CardioExchange Archive

Cardiovascular risk assessment guidelines are not always in agreement and may not always be reliable, according to a systematic review published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Only 16 of the 27 guidelines reported possible conflicts of interest and only 17 “showed considerable rigor.” In an accompanying comment, Sidney Smith wrote that future “progress will depend on our ability to develop guidelines that are free from external bias, an agreement on a definition for global cardiovascular risk that is broadly applicable, and the identification of target populations in terms that take into account important regional variations in risk and health care delivery.”“Two much sitting is bad for health.” That’s the message of a new report from Australia published online in Circulation. For every hour per day spent in front of the television researchers found an 11% increased risk of death from all causes. “The human body was designed to move, not sit for extended periods of time,” said the study’s lead author in an AHA press release.The New York City Health Department announced proposed targets for voluntary salt reduction in packaged and restaurant foods. A feature story in the the Wall Street Journal finds that food manufacturers are better able to successfully cut salt in their foods when it’s done quietly and gradually. The American Heart Association released a statement in support of the NYC effort, noting that because almost 80% of sodium intake is contained in packaged and restaurant food, “it is extremely difficult for individuals to limit sodium in their diet.”