Bacteria may cause heart disease: Study

Bacteria could be the new villains in heart diseasesViruses and bacteria could kill you, but they can't set off heart attacks, right? Doctors aren't so sure. Scary association of contagion and the big killers cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease have been drawn for a long time.Now a growing body of research is finding links between germs and diseases traditionally considered non-infectious. It's supported by the fact that heart disease, cancer and other biggies often come unannounced, with none of the conventional signals of trouble. A recent study by an India-born Briton reveals how patients with Chlamydia pneumoniaeae, a common bacterium which causes respiratory infections like pneumonia, had four times the risk of being hit by a variety of cardiac events, from myocardial infarction, coronary arterial sclerosis and angina. Bacteria could come to be regarded as triggers for heart disease, just like cigarette smoking.Studies in the recent past have already linked Hepatitis B with the possibility of liver cancer, a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori with peptic ulcers and stomach cancer, and microbes with diabetes. Dr Sandeep Gupta of the cardiological sciences department of St George's Hospital Medical School in London, says his study "is a further piece in the jigsaw". Experts caution that the study isn't enough to show that bacteria can cause heart disease..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}But preliminary studies at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have already shown linkages between germs and heart disease. "In fact, infection and nutritional deficiencies need to be looked at very carefully as triggers of heart disease," says Srinath Reddy, senior cardiologist at AIIMS. Let's hope they're wrong.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 1, 1997--- ENDS ---

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Bacteria may cause heart disease: Study

Viruses and bacteria could kill you, but they can't set off heart attacks, right? Doctors aren't so sure. Scary association of contagion and the big killers cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease have been drawn for a long time.

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