations of men and women.

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Being just seven pounds overweight can raise the risk of heart failure

(Daily Mail 23/12/2008)

Researchers who tracked the weights of 21,094 male doctors for two decades found that even those who were only modestly overweight had a higher risk of suffering heart failure. And they found that this risk increased the more overweight a person is.

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Exercise fails to improve survival rates of heart failure patients, study finds

(Daily Mail 12/11/2008)

Exercise is a healthy way for almost all of us to keep fit , but not if you are suffering from heart failure, according to a new study. The study involved 2,231 people with moderate heart failure in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Workouts failed to improve the health of heart failure patients and did not succeed in making them spend less time in hospital or improve their survival rates.

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When her heart failed, Maeve Binchy thought life would be wretched - but she's never been happier

(Daily Mail 30/09/2008)

Novelist Maeve Binchy and her husband, Gordon Snell, returned to their home near Dublin feeling well-rested. But at 2am, Maeve woke up suddenly, struggling to breathe.'I felt as though I couldn't get enough air into my body,' she says. 'At first I thought it must be because it was a particularly hot night but when I got up and stood by the window, I still couldn't breathe properly.' [Heart Failure]

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Heart failure guidance 'ignored'

(BBC 28/05/2008)

Doctors are failing to follow guidelines for managing heart failure, a Europe-wide survey suggests. [Dr Thomas of PUK says: UK Government quality and outcome targets encourage GPs to refer patients for echocardiograms and to start patients on ACE and betablockers, where appropriate. Improvements in this area are likely to show in later figures, although GPs still encounter some delays in obtaining echocardiograms.]

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