FRIDAY, Sept. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Heart disease deaths in Europe and the European Union are dipping but underlying factors may cause heart disease to increase in the near future, according to a new report.

Heart disease now causes 4 million deaths per year in Europe, down from 4.3 million in 2008, which represents a decrease from 48 percent to 47 percent of all deaths in Europe. Within the European Union, heart disease now causes 1.8 million deaths per year, down from 2 million in 2008, which represents a decrease from 42 percent to 40 percent of all deaths, new research shows.

Heart disease hits women especially hard and is the main cause of death for women in each of the 27 European Union countries, and is the leading cause of death for men in all the European Union countries except France, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain.

Death rates from heart disease vary widely among European nations. For example, the number of men who die from heart disease ranges from 60 percent in Bulgaria to 25 percent in France, while the number of women who die from heart disease ranges from 70 percent in Bulgaria to 30 percent in France and the Netherlands, the investigators found.

The report was released by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Heart Network to mark World Heart Day on Sept. 29.

"The drop in [cardiovascular disease] mortality across Europe is due to a range of factors, not just a single initiative. For example, over the last few years we have taken steps to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and to highlight the dangers of smoking. These measures have helped enormously, but at the same time many lifestyle-linked changes, such as increasing obesity and diabetes, will make it harder for us to stand still," ESC president Panos Vardas said in a society news release.

While the report offers good news, it needs to be viewed with caution, the news release indicated.

"Fewer lives are being lost to cardiovascular disease than in 2008. At the same time, the scale of the problem is enormous. [Cardiovascular disease] is still responsible for 4 million European deaths per year. This is a real human tragedy and a significant economic burden. We anticipate this burden will continue to increase in the coming years due to aging populations and unhealthy lifestyles," Vardas said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about heart disease.

THURSDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDay News) -- A diet rich in antioxidants -- especially from fruits and vegetables -- can reduce the risk of heart attack in women, researchers report.

The new study included more than 32,500 Swedish women, aged 49 to 83, who filled out a questionnaire about their eating habits. During 10 years of follow up, more than 1,100 of the women suffered a heart attack.

Women with the highest antioxidant levels had a 20 percent lower risk of heart attack. These women consumed almost seven servings per day of fruits and vegetables, which was nearly three times more than the 2.4 daily servings consumed by those with the lowest antioxidant levels.

The study is published in the October issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

"Our study was the first to look at the effect of all dietary antioxidants in relation to [heart attack]," lead investigator Alicja Wolk, of the nutritional epidemiology division at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, said in a journal news release.

There are numerous types of weight-loss diets, but those that emphasize increased consumption of fruits and vegetables may be the most effective, journal managing editor Pamela Powers Hannley wrote in an accompanying commentary.

"Yet only 14 percent of American adults and 9.5 percent of adolescents eat five or more servings of fruits or vegetables a day," she noted.

Although the research found an association between increased consumption of antioxidants and a lowered risk of heart attack, it did not prove the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about women and heart disease.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Reinforcing the role nutrition plays in heart health, new research suggests that cooking with a combination of sesame oil and rice bran oil can lower mild to moderately high blood pressure.

A small study conducted in New Delhi, India, found that hypertensive adults who added roughly 1.25 ounces of a rice bran/sesame oil mixture to their daily diet experienced a drop in blood pressure nearly equivalent to that experienced by those taking a standard calcium-channel blocker blood pressure medication alone.

And those who consumed both the oil mixture and their blood pressure medication saw a blood pressure drop more than twice that of those taking the drug alone.

The oil combination also seemed to lower so-called "bad" (LDL) cholesterol and raise "good" (HDL) cholesterol, the researchers reported. This cholesterol profile improvement was not found among those taking a medication alone.

"We had previously reported that sesame oil by itself has a strong impact on blood pressure," said study lead author Dr. Devarajan Sankar, a research scientist in the department of cardiovascular disease at Fukuoka University Chikushi Hospital in Chikushino, Japan. They found that sesame oil has a calcium-channel-blocking effect similar to that of calcium-channel-blocker drugs, he said.

"But now, we found that when sesame oil is combined with rice bran oil, the two together have a remarkable synergistic effect on high blood pressure," he said.

The researchers believe this effect is mainly due to antioxidants -- sesamin, sesamol and sesamolin in sesame oil, and oryzanol in rice bran oil. Both oils also contain unsaturated fatty acids -- "what we used to call 'good fats,'" Sankar said.

It's too soon, however, to recommend that anyone forgo their prescribed medication in favor of this cooking-oil combination. The study is preliminary and far more research is needed to prove the findings are valid and ready to benefit patients, experts cautioned.

Sankar and his colleagues are scheduled to report their findings Wednesday in Washington, D.C., at a meeting of the American Heart Association.

The two-month study included 160 men and 140 women with an average age 57 who had high blood pressure. They were divided into three groups: one taking the calcium-channel-blocker medication nifedipine; a second group adding a specially designed (and not commercially available) oil blend to their cooking and salads that included 80 percent physically refined high oryzanol rice bran oil and 20 percent unrefined sesame oil; and a third group that consumed both nifedipine and the oil mix.

After checking blood pressure levels every 15 days, the team found that all patients experienced sizable drops in systolic blood pressure (the top number of a blood pressure reading) and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number).

But those taking both the oil mix and medication fared best. Systolic readings fell 14 and 16 points among those taking the drug alone and oil alone, respectively, but they plunged 36 points among those taking both.

Similarly, diastolic readings fell 11 and 12 points among those taking the drug alone and oil alone, respectively, while the combination group saw a 24-point drop.

Those taking the oil mixture alone or alongside the channel-blocker medication saw a 26 percent to 27 percent drop in bad cholesterol and a 9.5 percent to 10.9 percent rise in good cholesterol.

Sankar said his team plans to explore how the same oil mixture stacks up against other blood pressure medications, such as beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors.

Registered dietitian Lona Sandon, assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said the study "shows the potential power of food and food components."

Findings like these are important, Sandon noted, especially in light of reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding people whose high blood pressure isn't controlled by medication. High blood pressure is a leading cause of stroke.

Still, "while this is very interesting and promising research, [it] has to be looked at further," she said.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a spokesman for the American Heart Association and professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed.

"While it has been well-documented that diet can impact blood pressure, the lowering seen here is way out of proportion to what one might expect," he said. "One problem could be the study design, in which all the patients knew exactly what they were being given, which gives a little pause as to what these findings may mean."

"I would be cautious with any interpretation of these results, and I would certainly like to see them replicated independently," he added.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

For more on high blood pressure, visit the American Heart Association  .

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests a strong association between parental divorce and boys' risk for stroke later in life.

Researchers from the University of Toronto found that boys whose parents divorce before they turn 18 years old are three times more likely to suffer a stroke as adults than men who grow up in intact families. They noted this greater risk of stroke was not the result of other contributing factors such as family violence or parental addiction.

"The strong association we found for males between parental divorce and stroke is extremely concerning," study lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, chair of the university's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, said in a university news release.

Even after adjusting for factors such as race, income and education, and adult health behaviors such as smoking, parental divorce was still associated with a threefold risk of stroke among males, said Fuller-Thomson.

Although the reason why these men seem at greater risk for stroke remains unclear, the study authors suggested it may have something to do with their levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

"It is possible that exposure to the stress of parental divorce may have biological implications that change the way these boys react to stress for the rest of their lives," noted Fuller-Thomson.

Women from divorced families do not face the same increased risk, the researchers found.

Although an association was noted between sons of divorced parents and later stroke risk, the research did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship. More research is needed to confirm their findings, the researchers said.

"If these findings are replicated in other studies, then perhaps health professionals will include information on a patient's parental divorce status to improve targeting of stroke prevention education," said Fuller-Thomson.

The findings are published in the September issue of the International Journal of Stroke.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about stress and health.