Heart matters

Living alone is not good

LONDON: People who live alone could face higher risk of severe heart disease as they are more susceptible to unhealthy lifestyles, say researchers from Aarhus Sygeus University, Denmark. They studied population data on over 138,000 adults living in the Aarhus area and found that people who live alone often have poor support systems and many lead unhealthy lifestyles. Habits like smoking and a poor diet were found to be more common among those who lived alone, and the reasons for increased risk, reported the online edition of BBC News.

Age and living alone were the strongest factors for predicting someone would develop one of the heart conditions. Women aged over 60 who lived alone made up just over 5 per cent of the population, but accounted for a third of all deaths from the syndrome within 30 days of diagnosis. Lone men aged over 50 comprised just under 8 per cent of the population, but accounted for two thirds of deaths from the syndrome within 30 days of diagnosis.

Eyes say it all

LONDON: Your eyes could help predict if you are at increased risk to cardiac danger, says a new study. Researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia, studied over 3,600 persons over the age of 49 and found that checking the width of blood vessels in the eyes could help identify people at increa-sed risk of dying from heart disease, reported health portal HealthDay News.

The researchers used retinal photography to measure the diameter of the small arteries (arterioles) and small veins (venules) of the people. During the nine-year study, 78 women and 114 men died from coronary heart disease. For those aged 49 to 75, the risk of death from coronary heart disease was doubled if they had wider eye venules. They also found that among women aged 49 to 75, narrower arterioles were associated with a 50 per cent increased risk of death from coronary heart disease. — HNS