HHS HealthBeat (March 01, 2006)

Double danger.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A heart attack is sometimes followed by a stroke, and a study finds the risk of the stroke is higher in the first month or two after the heart attack.

Dr. Veronique Roger of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, looked at data on more than 2,000 heart attack patients. Her study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Roger says doctors and patients should take heed that patients who had a stroke after a heart attack were three times more likely to die than were patients who only had a heart attack.

She also stresses what people can do to reduce the risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke:

"Individuals need to stop smoking, need to exercise regularly, and need to watch their diet, aiming at a minimal fat content." (six seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August, 15 2006