Heart disease remains the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, resulting in 700,000 to 800,000 deaths annually. Historically, men are at higher risk, developing cardiovascular disease roughly seven to 10 years earlier than women, with risks rising as early as age 35.

More bad news: A new study analyzing data from 2011 to 2022 found the number of deaths after first hospitalization for a severe heart attack increased significantly among men and women ages 18-54.

Women were more likely than men to die after a first heart attack. They were also more likely to have nontraditional risk factors, such as low income, kidney disease and non-tobacco drug use than men.

Traditional risk factors include high blood pressure or high cholesterol. See "Get Me That, Stat!" below for more heartrending news.

Body of Knowledge

Some interesting research suggests the pupil of the human eye responds to more than just changing light stimuli. It dilates to unexpected sounds, emotional stress and mental exertion. In the last case, researchers found that the pupils of more intelligent people (based on SAT scores) dilated less in response to cognitive tasks than those of lower-scoring participants.

Get Me That, Stat!

High cholesterol isn't just an issue for adults. In a survey of children and adolescents from August 2021 to August 2023, 16.5% had at least one abnormal cholesterol measure, with boys having abnormal readings more often than girls.

High cholesterol (particularly LDL or "bad" cholesterol) poses major risks by building up as plaque on artery walls, known as atherosclerosis, which restricts blood flow. This can lead to serious cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes and peripheral arterial disease.

It's estimated that roughly 8%-9% of U.S. adults (18 million to 22 million) suffer from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Approximately half of all U.S. adults (roughly 127 million) have some form of cardiovascular disease, which includes hypertension, with higher prevalence in men and persons age 60 and older.

Mark Your Calendar

May is awareness month for ALS, arthritis, blood clots, cystic fibrosis, hepatitis, lupus, asthma and allergy, celiac disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, stroke, preeclampsia and skin cancer. It's also National Nurses Month; they apparently are quite busy in May.

Doc Talk

Proctalgia fugax: Latin for, quite literally, a pain in the butt. It typically refers to muscle spasms of the derriere with no identifiable cause.

Phobia of the Week

Caligynephobia: Fear of beautiful women. The term combines three Greek words: calos, meaning good or beautiful; gyne, meaning woman; and phobos, meaning fear. An alternative term is venustraphobia, which combines Venus, the Roman goddess of beauty, love and sexuality, with phobos.

Life in Big Macs

One hour of carrying groceries upstairs burns 510 calories (based on a 150-pound person), the equivalent of 0.7 Big Macs.

Best Medicine

Four little-known food "facts" about calories during the upcoming holidays:

1. If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories.

2. When you eat with someone else, your calories don't count if the other person eats more than you.

3. Cookie pieces contain no calories because the breaking process causes calorie leakage.

4. Foods of the same color have the same calorie count, i.e., spinach and pistachio ice cream, or mushrooms and mashed potatoes.

Observation

"Doctors think a lot of patients are cured who have simply quit in disgust." — American humorist Don Herold (1889-1966)

Medical History

This week in 1963, the world's first human liver transplant was performed in the United States by Dr. Thomas E. Starzl at a Denver hospital. His patient, a 48-year-old man, survived for 22 days.

Today, there is an 85%-90% one-year survival rate for liver transplants, with 70%-80% of patients still alive five years later. It is not uncommon for organ recipients to live for decades with their transplant.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously and even harder to ignore.

In 1995, the Ig Nobel Prize in psychology went to three researchers at Keio University in Japan for their success in training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet.

That was easier than teaching them to remember Picasso's full birth name: Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.

Med School

Q: What does your spleen do?

A: The spleen is an organ located between the stomach and diaphragm. It helps produce immune responses and filters old blood cells. It's also a place where immune cells congregate. Though these cells are spread throughout the body, they sometimes need to talk with one another, which they do when meeting in the spleen or in lymph nodes.

A person can live without a spleen, but their immune system is substantially impaired. Some people have a second spleen, called an accessory spleen, that is very small but may grow and function when the main spleen is removed.

Curtains Call

John of Luxembourg (1296-1346) was the king of Bohemia and titular king of Poland. He was also known as John the Blind. (He lost his vision around age 39 due to ophthalmia, severe inflammation of the eye.) During the Battle of Crecy, John commanded his companions to tie their horses' reins to his own and charge, apparently not seeing his demise coming.

Last Words

"Doctor, do you think it could have been the sausage?" — French poet Paul Claudel (1868-1955). Claudel reportedly died of a heart attack, so the cause of death is more likely many sausages.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: camilo jimenez at Unsplash