Cholesterol & heart
Regular cannabis users had 9% fewer extra heartbeats on days they were randomly assigned to inhale
UC San Francisco cardiologists set out to test whether cannabis adds extra heartbeats. In 108 regular users the count fell instead, and the team warns that is no evidence cannabis is good for the heart.
Sep 14, 2026
Hormone therapy for hot flashes tied to lower heart risk when started within 10 years of menopause
University of Pittsburgh and Virginia Commonwealth University researchers tracked 2,737 women with hot flashes for 20 years. Starting hormones went with a fifth fewer heart events, but the authors warn against taking them for the heart.
Sep 14, 2026
One in three patients with chest pain and clear arteries had a hidden circulation problem
An angiogram showing open arteries is usually treated as reassurance. Measuring the smaller vessels in 1,003 patients found a third had dysfunction, and it tracked worse outcomes.
Sep 8, 2026
Pacemakers outperformed catheter ablation for irregular heart rhythm in patients over 75
Catheter ablation is the standard offer for persistent atrial fibrillation, and it works less well the older the patient. Randomizing 196 people with a median age of 82 tested the blunter alternative.
Sep 8, 2026
A newer heart rhythm ablation method carried a higher 30-day stroke risk than the older one
Pulsed field ablation spread fast on the promise of being safer than burning tissue. A single-center registry comparing it against radiofrequency found more strokes and mini-strokes at 30 days.
Sep 8, 2026
After a heart valve replacement, a blood thinner beat aspirin by nearly half
Aspirin is the default after a valve is fitted through a catheter, on the reasoning that anything stronger bleeds. Randomizing 360 patients found the stronger drug both worked better and did not bleed more.
Sep 7, 2026
A statin alternative cut serious leg artery events by 36% in people who cannot take statins
Peripheral artery disease ends in amputation often enough that limb outcomes are the ones patients care about, and cholesterol trials rarely report them. This one did, in 1,624 patients who could not tolerate statins.
Sep 6, 2026
Left-side breast radiotherapy raised heart risk only in women who already had three risk factors
Radiotherapy to the left breast puts the heart in the field, and modern technique was supposed to have solved it. Across 23,305 women, the residual harm turned out to sit almost entirely in one group.
Sep 6, 2026
A cholesterol drug cut deaths from any cause by 20% in people who had never had a heart attack
Cholesterol drugs are judged on heart attacks and strokes, and rarely move the count of deaths at all. Across 12,301 people with no prior event, this one moved it, and moved deaths that had nothing to do with the heart.
Sep 6, 2026
Heat and wildfire smoke together tracked more heart deaths than either alone
Heat waves and smoke days are studied as separate hazards and increasingly arrive on the same day. Across 5.9 million cardiovascular deaths in six countries, the overlap was worse than adding the two together.
Sep 4, 2026
Mediterranean living tracked half the heart deaths in adults with type 2 diabetes
The Mediterranean diet is sold as a shopping list. This index scored the rest of it too, including naps and eating with other people, and all three parts of the score pulled in the same direction.
Sep 2, 2026
Flu vaccination tracked 20% less new atrial fibrillation across 276,888 matched adults
Flu is known to trigger heart events, but whether the shot affects heart rhythm was untested. A European Heart Journal team matched 276,888 adults on 65 characteristics and found the vaccinated developed less irregular heartbeat.
Sep 1, 2026
Pushing potassium to the top of the normal range cut atrial fibrillation events by a third in a trial
A low-normal potassium level is usually left alone. In 1,200 patients with implanted defibrillators, deliberately raising it by 0.3 mmol/L cut hospital admissions and treatments for atrial fibrillation over three years.
Aug 31, 2026
Digital nudges lifted statin refills from 12% to 14%, and a second nudge worked as well as the first
Health systems send reminders constantly and rarely test them. A JAMA trial randomized 20,604 patients who had stopped refilling statins, then re-randomized everyone who ignored the first message, and found repeating beat switching channel.
Aug 31, 2026
A raised heart-strain marker that came back down carried no extra risk eight years later
Most risk markers are measured once and treated as a verdict. An Annals of Internal Medicine analysis of 8,454 adults measured one twice, three years apart, and people whose reading normalized ended up where those who never had it did.
Aug 30, 2026
Stroke patients who hit the cholesterol target but had not halved it still had 12% more repeat events
Stroke guidelines set an absolute cholesterol target and stop there. A Neurology analysis of 89,414 Korean patients found the size of the fall from baseline mattered independently, and only about 30% achieved a 50% reduction.
Aug 30, 2026
People given the newer shingles vaccine had 9% less heart disease over the next seven years
A Nature Medicine team used America's abrupt switch from the live to the recombinant shingles vaccine as a natural experiment in adults over 60. Heart disease, heart failure and atrial fibrillation were all lower seven years on.
Aug 30, 2026
Treating gum disease lowered blood pressure by 4.64 mmHg across 12 randomized trials
A Journal of Periodontology meta-analysis pooled 12 randomized trials of periodontal therapy. Systolic pressure fell 4.64 mmHg, diastolic 1.84, and C-reactive protein dropped alongside them. Evidence certainty was moderate to low.
Aug 28, 2026
Brisk walking lowered blood pressure, but the benefit peaked near 460 MET-minutes a week
17 trials and 1,493 people with high blood pressure. Brisk walking lowered both numbers, and the systolic dose-response curve turned back on itself: around 460 MET-minutes a week was the peak, and more did less.
Aug 25, 2026
Endometriosis tracked more blood clots, from a low base
A Danish registry compared 63,999 women with endometriosis against 255,996 matched women. Clots ran at 2.18 per 1,000 women a year against 1.54, which is about one extra clot a year for every 1,500 women.
Aug 17, 2026
Flossing tracked 23% fewer strokes in 98,866 Korean adults followed for nine years
A Korean study followed 98,866 adults for nine years. Those who brushed twice daily and used floss and interdental brushes had 23% fewer ischemic strokes. Nobody has ever run a trial that randomizes people to floss.
Aug 17, 2026
Weight lost early in prediabetes still counted 34 years on
The Da Qing study followed 540 Chinese adults with impaired glucose tolerance for 34 years. Those who lost at least 5% of their weight in the first six years later had a third fewer deaths and half as many heart failure admissions.
Aug 14, 2026
Heart deaths halved since 1990. The causes swapped places.
A JAMA Cardiology analysis of US deaths from 1990 to 2023 found the heart disease death rate down 58.7%, with smoking and air pollution receding as causes while high body weight and blood sugar climbed.
Aug 3, 2026
Loneliness tracked heart and metabolic disease across 33 countries
Pooling six aging cohorts covering 81,978 people, researchers found loneliness preceded cardiometabolic disease, and unhealthy habits explained only 5% of the link.
Aug 1, 2026
COVID vaccine tied to fewer heart events in over-75s
A JAMA Internal Medicine study of 1,039,659 US veterans found the 2024-2025 COVID vaccine tracked with fewer heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths, with the benefit concentrated in the oldest.
Jul 28, 2026
Black women developed high blood pressure 9.6 years earlier
A JAMA Network Open study of 15,313 US women found Black women developed hypertension nearly a decade earlier than White women, and the gap persisted regardless of neighborhood conditions.
Jul 27, 2026
Losing 15% early after a diabetes diagnosis cut complications
A Diabetes Care study of 72,480 UK patients found those who lost at least 15% of their weight within two years of a type 2 diabetes diagnosis had fewer heart and kidney complications later.
Jul 26, 2026
Obesity's metabolic risk gap has narrowed in older adults
A Lancet analysis of 978,425 people across seven countries found blood pressure and cholesterol in older adults with obesity now often match those at normal weight, largely because more of them are medicated.
Jul 26, 2026
Childhood fruit juice tracks with high blood pressure at 36
A Circulation study followed 25,749 Americans from age 12 to age 36 and found daily sugary drinks and daily fruit juice both tracked with higher rates of high blood pressure, while whole fruit did not.
Jul 25, 2026
Loneliness was tied to a higher risk of heart valve disease
Across 462,917 UK Biobank adults tracked for about 14 years, those who felt lonely had a higher risk of degenerative heart valve disease. Living alone or being socially isolated did not carry the same risk.
Jul 23, 2026
Heart attack patients carried more microplastics in blood
Italian researchers measured plastic particles in the coronary blood of 61 angiography patients. They turned up far more often in heart attack patients, though smoking history predicted their presence better than the heart attack.
Jul 23, 2026
Why apoB may be a better cholesterol test than LDL
A Northwestern simulation of 250,000 statin-eligible US adults found guiding treatment by apoB, a count of harmful cholesterol particles, prevented more heart attacks and strokes than standard LDL goals. It is a projection, not a trial.
Jul 22, 2026
Ultra-processed food tied to 19% higher heart-death risk
An Australian study followed 39,544 adults for a median of 25 years. Those eating the most ultra-processed food were more likely to die of cardiovascular disease, even after accounting for sugar, salt and diet quality. A link, not proof.
Jul 21, 2026