Former NBA player Clifford Rozier dies at 45 after heart attack

BRADENTON, Fla.  — Former NBA player Clifford Rozier has died following a heart attack. He was 45.

Rozier’s brother, Kobie Rozier, posted on Facebook that Clifford Rozier had been fighting for his life for the last few days but succumbed to his condition Friday in his hometown of Bradenton, Florida.

Rozier was the 16th overall pick of the 1994 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors. He played four seasons with the Warriors, the Toronto Raptors and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Rozier played college ball at North Carolina and Louisville.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Study links HIV infection to heart attack risk

WASHINGTON—Being HIV-positive raises a person’s heart attack risk by about 50 percent, said a study released Monday that confirms earlier findings.

The study looked at 82,459 US veterans, the vast majority of them men. It was published in Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It said that in three age groups, the average incidence of heart attack was consistently and significantly higher for people who are HIV-positive, compared to uninfected veterans.


After adjusting for illness, smoking, alcohol consumption and risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, the HIV-positive subjects in the study had a 50 percent higher risk of heart attack than uninfected people.

The research was led by Matthew Freiberg of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Several studies have shown that chronic activation of the immune system because of HIV infection prior to antiretroviral therapy seems to cause inflammation that apparently speeds up the aging process and leaves a person more vulnerable to illnesses associated with growing older.

A study published in July by the JAMA showed that people who are HIV-positive have twice the risk of heart attack or stroke compared to uninfected people. The authors of that study linked this increased risk to inflammation of the arteries.

source: business.inquirer.net

Comedian Gallagher hospitalized after suffering heart attack

The comedian Gallagher is hospitalized in stable condition after suffering a heart attack at a Texas bar before going on stage for a show.

Gallagher's promotional manager, Christine Scherrer, says the 65-year-old is sedated and "slowly recovering" after collapsing Wednesday night.

Marc Cummins, the manager of Coach Joe's Hat Tricks, says says the club's promotions director performed CPR on Gallagher before paramedics arrived.

Last March, the comedian best known for smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer suffered a minor heart attack after collapsing during a performance in Minnesota. His full name is Leo Anthony Gallagher.

source: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/03/15/comedian-gallagher-hospitalized-after-suffering-heart-attack/

R.I.P. Karl Roy

Kapatid Frontman Karl Roy is dead. He died at the age of 43. Karl Roy, a music icon, former vocalist of a well known early 90's band Advent Call and P.O.T.

Another icon in the music industry has passed away. Karl Roy died early Tuesday morning, March 13, at 1:01 a.m. (Manila Time). The news was confirmed by a Facebook message from Kathryn Roy, Karl's sister.

Kathryn wrote.

"Please continue to pray for Karl. He brought so much joy to others but, unfortunately, did not have enough of it in this life. He's in a better place now, with Lolo Pepe, Lola Conching and Daddy," she added.



According to reports, Karl Roy's real cause of death was complications due to pneumonia and he was brought to a hospital recently after allegedly having been diagnosed with Pulmonary Edema-fluid accumulation in the lungs.



Karl Roy is really a great great inspiration and i'm pretty sure the music industry will mourn the passing of a legend.

Thanks for the Great Music, inspiration, thanks for the brotherhood.....
Rest well, KAPATID. Your music will be missed on Earth but will live on Forever!

Paris study: Air pollution tied to higher heart attack risk

Breathing in dirty air may be linked to a higher chance of suffering a heart attack a few days afterward, according to a French analysis of past studies.

Researchers led by Hazrije Mustafic from the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center found that heart attacks were slightly more common at high levels of every main pollutant except ozone, the group reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

They looked at 34 studies comparing the risk of suffering a heart attack, or myocardial infarction, at various levels of inhaling industrial and traffic-related air pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and very small soot-like particles.

The reports included anywhere from about 400 to more than 300,000 people, with heart attacks that were confirmed in hospital records and disease and death registries.

"All the main air pollutants, with the exception of ozone, were significantly associated with a near-term increase in myocardial infarction risk," they wrote.

For most of the pollutants, an increase in concentration of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air – the typical standard used to assess harm, and barely noticeable to a person breathing the air – was associated with a one to three percent increase in the chance of having a heart attack in the next week.

"Even if the relative risks are low compared with traditional risk factors such as smoking status or hypertension or diabetes, in fact everybody is exposed to air pollution in industrialized countries," Mustafic told Reuters Health, so even small effects can add up.

When people inhale polluted air, small particles can reach the tiny sacs in the lungs and be carried in the bloodstream to the heart, she said.

Pollutants may also affect blood vessels' ability to expand and contract in order to keep blood pressure constant -- an effect that researchers blame for increasing evidence that high-pollution days are also tied to a person's risk of suffering a stroke.

"If you put together the evidence, clearly day-to-day changes in particle concentration do make a very small but significant difference in terms of increasing susceptibility for cardiovascular events," said Sanjay Rajagopalan, who studies pollution and cardiovascular health at The Ohio State University in Columbus.

"This seems to be particularly so for individuals with pre-existing heart disease," he told Reuters Health, adding that at-risk people should minimize exposure to pollutants as much as possible. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com