Your health: Sitting in traffic tough on the ticker
Traffic jam
Sitting in traffic is tough on the nerves. It could also be hard on the heart. Researchers interviewed nearly 1,500 heart attack survivors living in the region of Germany around Augsburg. They were asked about what they'd been doing in the four days before their heart attacks.
About 8 percent said they'd been stuck in traffic a few hours prior to the attack. The lingering effect of traffic seemed to be worse in women and those with the chest pain known as angina.
What could be the connection between traffic and heart attacks? Anger and stress have been linked to spasms of coronary arteries, the sudden disruption of cholesterol-filled plaque, and the initiation of unstable heart rhythms, any of which can trigger a heart attack. Air pollution is another possible culprit.
Eye on tryglycerides
High triglycerides often take a back seat to a high level of harmful LDL cholesterol and a low level of protective HDL, but they are worth paying attention to on their own.
Fatty foods, rapidly digested carbohydrates, excess weight, and some medications can boost triglycerides, the main fat-crrying particle in the bloodstream. You can keep them in check by cutting back on easily digested carbohydrates like white bread and mashed potatoes and eating more whole grains. Saturated and trans fats boost triglycerides, while unsaturated fats can lower them.
Eating fatty fish twice a week can help, as can exercise and losing weight if you're overweight.
Prevention pill?
Back in 2003, two British researchers suggested a simple approach to preventing heart disease: have everyone over age 50 take a daily "polypill" that contained three blood pressure-lowering drugs (an ACE inhibitor, a beta blocker, and a diuretic), a statin for cholesterol, aspirin to prevent blood clots that lead to heart attacks and most strokes, and the vitamin folic acid. Containing low doses of widely used generic drugs, the pill would be safe and cheap.
Indian researchers set about testing it. They recruited more than 2,400 men and women without heart disease between the ages of 45 and 80 years. Some took a polypill they called the Polycap containing three beta blockers, a statin, and aspirin. Others took a pill with one or more of the ingredients. After three months, the polypill had lowered systolic blood pressure (the top number of a blood pressure reading) a respectable 7 points and harmful LDL by 12 points. The polypill didn't cause any more problems than pills containing just one or two of the ingredients.
In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took a step toward a polypill by approving Exforge HCT for blood pressure control. It contains amlodipine, a calcium-channel blocker; valsartan, an angiotensin-receptor blocker; and hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic.