Healthy Hands, Healthy Heart???

Have you ever heard of the Framingham Heart Study? It is an ongoing study,authored by he National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute beginning in 1948. As per the study's website, the objective of the study was to identify the common characteristics of cardiovascular disease. This study has followed many people over the course of their lifetimes to give more insight to heart disease and what can be done to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Recent news from this study shows that cardiovascular events overall, including congestive heart disease and atherothrombotic brain infarcts occur more often in patients radio graphic or symptomatic osteoarthritis of the hands (18 per 1,000 person-years) than in those who without OA (8 per 1,000). Some suggest that this is possibly due to higher use of NSAID drugs (ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.) in this population, but the jury is still out as to the exact relationship of the two health conditions.

You can read an article about this findings by clicking here.

Sources: Framingham Heart Study, Med Page Today,wikimedia

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