Dallas, Texas - Prolonged exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation increased the risk of hypertension, according to a study of workers at a nuclear plant in Russia published in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension.

Dallas, Texas - The majority of stroke survivors are not screened or treated for osteoporosis, broken bones, or fall risk - despite stroke being a risk factor for these conditions. The risk is up to four times greater than in healthy people, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

Washington, DC - People with good vision despite having center-involved diabetic macular edema can safely forego immediate treatment of their eye condition as long as they are closely monitored, and treatment begins promptly if vision worsens, according to clinical trial results. The findings are published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Washington, DC - Two proteins that bind to stress hormones work together to maintain a healthy heart in mice, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators. These proteins, stress hormone receptors known as the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), act in concert to help support heart health. When the signaling between the two receptors is out of balance, the mice have heart disease.

Washington, DC - Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is usually very effective at suppressing HIV in the body, allowing a person’s immune system to recover by preventing the virus from destroying CD4+ T cells (link is external). Scientists have now identified a rare, paradoxical response to ART known as extreme immune decline, or EXID. Five individuals evaluated at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, experienced a significant decline in CD4+ T cell levels despite suppression of HIV below detectable levels for more than three years, according to a report published online today in JCI Insight.

Washington, DC - As we continue to address the troubling epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, we’ve committed to employing a number of tools as part of our Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan to ensure no tobacco products are being marketed to, sold to, or used by kids. We’ve taken a series of escalating enforcement actions. We’ve launched public education campaigns to warn youth about the dangers of e-cigarette and other tobacco product use. And most recently, we advanced new policies aimed at preventing youth access to, and appeal of, flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and cigars.