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Mar 1, 2025 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
Don't believe the naysayers — canola, soybean, and other seed oils can be a good source of heart-healthy fat if you use them wisely.
Bogus information about seed oils — especially canola oil and soybean oil — has been circulating on the Internet for more than a decade. The details are misleading, often creating confusion in the kitchen.
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Feb 21, 2025 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
Research we're watching Having an extremely low LDL level from aggressive cholesterol-lowering therapy was not associated with cognitive impairment, according to a new study. The study was an extension of an earlier investigation of people with heart disease that compared the cognitive effects of taking the cholesterol-lowering drug evolocumab (Repatha) plus a statin to taking a statin only.
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Jan 18, 2025 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
Research we're watching Both a Mediterranean-style diet and a vegan diet can help stave off heart disease, but the latter is more affordable, according to a small study published Nov. 4. 2024, in JAMA Network Open. The study included 62 people randomly assigned to follow a low-fat vegan diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans or a Mediterranean diet, which focused on fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, low-fat dairy, and extra-virgin olive oil.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
Research we're watching October 1, 2024 By Julie Corliss, Executive Editor, Harvard Heart Letter Reviewed by Christopher P. Cannon, MD, Editor in Chief, Harvard Heart Letter; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing Cultivating gratitude may help older women live longer, a new study shows. The findings, published July 3, 2024, in JAMA Psychiatry, suggest that most of this benefit comes from preventing deaths from heart disease.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
High blood levels of lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a) — a variant of LDL cholesterol — may triple the risk of a heart attack, even among people with no other risks for heart disease, a new study confirms.
The study included 6,238 people ages 43 to 65 who had their Lp(a) levels measured. Values in the top 10% — 216 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L) or greater — were defined as high, while values in the lower 50% — less than 42 nmol/L — were defined as low.
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Jul 26, 2024 | 
mdpi.com | Christopher Cannon |Matt Gray
All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess.
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Jun 19, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Christopher Cannon
Q. My doctor prescribed a new cholesterol medication. When I went to fill the prescription, the pharmacist said this drug requires prior authorization. But even after that, it will cost $350 per month, which I can't afford. What can I do? A. Unfortunately, this is a very common scenario, with several possible (and often confusing) explanations. But newer medications nearly always cost more than older ones.
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Jun 1, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
A nationwide poll suggests that one in four older adults takes aspirin regularly in hopes of preventing a heart attack or stroke, even though updated guidelines from 2019 advise against that practice in many cases.
Aspirin helps prevent blood clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke, but the drug can also cause serious bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract and brain.
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May 17, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
Concerns about the health effects of microplastics continue to mount. Now, a new study finds that people with microplastics in the plaque clogging their neck arteries were far more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people with plastic-free plaque.
When researchers tested the plaque removed from the neck arteries of 257 people, they found tiny particles of plastic — mostly polyethylene but also polyvinyl chloride — in 58% of the people.
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Apr 19, 2024 | 
health.harvard.edu | Julie Corliss |Christopher Cannon
The ketogenic (keto) diet — which is high in fat and protein and low in carbohydrates — doesn't meet standards for a healthy diet and may not be safe for some people with heart disease, according to a review in the March 2024 issue of Current Problems in Cardiology. The review summarized the current evidence on how keto diets may raise heart disease risk. While the diet may dramatically reduce fat mass and weight over the short term, there is scarce evidence for any long-term benefit.
