Older adults living in long-term care facilities experienced a similar risk of mortality and cardiovascular hospitalizations regardless of whether they were taking intensive or more moderate doses of statins, a retrospective study found.

Clinicians’ personal beliefs about the safety and efficacy of statins play a larger role in their likelihood of prescribing the medications than their knowledge of cholesterol guidelines, according to a study published Jan. 4 in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Smoking hookah could raise users’ risk of developing diabetes or becoming obese, the Telegraph has reported of a study out of Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Early-onset menstruation in women could be a red flag for an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic difficulties later in life, according to a report published in PLOS One.

The extra butter, cream and fats that go into Christmas cooking may raise people’s risk of elevated cholesterol by up to six times immediately following the holidays, suggesting diagnoses of hypercholesterolemia should wait until later in the year, according to a Danish study published in Atherosclerosis.

The 2017 U.S. hypertension guidelines rightly recommend lifestyle modifications for a large proportion of patients with high blood pressure, noted the authors of a new editorial, but those guidelines fall short in addressing exactly how to facilitate those changes.

Hypertensive patients who had periventricular white matter abnormalities progress from one brain scan to the next showed a six-fold increased risk of mild cognitive impairment, researchers reported Jan. 4 in Hypertension.

The Mediterranean diet nudged the DASH diet out of the top spot for the best overall diet of 2019 in rankings released Jan. 2 by U.S. News and World Report. Those two approaches shared the No. 1 billing last year.