Heart-Attack Heads-Up

          Chest pain isn’t the only ache that predicts cardiac trouble.  Migraines can signal an impending heart attack in men, notes a new Harvard study.  Researchers tracked 20,000 men for 15 years and found migraine sufferers to be 42 percent more prone to a heart attack than those unaffected by head pain. “Migraines have been tied to hypertension, high cholesterol, and inflammation,” says lead author Tobias Kurth, M.D.  “We aren’t sure if these cause migraines r if there’s another, unknown factor.”  If you suffer from severe headaches, ask your doctor to test your cholesterol, blood pressure, and C-reactive protein.

Off Day In The O.R.

          There’s no good day to go under the knife, but there could be a bad one: Thursday may be the worst day to enter the hospital.  A study by the Institute for Public Policy Research, in London, found that people admitted on Thursdays have the longest stays, probably due to discharge delays caused by weekend staffing shortages.  “The longer you stay in the hospital, the greater the chance you’ll contract an infection,” says Joe Farington-Douglas, M.S., the lead author.  During a hospital stay, keep a bottle of alcohol-based hand-sanitizing gel by your bedside and make visitors and staff use it.  Hand hygiene is the best defense against hospital infections.

The Busy Man’s Cancer Plan

       Make time for a workout soon.  A single bout of exercise a week can reduce your risk of prostate, finds a study of 29,000 men in the International Journal of Cancer.  Men who hit the gym once a week were up to 32 percent less likely to develop advanced prostate cancer than sedentary men.  The longer you sweat, the better your odds.

Length of            <15 minutes = -11%                Change in risk

average exercise  15-30 minutes = -16%                    of prostate cancer

session                  31-60 minutes = -29%

                              > 60 minutes = -31%