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Brr! You're more likely to die of a heart-related problem in the winter, but it's not because of the cold, researchers say.

Winter can kill you. But it’s not the cold or the snow shoveling that will do you in. Whether you live in a typically hot climate like Arizona, or a chillier area like Massachusetts, you’re more likely to succumb to some form of cardiovascular disease during the winter months, researchers reported at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association Tuesday.

Compared to the summer season, people are 26 to 36 percent more likely to die in winter from a heart attack, a stroke, heart failure or some other circulatory disease, says the study’s lead author Dr. Bryan Schwartz, a cardiovascular research fellow at the Heart Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.

Schwartz and his co-author, Dr. Robert Kloner, director of research at the hospital, examined approximately 1.7 million death certificates from 2005 to 2008 from seven U.S. locations that ranged from hot to cold: Texas, Arizona’s Maricopa County, Georgia, California’s Los Angeles County, Washington, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

The researchers were surprised at what they found. No matter where the data were from, the pattern was the same: Many more deaths in the winter than in the summer.

Because low temperatures have often been linked with increased death rates, “we thought the winter peak would be more prominent in cold climates like Massachusetts,” says Schwartz, now a researcher at the University of New Mexico. “But the death rates were similar. That means that temperature is a small factor -- or not a factor at all.”

Then why is winter so deadly? The researchers are uncertain, but influenza and depression are possible causes. Flu season peaks in the winter, Schwartz points out, and during winter’s shorter days, people tend to feel more down and discouraged. They may exercise less and not be as careful about what they eat.

For example, “a patient who already has congestive heart failure might not be as adherent to a low-salt diet. That can be enough to promote fluid retention and worsening heart failure and eventually death.”

That makes sense to Dr. Lee Goldberg, medical director of the heart failure and cardiac transplant center at the University of Pennsylvania.

“People who are depressed are less likely to exercise and take their medications,” he says. “And they’re also more likely to cheat a bit on their diets. “

Depression doesn’t just impact lifestyle, Goldberg says. “When people are depressed there are chemical changes that can increase stress on the cardiovascular system.”

In other words, when it comes to your heart, winter is not the time to be careless.

“You need to take care of your heart 365 days a year,” Goldberg says. “You have to make time for it, regardless of what else is going on.”

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By MyHealthNewsDaily

Even middle-age adults who have seemingly "optimal" heart health may be at risk for heart disease later in life, a new study says.

In the study, about four in 10 men and three in 10 women who had normal blood pressure and cholesterol, did not smoke and did not have diabetes at age 55 developed some type of cardiovascular disease later in life.

The findings highlight "the large public health burden" of cardiovascular disease, the researchers said.

However, those with optimal heart health in middle age tended to live more years of their life free of cardiovascular disease. On average, men and women with optimal heart health at age 45 developed cardiovascular disease between eight and 14 years later than those who had at least two risk factors for heart disease at age 45.

Previous studies have estimated the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease for middle-age adults, but have generally not included heart failure (when the heart does not pump enough blood to the rest of the body) or hemorrhagic stroke (a stroke caused by a burst blood vessel in the brain) as a type of cardiovascular disease.

The new study aimed to fill this gap. The researchers analyzed information from population studies, including the Framingham Heart Study, which was conducted between 1964 and 2008. Participants did not have cardiovascular disease at the study's start.

Between 2 and 8 percent of participants, depending on the age group considered, were in optimal heart health. In contrast, more than half of participants at any age had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Overall, about 60 percent of men and 56 percent of women would develop cardiovascular disease at some point after age 55, the study found. For those who were in optimal heart health at age 55, 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women would develop the disease.

The study will be published Nov. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Measuring blood pressure in both the right and left arm may be an effective way of catching a silent but serious disease of the blood vessels, a new review says.

The findings showed that a difference in systolic blood pressure between the arms was linked with an increased risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD), a condition that involves a narrowing of the arteries in the extremities, particularly the legs and feet.

When researchers examined study participants' systolic blood pressure readings, those who had a difference between their right and left arms of 15 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or more were 2.5 times more likely to have PAD than those who had a smaller difference between their arms, the researchers said. Systolic blood pressure is the "top" number in a blood pressure reading.

Early detection of PAD is important — while the majority of cases are silent, if the condition is detected, measures can be taken to reduce morality from related cardiovascular disease.

The findings support the need for it to become the norm to take blood pressure readings from both arms, said study researcher Dr. Christopher Clark, of Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Such tests could identify patients without symptoms at high risk for PAD who would benefit from further assessment or treatment, they say.

The researchers reviewed 28 studies that measured blood pressure in both arms of participants. The studies typically included patients at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the researchers noted.

In addition to an increased risk of PAD, a 15mm Hg blood pressure difference between arms was also associated with a 70 percent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 60 percent increased risk of dying from any cause.

Which arm has the higher pressure can vary between individuals, but it is the size of the difference that counts, not which arm is higher and which is lower, the researchers said.

More work is needed to determine whether a substantial difference in blood pressure between arms should prompt aggressive management of cardiovascular risk factors, Richard McManus, of the University of Oxford, and Jonathan Mant, of the University of Cambridge, both in the United Kingdom, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.

"Ascertainment of differences should become part of routine care, as opposed to a guideline recommendation that is mostly ignored," McManus and Mant wrote.

The study and editorial will be published tomorrow (Jan. 30) in the journal the Lancet.

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