New research links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly. The study is published in the January 3, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"The new aspect of this study of memory loss in the elderly is that it examines silent strokes and hippocampal shrinkage simultaneously," said study author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

A hike in your blood pressure during middle age significantly raises the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke during your lifetime, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. The study offers a new understanding on the importance of maintaining low blood pressure early in middle age to prevent heart disease later in life.

Men and women who developed high blood pressure in middle age or who started out with high blood pressure had an estimated 30 percent increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to those who kept their blood pressure low.

A new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer's disease, based on the findings of a study published in PLoS one.

When given to mice with Alzheimer's, the drug, known as J147, improved memory and prevented brain damage caused by the disease. The new compound, developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, could be tested for treatment of the disease in humans in the near future.

Chewing the natural stimulant khat increases the risk of death and stroke in patients with heart disease compared to those who are not users, according to new research in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Since ancient times, people in the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa have chewed the fresh leaves of the Catha edulis plant which has effects similar to amphetamines and cocaine. It causes euphoria, hyperactivity, restlessness, loss of appetite and weight loss.

Young football players may be at higher risk for stroke, according to a new study released in Journal of Child Neurology (JCN), published by SAGE.

Researchers Dr. Jared R. Brosch and Dr. Meredith R. Golomb looked at various case studies of football players in their teens that suffered a stroke and found some potential causes for strokes in young football athletes. Some of those potential risks include:

Swedish women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet had fewer strokes regardless of whether they had a previous history of cardiovascular disease, in a study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"Eating antioxidant-rich foods may reduce your risk of stroke by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammation," said Susanne Rautiainen, M.Sc., the study's first author and Ph.D. student at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. "This means people should eat more foods such as fruits and vegetables that contribute to total antioxidant capacity."

A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Vanderbilt University and elsewhere have demonstrated that high blood pressure and anemia together put children with sickle cell disease (SCD) at serious danger for symptomless or so-called "silent" strokes, although either condition alone also signaled high risk.

The results are part of an ongoing NIH-funded international multicenter trial, believed to be the largest study of its kind to date in children with SCD. A report on the findings is published online in the journal Blood.

While previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiency to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, new research at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute shows that too much vitamin D can lead to the onset of a dangerous heart condition known as atrial fibrillation.

Researchers at Intermountain Medical Center, the flagship facility for the Intermountain Healthcare system, studied more than 132,000 patients and found the risk of developing atrial fibrillation was two and a half times greater in those with excess levels of vitamin D compared to patients with normal levels.

Professional tooth scaling was associated with fewer heart attacks and strokes in a study (Abstract 17704) from Taiwan presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

Among more than 100,000 people, those who had their teeth scraped and cleaned (tooth scaling) by a dentist or dental hygienist had a 24 percent lower risk of heart attack and 13 percent lower risk of stroke compared to those who had never had a dental cleaning. The participants were followed for an average of seven years.

Having a transient ischemic attack (TIA), or "mini stroke," can reduce your life expectancy by 20 percent, according to a new study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"People experiencing a TIA won't die from it, but they will have a high risk of early stroke and also an increased risk of future problems that may reduce life expectancy," said Melina Gattellari, Ph.D., senior lecturer at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine in The University of New South Wales, Sydney and Ingham Institute in Liverpool, Australia.

"Our findings suggest that patients and doctors should be careful to intensely manage lifestyle and medical risk factors for years after a transient ischemic attack."