Alarm Warns of Heart Attack

Modern medicine finally has developed a gadget the late comic George Carlin would have loved: a real version of his “2-minute warning.” The AngelMed Guardian lets you know you’re about to have a type of heart attack that often kills its victims before they can reach the hospital.
The device, which is about the size of a matchbox, vibrates when changes in the heart’s electrical pattern signal an imminent heart attack and also sends a message to a pager which sounds a warning. It could warn patients hours, or even days, ahead of a heart attack, allowing them time to get emergency help.
The majority of heart attacks occur when a clot cuts blood supply to the heart and disrupts normal electrical signals. About a third of those who have heart attacks due to clots die before they get to the hospital. Often the delay is because the patient delayed getting help, ignoring warning signs such as pain in the chest, shoulder, back or jaw. A British study found that 42 percent of people with pains indicating a possible heart attack took a “wait and see” attitude. Other patients delayed getting help because they weren’t able to interpret the warnings correctly.
One million heart attacks occur in the United States each year, and approximately 460,000 are fatal. The AngelMed Guardian will allow patients to get to the hospital in time for clot-busting drugs to be administered, cutting death rates as well as reducing heart damage in those who survive.
The AngelMed Guardian, like current pacemakers, is implanted in the chest underneath the left collarbone. A wire with an electrode connects to the heart’s right ventricle, and constantly checks rhythm patterns in the heart. In addition to signaling an imminent heart attack, the data collected by the device can be examined by the doctor at any time via a wireless computer program.
Although not yet approved by the FDA, the AngelMed Guardian has successfully completed a phase one clinical trial and additional trials are beginning. The device is already approved for use in some countries, including Brazil.
XLPharmacy

Type of Exercise Affects the Food You Crave

We have learned that the type of exercise you engage in affects how hungry you are afterwards as well as the types of foods you crave. Instead of helping you fight the battle of the bulge, some workouts can actually leave you ravenous and craving high-fat, high calorie, and sweet foods.
Those who want to lose weight should stick to running. Some runners don’t feel hungry after exercising because their activity suppresses the ghrelin hormone that stimulates appetite. Swimming creates a craving for fatty foods, such as cookies and chocolate while weight-lifters crave potatoes and pasta.
While some high-intensity exercise, such as running in hot conditions, suppresses the ghrelin hormone, which stimulate appetite, other high-intensity exercise, such as swimming in cold water, actually increases the hormone which, in turn, increases hunger.
The body tends to respond to exercise so it can do it more efficiently in future. The lighter you are, the better for long-distance running, so your body will crave watery foods that lower your body temperature by rehydration while not piling on the pounds. But if you are lifting weights, then you will crave carb- and protein-rich foods that will bulk up your muscles. Also, if you are regularly swimming in cold water, your body benefits if your brain guides you towards foods that will give you a layer of protective fat. Runners appetites continued even after they had recovered from their exercise.
People don’t seem to overcompensate for missed meals when their body returns to its rest state. So if you run for 90 minutes, you will burn around 1,300 calories but will not increase your food intake in the 24 hours after that exercise. In short, you burn all those calories but you don’t get hungrier than you would have had you not exercised at all. Interesting!