Peanut butter chocolate chip blondies

 

Sally O'Neill shares her peanut butter chocolate chip delights for a superfood treat without the guilt.

What you'll need (serves 12)

• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed
• 2 tsp natural vanilla extract
• ½ cup natural peanut butter*
• ¼ cup rice malt syrup or unsweetened apple sauce
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar*
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of sea salt flakes
• ½ cup of 85 per cent to 90 per cent dark chocolate broken into chips (or use vegan or dairy-free chocolate chips as needed)

* You can use almond butter, sunflower seed butter, or whatever nut butter you like. For a totally sugar-free version, use 30 drops of liquid Stevia instead of the sweeteners, and cacao nibs in place of the chocolate chips.

What you'll do

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth.

Put half the chocolate chips and stir or pulse until combined.

Dump the dough into a lined brownie tin and spread until around 3 cm thick.

Press remaining chips into the top of the batter.

Bake for about 20–25 minutes, until slightly browning at the edge.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to one week.

Recipe by Sally O'Neill The Fit Foodie, first published on Nourish Magazine.

 

{nomultithumb}

 

Source : Diet & Nutrition http://ift.tt/1N9Aa35

Too Much Sitting May Shorten Your Life, Study Suggests

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Get off your duff: A new study finds that sitting less may extend your life.

Brazilian researchers who analyzed data from 54 countries linked sitting for more than three hours a day to 3.8 percent of deaths from all causes.

Limiting sitting time to less than three hours a day would increase a person’s life expectancy by an average of 0.2 years — or more than two months, the researchers said.

The study adds to growing evidence that too much sitting is a health threat, and that even regular exercise may not be enough to counter the harmful effects of prolonged sitting, the researchers said.

Their report appeared online in advance of the August print issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study authors estimated the effects of less time spent sitting, regardless of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

Even a modest, 10 percent reduction in sitting time — for instance, 30 fewer minutes a day — could have an immediate impact, the researchers said.

“Bolder changes [for instance, 50 percent decrease or two fewer hours] would represent at least three times fewer deaths versus the 10 percent or 30-minute reduction scenarios,” lead investigator Leandro Rezende said in a journal news release. Rezende is with the department of preventive medicine at the University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine, in Brazil.

Despite a growing body of research showing the dangers of too much sitting, it’s difficult to get people to make changes, the researchers added.

“Although sitting is an intrinsic part of human nature, excessive sitting is very common in modern societies,” Rezende said.

Labor-saving devices, long commutes and homes in areas that lack support for active lifestyles contribute to the problem, he added.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute offers a guide to physical activity.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1MftJR6

This Is What Happens To Your Brain On No Sleep

Photo: Getty Images

Bedtime is one of the most important parts of the day for the brain. The latest studies show that when we slumber, the brain performs important housekeeping tasks that clear away the debris of the day’s work and help reset and restore nerve networks so they are ready to operate again at full capacity when we wake.

But a lack of sleep deprives the brain of this essential rest period, and our ability to get through the day might be compromised. In a small study published in the journal Radiology, a team of Chinese and European researchers report a more detailed analysis of how insomnia can affect specific types of brain nerves in parts of the brain that regulate cognition, emotion and sensory processes.

The researchers compared the brain images of 23 people with insomnia and 30 healthy controls. They specifically focused on white matter volume, which represents nerve cells that are coated in a special protein called myelin that improves their ability to send signals to one another. Earlier brain imaging studies had suggested that people with insomnia have differences in certain parts of the brain that could be connected to inadequate myelin. So Shumei Li from the Guangdong No. 2 Provincial People’s Hospital and her colleagues compared white matter function among people with insomnia and those who slept well.

RELATED: Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep

They found that people with insomnia—defined as trouble sleeping for over a month that’s associated with daytime sleepiness and sleep disturbances—had significantly less white matter connectivity, especially between areas that control sleep and wakefulness, than those without insomnia. Li speculates that this disruption in signals between these regions was triggered by thinning of the myelin surrounding the neurons, which resulted in less chatter among them.

In fact, 83%, or five of the six major nerve tracts that the scientists analyzed, were reduced among people with insomnia. Most were concentrated in the right part of the brain, where emotions and many thinking functions are regulated, as well as where sensory information like sight, smell and touch are processed.

Li says that more studies are needed to explain what might be causing the brain differences in people with insomnia, but the results hint at a starting point.

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1Sd6tPJ

The Health Risks Posed by Mindless Munching

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Along with diet and exercise, mindful eating may benefit overweight people trying to shed excess pounds, new research suggests.

“Mindful eating practices promote awareness of experiences related to the desire to eat, actual sensations of hunger, fullness, satisfaction and enjoyment,” study author Jennifer Daubenmier, from the University of California, San Francisco, said in a university news release.

The study included almost 200 obese adults. All of the participants followed the same diet and exercise regimen.

Half of the group was randomly assigned to also receive additional information on nutrition and exercise, as well as information on relaxation and stress management, the study authors explained.

The other half of the study group followed a program focused on “mindful eating.” This group was taught to be “present” while eating and to be aware of the thoughts and emotions related to the experience. This program also included meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, and the practice of being loving and kind to oneself and others, the researchers said.

Both groups had similar weight loss. But six months after the program ended, people in the mindfulness group had greater improvements in triglyceride levels (a type of blood fat) and “good” (HDL) cholesterol levels. The mindfulness group also had lower blood sugar levels one year later, the study found.

The researchers noted that these small improvements would reduce some of the risks of metabolic syndrome, a serious condition that increases the risk of heart disease.

“High stress levels, sedentary lifestyles and availability of inexpensive high-calorie foods mean it is easy to fall into the habit of mindless eating. We often find ourselves overeating not because we’re hungry, but because the food looks or tastes delicious, we’re distracted or we wish to soothe away unpleasant feelings,” Daubenmier said.

“Practicing mindfulness can be effective in allowing us to recognize our patterns without judging ourselves, and to make more thoughtful food choices about when, what and how much to eat in ways that are both satisfying and healthy,” she added.

The mindfulness program didn’t force participants to give up all high-calorie foods. However, it directed them to recognize cravings and allow them to pass. It also encouraged participants to savor their favorite guilty pleasures in smaller portions that wouldn’t exceed their calorie goals, the study authors said.

“Mindfulness training may promote sustained improvements in healthy eating that may contribute to better longer-term improvement in some aspects of metabolic health [when combined with a weight-loss program],” Daubenmier said.

The study was published in the March issue of the journal Obesity.

More information

Read more about mindful eating from Harvard University.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1SBcNRG

Chemo May Prolong Lives of Some Brain Cancer Patients: Study

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Adding chemotherapy to radiation treatment may add years to the lives of people with certain slow-growing brain tumors, a new study finds.

The findings come from a long-term follow-up of patients who took part in a trial that began in 1998.

All were treated for grade 2 gliomas — tumors that begin in brain cells called glial cells and are relatively slow-growing.

Earlier results from the trial had shown that adding chemotherapy to the standard treatment of radiation — with or without surgery — can help keep tumors from progressing.

Now there’s proof that it prolongs people’s lives, too.

“Until now, there hasn’t been any therapy known to improve life expectancy for these patients,” said lead researcher Dr. Jan Buckner. He is the chair of oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

In the United States, nearly 23,000 adults were diagnosed with brain cancer in 2015, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). There are many different forms of brain cancer, and grade 2 gliomas are relatively rare — accounting for 5 percent to 10 percent of all adult brain cancers, Buckner’s team noted.

They are also slower-growing. A tumor’s “grade” refers to how aggressive it is, with grade 3 and 4 brain tumors typically progressing quickly and invading other tissue.

But grade 2 gliomas disproportionately affect younger adults, and most of those patients do die prematurely, according to Buckner. The question had been whether adding chemotherapy to their radiation treatment could extend their lives.

The latest study, published in the April 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the NCI, recruited 251 patients between 1998 and 2002.

Half were randomly assigned to have six weeks of radiation therapy alone, while the other half had radiation followed by chemotherapy with a trio of drugs called procarbazine, CCNU and vincristine. When possible, the participants had some of the cancer surgically removed before undergoing radiation.

The patients ranged in age, but they were typically about 40 years old.

By the end of the study period, 55 percent of the study group had died. But patients who’d received chemo lived longer — typically surviving for 13 years, versus eight years among those who’d received only radiation.

“An extra five years,” Buckner said. “That’s a significant difference.”

Dr. Susan Chang, director of neuro-oncology at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, agreed.

“We should celebrate that we have a treatment that can prolong these patients’ lives,” said Chang, who is also associate editor of Cancer.Net, the cancer information website run by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

“But at the same time,” she added, “we have to recognize that there’s a need for less toxic treatments.”

In this study, chemotherapy patients commonly had drops in their blood cell counts that left them vulnerable to potentially serious infections. Many also had nausea, vomiting, constipation and weight loss.

Since this study began, Chang noted, less-toxic chemo drugs have become available. “Can you use newer drugs and still get this same effect on overall survival?” she said. “We don’t know.”

Plus, not all patients given chemo did benefit, Chang pointed out. And that, she said, highlights a bigger point: Not all grade 2 glioma patients are the same. For reasons that are not yet clear, some respond well to current treatments and others do not.

“We still have a lot left to learn about grade 2 glioma,” Chang said.

The hope is to better understand the tumors at the molecular level, according to Chang. That could lead to drugs that go beyond standard chemotherapy, and specifically target abnormalities on the tumor cells.

“We want to be able to hit the tumor, and not the normal tissue,” Chang said.

As for long-term side effects, 22 percent of patients in the new study eventually showed some type of brain effect, such as memory difficulties — but those were related to the radiation, Buckner said, not the chemotherapy.

That leads to other questions, according to Chang: Is it possible to prevent those radiation effects? Or, could patients do just as well getting chemo without radiation?

For now, Buckner suggested that glioma patients talk with their doctors about whether chemo is right for them. He noted that fertility problems are one potential side effect, so younger patients sometimes want to delay the treatment.

Chang agreed. “The key point is, when you’re talking to your doctor about treatment options, this [chemo regimen] needs to be part of the discussion.”

More information

The American Society of Clinical Oncology provides an overview on brain tumors.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1SBcPc7

Fruit Every Day Might Help Your Heart, Researchers Say

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Eating fresh fruit regularly may help prevent heart attacks and strokes, a large study out of China suggests.

Adults who ate fresh fruit, such as apples and oranges, every day had about a one-third reduced risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, compared to those who rarely or never ate fruit, researchers found.

“Fruit consumption is important for your cardiovascular health,” said lead researcher Dr. Liming Li, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, in Beijing.

Study participants who ate fruit most often had lower blood pressure and blood sugar than less frequent fruit eaters, which may account for the reduced risk for heart attacks and strokes, Li said.

Due to the nature of the study, however, it could not prove that fruit consumption caused the lower risk of heart attack and stroke, just that there was an association, Li said.

For the study, Li and colleagues collected data on more than 500,000 adults, ages 30 to 79, between 2004 and 2009. None had a history of heart disease.

Fewer than one in five ate fruit on a daily basis. Over seven years, those who ate the equivalent of roughly a half cup of fruit a day had significantly lower risks of major cardiovascular diseases, the study found.

The report was published April 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Two U.S. experts weighed in on the study findings.

“Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of avoidable and premature death globally,” said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Previous studies have suggested that diets high in fruit are associated with a lower risk of heart disease. However, few of these studies have involved Asian countries, he noted.

“Further studies are needed to determine if eating more fruit will result in meaningful health gains,” Fonarow said.

Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Medical Center, said fruit is a great addition to your diet.

“Fruit is sweet, delicious and readily available,” she said. “It is a terrific source of vitamins, minerals, fiber and other healthy plant compounds.”

Also, she said, “fiber in fruits helps our gastrointestinal tract stay healthy, and other ingredients in fruit help keep our brain cells functioning.”

Fruit is eaten less often in China than in the United States and United Kingdom, and is usually consumed raw, the researchers said.

The most commonly eaten fruits in China are apples, pears and oranges, Li said. America’s favorite fresh fruits are apples and bananas, Heller said.

To get more of the healthful compounds found in fruits, Heller recommends eating a wide variety, including apricots, berries, grapes, kiwis, melons, peaches and tangerines.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers tips for adding fruit to your diet.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1SBcNBe

The Best Meal Kit Services for Healthy Eaters

Photo: Green Chef

“I want to eat healthy, but it’s so time consuming and inconvenient.” If that’s been your excuse, today’s your lucky day: The six services below offer everything from ingredients for nutrient-packed meals to the meals themselves, all prepared and ready to eat. Whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, Paleo, or just looking to eat healthier in general, there’s something here to make your life easier.

Green Chef 

The big idea: Order ingredients for three dinners per week, and then cook the dinners yourself.

The pros: This service ticks all the boxes for healthy, conscious eaters: Ingredients are certified organic, responsibly sourced (fish is wild-caught and beef is grass-fed), and local when possible. Additionally, dietary preferences are honored (whether you’re gluten-free, vegetarian, omnivore, or Paleo), and the packaging is made from recyclable, reusable, or compostable material. Each kit comes with recipe cards with clear instructions as well as images, so they’re simple to follow. And the food is really delicious.

The cons: When we tested Green Chef, sometimes the dishes had one element too many, leading to yet another pot or skillet to clean. What would have been fine at a certain point then required an additional sauce or set of steps that seemed unnecessary. We followed all instructions in the beginning, but by the third meal we just skipped any extra ones. Also, we found the meals to be very protein heavy, even for Paleo. But it was easy to work around this. We had a steak-and-eggs dish, for example, which came with two 5-ounce steaks and two eggs. The steak alone was more than enough protein, so we used the eggs for breakfast. Nothing went to waste.

The cost: $11.99 – $14.99 per person per meal, minimum six meals per box

Purple Carrot

The big idea: Similar to other meal-kit services, except that all the meals are vegan. Sign up for a membership, and every week you get a box with ingredients for three meals for two people or two meals for four people.

The pros: Everything is pre-measured, so you just do some fairly basic prep and then cook. Recipes are mostly developed by Mark Bittman, the former New York Times columnist and multiple cookbook author, with some contributed by chefs. The recipes manage to be familiar and unusual at the same time. For example, when we tested Purple Carrot, tomatoes were not in season, so they substituted grapefruit in a tabouli recipe. It was unexpected, but completely delicious. If “vegan” makes you think of rabbit food, don’t worry: The portions are generous and the meals are very satisfying.

The cons: The recipes we tried tended to be on the starchier side. Plus, the week we tested, one of the recipes included seitan, which isn’t compatible with gluten-free diets.

The cost: $68 (three meals for two people) to $74 per week (two meals for four people)

Terra’s Kitchen

The big idea: Approachable, healthy meal-kit delivery that aims to appeal to a variety of tastes, whether you’re vegetarian, Paleo, or gluten-free (or want a mix).

The pros: The ingredients are responsibly sourced (Terra’s Kitchen lists its purveyors on its web site), and pre-prepped. Since most of the work is already done, meals are ready in 30 minutes or less. You can customize your order, so you’re not locked in to a Paleo or vegetarian plan. Also, everything comes in a box that doubles as a fridge, which the company then comes by to pick up, cutting back on packaging waste. The meals we tried were family-friendly and tasty, and recipe cards include wine-pairing suggestions.

The cons: The meals were a bit heavy and we wanted more greens. For one meal (Garlic & Avocado Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries), we used less of the beef and added a side salad, then used the leftover beef for a different meal. It was delicious, but it took away somewhat from the convenience factor.

The cost: Meals range from $10 to $18 for two servings, with a weekly minimum of $84 per box

Sakara

The big idea: Instead of sending the ingredients, this service sends pre-made meals, all made from nutrient-rich, whole-food, plant-based ingredients.

The pros: All meals are organic and gluten-free, as well as being plant based. They’re loaded with trendy superfoods (hello, reishi mushrooms) and plenty of greens, but they’re really delicious, and not so “out there” that they’re intimidating (for example, a biscuits-and-gravy breakfast included a satisfyingly doughy oat-based biscuit and a rich, flavorful mushroom gravy). Boxes also include small bottles of infused water for morning and night, and detox teas. You can add snacks such as Sakara’s signature energy bars, popcorn and watermelon jerky (!) to your order.

The cons: Portions tend toward the small. We mostly found the meals satisfying, but bigger appetites might need to supplement the meals or add snacks for in-between.

The cost: $82/day for a one-week program (three or five days) or $69/day for a weekly subscription (five days); both include breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus waters and teas

Farmbox Direct

The big idea: This service doesn’t deliver kits or prepared meals; instead, it’s like a CSA. You choose a box size (small, medium, or large) and get seasonal vegetables, fruit, or both delivered to you every week. Juicing kits for red, green, or orange juices are also available.

The pros: Getting top-quality fresh produce doesn’t get more convenient than this. And you get up to five swaps per box, so you don’t have to figure out how to use up a vegetable you hate. The boxes and packing material are recyclable. And they include a recipe card featuring items in the box.

The cons: You give up the experience of going to the farmer’s market and choosing your own produce.

The cost: From $35.95 for a small “all natural” box (that is, not organic) to $61.95 for a large organic box. Juicing boxes are $50.95.

Green Blender

The big idea: Each week, you get five smoothie recipes and the pre-measured ingredients to make them. Most of the ingredients are prepped and blender-ready. The ones that do require work are simple, like peeling an orange or chopping a pear.

The pros: This service takes the fuss out of a daily green smoothie habit. You just do a little bit of prep, toss the all-organic ingredients into your blender, add a little water and ice, and off you go. We liked the flavor combinations we got in our sample box (Tropical Carrot, with carrots, pineapple, pear, goji berries, and hemp seeds, was a favorite); the smoothies were refreshing and tasty, and not overly sweet, as some smoothies can be. Plus, they included some cool superfoods, like fresh turmeric, noni fruit powder and chia seeds. So if you’re curious about some of those foods, you get to try them without buying a whole bag.

The cons: You have to really love smoothies. Five smoothies a week, with each recipe making two 12-ounce servings, is a lot. And you get what you get, there’s no customizing.

The cost: $39 to $49 per week

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/22dlRkT

4 Healthy Tips from a Woman Who Eats for a Living

Photo: Getty Images

To a foodie (or anyone, really), Gail Simmons is living the dream. As a trained culinary expert, critic, cookbook author, and judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, it’s literally her job to eat delectable food on the daily. But let’s face it: Plenty of that food isn’t the healthiest. So how in the world does she stay fit? We caught up with Simmons at the Food & Wine Best New Chefs event to find out her secrets.

Don’t clean your plate

Yes, it’s Simmons’ job to eat, but that doesn’t mean she’s devouring every last morsel of every meal. “You don’t need to finish everything on your plate,” said Simmons. “On Top Chef, it’s all about tasting, not eating the whole dish—I mean, you couldn’t possibly!” she said, laughing. When you dine out, she recommends dividing your meal in two, and either sharing half of it with a friend, or boxing it up for tasty leftovers. When it comes to super decadent food (we’re looking at you, chocolate lava cake), Simmons suggests taking a bite or two for the taste, to avoid going overboard.

RELATED: 12 Weight-Loss Secrets From Celebrity Chefs

Never stop moving

“I feel like if part of my job is to eat, then the other part is to stay healthy,” Simmons said. “I consider it part of my job to exercise.” So she fits in movement whenever possible, by walking to work, for example, or choosing to take the stairs. She’s also serious about prioritizing her gym time. “If it’s not on my schedule to work out, things will come up and I’ll never get a chance.”

Stock a smart pantry

Although she’s bombarded by rich food during the day, Simmons knows super healthy food awaits her at home. “You can’t always control what you’re inundated with by the world every day,” she said. “But you can make a choice about what’s in your fridge and your pantry.” Simmons and her family “don’t bring anything bad into the house”—meaning they keep sugary and processed foods out of sight and out of mind. “Because, if they’re there, we’ll eat them,” she explained. “You don’t want to be too tempted.”

RELATED: 9 Tips From Celebrity Chefs for Heart-Healthy Cooking

Make your healthy meals flavorful

Food doesn’t need to be fussy in order to taste good, Gail explained. When she cooks for her family, she always uses simple, healthy ingredients like grilled vegetables, lean protein, quinoa, and faro. Her key to making those meals delicious and satisfying? Tons of seasoning! Think fresh herbs and spices, lemon juice and vinegar, and plenty of hot sauce. “You want to add things that will up the flavor, but still keep your food healthy,” she said.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1PUINhw

High-Dose Radiation May Be No Better for Low-Risk Prostate Cancer

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Higher doses of radiation may not benefit low-risk prostate cancer patients, a new review suggests.

“In the field of radiation oncology, we often assume that the highest dose that the body can tolerate will be most effective at killing cancer,” said senior study author Dr. Robert Den, a researcher at Thomas Jefferson University’s cancer center in Philadelphia.

“Our results argue that this may not be the case, at least not with lower-risk prostate cancer patients,” Den added in a university news release.

The researchers reviewed 12 studies that assessed the use of external beam radiation treatment for men with localized prostate cancer. The clinical trials included more than 6,800 patients.

As patients received higher doses of radiation, there was a drop in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, which are used to monitor prostate cancer. However, higher doses of radiation did not lead to lower rates of prostate cancer spreading to other parts of the body or higher survival rates over the long-term.

The study was published online recently in the American Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“It’s important to check our assumptions,” said Adam Dicker, chair of radiation oncology at the university’s medical college.

“This study suggests that our reliance on the PSA test as a proxy for patient outcomes may not as useful as many researchers thought,” he said. “This has broad implications for the design of future clinical trials and the interpretation of current and previous studies.”

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about prostate cancer.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1V9WkK8

Women Twice as Likely to Die From Severe Heart Attack, Study Finds

WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women are up to twice as likely as men to die from the most dangerous type of heart attack, a worldwide study finds.

Although death rates have fallen, there are still significant survival differences after what’s called ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), according to the Yale University-led team of investigators.

The study “highlights that there is a gender discrepancy between men and women in mortality outcomes with STEMI,” study first author Hyon Jae Lee said in a Yale news release.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 700,000 STEMI patients in 29 countries and six geographic regions. In all those regions, they found that appropriate treatment was delayed for women and that the in-hospital death rate for women was double that of men. Also, women were 70 percent more likely to die at 30 days, six months and one year after the heart attack.

The findings were presented Monday at an American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago. Until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, the findings should be considered preliminary.

“All countries were affected, even here in the United States and Europe, where there are STEMI initiatives that are meant to optimize care for everybody,” Lee said. “That highlights the need to delve into this question and figure out why women have twofold higher mortality rate than men.”

The gender gap is likely due to differences in awareness about STEMI symptoms, access to care and risk factors, the researchers said. For example, women tend to be older when they suffer this type of heart attack and to have a higher number of other health problems, such as diabetes.

From the time of hospital arrival, compared to men, women experienced an average delay of 5.3 minutes before blood flow to the heart was restored, the researchers discovered. This is significant, they said, noting survival hinges on minimizing treatment time.

More information

The U.S. Office on Women’s Health has more about heart attack.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1V9WktM