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Adults who use proton pump inhibitors such as Prevacid, Nexium and Prilosec are between 16 and 21 percent more likely to experience a heart attack than people who don’t use the commonly prescribed antacid drugs, according to a massive new study by Houston Methodist and Stanford University scientists.

An examination of 16 million clinical documents representing 2.9 million patients also showed that patients who use a different type of antacid drug called an H2 blocker have no increased heart attack risk. The findings, reported in PLOS ONE, follow a Circulation report in 2013 in which scientists showed how — at a molecular level — PPIs might cause long-term cardiovascular disease and increase a patient’s heart attack risk.
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Researchers at the Salk Institute have found a way to heal damaged hearts, though the new discovery refers to physical cardiac damage, not the emotional kind.

Scientists have managed to repair the injured hearts of living mice by reactivating long dormant molecular machinery found in the animals’ cells, a finding that could help pave the way to new therapies for heart disorders in humans.
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The health benefits of eating dark chocolate have been extolled for centuries, but the exact reason has remained a mystery –– until now. Researchers reported recently that certain bacteria in the stomach gobble the chocolate and ferment it into anti-inflammatory compounds that are good for the heart.

Their findings were unveiled at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The meeting, attended by thousands of scientists, features more than 10,000 reports on new advances in science and other topics.
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When men donate sperm, they might worry about the results, but should people be concerned about receiving an organ donation from a deceased murderer? Surprisingly, a number of them are.

BBC News reports that neuroscientist Bruce Hood discovered this after surveying 20 students about how they would feel about such a donor if they needed a heart transplant in order to save their lives and was surprised at the result: “Essentially they believe they will somehow take on those characteristics of the donor.”
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