Kinetic Movement and Stress Relief

Archive for the ‘Stress Measurement’ Category

Do not be surprised if the next time you go to consultation and will announce who will take the stress, not only asked to roll up the shirt but the pants and the doctor applies pressure gauge in both the arm and ankle. We are undergoing a technique known as ankle-brachial index (ABI) and evaluates what is the relationship between the blood pressure of arm and leg, a very effective system to detect if you have circulatory disorders in the extremities (arterial disease peripheral).

A Spanish study has confirmed that using this simple and inexpensive test can help identify some patients whose cardiovascular risk is underestimated with conventional computing means and could benefit from more intensive preventive drug treatment.

It is accepted that when the value of the ABI is less than 0.9 indicates that there is stenosis (narrowing) of arterial diameter. Compared with an angiogram, a radiological test that requires injecting a dye to track blood stream with an X-ray machine, the ITB detect this type of vascular lesions with a sensitivity and specificity of 95% without puncturing the patient.

But it is also very effective by itself to predict the risk of dying from a cardiovascular disease in people with no history of such accidents or obvious symptoms.

To confirm the real usefulness in the consultations, a group of Spanish internists from 96 medical institutions have applied to more than 1,500 type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular risk factors, between 50 and 80 years old, but no history of cardiac events.

Thus, it was found that 26% had an abnormal ABI (below 0.9) and is indicative of peripheral arterial disease suffer and therefore an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular causes. However, only a minority were receiving adequate preventive drug therapy: only 21% were taking antiplatelet agents to prevent development of blood clots, 26% showed increased levels of LDL (“bad”) normal and 16% had blood pressure (measured in the arm) within normal ranges. They were being treated as if their cardiovascular risk is lower.

The authors of the study, called MERIT and published in the latest issue of “Clinical Medicine”, advocating the interest of determining ABI in these patients (diabetics and SCORE risk of 3% or greater) and a low value ‘involves a substantial therapeutic change, from a previous situation infraevaluada primary prevention to secondary prevention real. ” That is, the test allows people to discover asymptomatic principle should be treated as though they have suffered a coronary event.

Japanese researchers from Tohoku University in Sendai highlighted in a study that rigorous measurement of blood pressure by ambulatory monitoring can provide relevant information to assess the risk of stroke, and systolic blood pressure measurement is most predictive of stroke.

In this work, published in “Hypertension” was held ambulatory systolic and diastolic, mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure to assess their impact on stroke risk assessment in more than 1,200 people with a mean age of 61 years and monitored for 11 years, a period of time when there were 113 strokes.

After some analysis, the authors observed that systolic and mean arterial pressure were the most consistent predictors, followed by diastolic blood pressure. In contrast, pulse pressure was a weak predictor of stroke, except when not taken into account the age parameter, “perhaps because the pulse pressure may be more influenced by aging than other blood pressure indices, say researchers.

Hair Test for protecting cardiovascular health

A study by the University of Western Ontario published in the journal Stress reveals that the analysis of a biological marker present in the hair shows the level of emotional stress suffered in recent months.

The researchers were able to assess levels of stress as a noninvasive technique, taking a hair sample of the person and determined the stress experienced in recent months.

The study was conducted through analysis of a biological marker, cortisol, a hormone whose secretion increases during times of great emotional and physical stress.

Previously, cortisol was measured by serum, urine and saliva, but these tests only show the stress at a point in time. Read the rest of this entry »