Scientists have been intrigued for some time by statistics indicating heart attacks are likelier in the morning than at night or at different times of the week, such as Mondays.
Now comes the suggestion that heart attacks happen more often in winter than other seasons.
Reporting in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, doctors from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center found a statistically significant higher heart attack rate during winter when analyzing a registry that included nearly 260,000 attacks.
Just why such seasonal variations might exist isn’t known. The notion that people keel over from exertion while shoveling snow doesn’t hold up, said Dr. Frederick A. Spencer, the study’s lead author, “because in the Southwest, it’s not cold and there’s no snow to shovel,” but the seasonal figures hold up anyway.
“We have to look at factors that change seasonally in all the areas of the United States. One possible candidate would be the change of light with each season,” Spencer said.
MALE COLOGNE A TURN-ON
Women thinking about sex apparently become more aroused when they are smelling male cologne, researchers at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute report.
The study involved 33 women between 19 and 45 who were exposed to different fragrances under varying conditions. The choices included men’s cologne, women’s perfume and no odor at all.
In some tests the woman watched pornographic movies and in others they were asked to fantasize about erotic experiences. While the porn and the women’s perfume had no discernible effect, most women who fantasized found their experience intensified by smelling male cologne, the researchers said.
SKEPTICAL LOOK AT BUNGEE CORDS
Bungee cords that snap up to hit a user in the eye can pose serious future vision problems, researchers at Ohio State University warn.
Bungee cords are elastic devices that typically come with metal or plastic hooks on the end and are used to secure equipment. Four patients at Ohio State had suffered eye injuries from getting smacked by errant cord hooks.
“All four patients had some degree of tearing in the front part of the eye, which puts them at higher risk for the rest of their lives of developing glaucoma,” Dr. Louis Chorich, clinical assistant professor in ophthalmology, wrote in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. “Glaucoma can require a lifetime of medications and even surgery and can lead to blindness if not controlled.”
IMPROVED ASTHMA CONTROL
An imaging technology usually associated with brain research has been used to demonstrate that the way in which asthma drugs are delivered can greatly affect the efficacy of the medication.
In a report to a meeting in Chicago of the American Lung Association, researchers showed images made by positron emission tomography, or PET, that suggest a certain type of asthma delivery system increases the amount of medication reaching the lungs by 180 percent.
PET traces the path of positively charged electrons or positrons released in a person’s system. In the asthma study, PET images of the lungs were used.
The study, conducted by doctors at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals in Cleveland, demonstrated that asthma medication is more effective when it passes through a chamber that reduces its velocity to provide a gentle mist of particles. The chamber is known as a spacer.
Last year the National Institutes of Health updated guidelines for asthma treatment and encouraged physicians to use equipment with spacers to improve inhalation of medication and reduce side effects.
