A GOOD cry, a big tub of ice cream and the support of our friends and family will help most of us get over a broken heart.<\/p>\n
Heart failure is another matter and in that case ice cream wont help.<\/p>\n
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But for the near-million of us who are living with the condition, there is reason to be hopeful this Valentines Day.<\/p>\n
Trailblazing scientists are working on a number of new approaches, including helping hearts to self-heal using groundbreaking regenerative medicine.<\/p>\n
This could be great news for the 920,000 people in the country living with heart failure and suffering symptoms including breathlessness, tiredness, dizziness and extreme exhaustion after exercise.<\/p>\n
Heart failure is most commonly caused by a heart attack, high blood pressure or inherited conditions.<\/p>\n
It occurs when part of the heart is damaged and struggles to pump blood around the body. The condition can affect anyone but men over 65 are especially susceptible.<\/p>\n
Now the British Heart Foundation is aiming to raise 3million to enable researchers to push the boundaries of medicine by finding ways to teach the heart to repair itself.<\/p>\n
Professor Metin Avkiran, the foundations associate medical director, says: Unlocking these secrets could help heal hearts and transform the outcomes for people living with devastating heart failure.<\/p>\n
And they are planning to mend our damaged hearts with the help of mice, zebrafish...and a little bit of cloning.<\/p>\n
Sign up to be part of Team BHF and take on the 2022 TCS London Marathon either with a ballot or BHF charity place here: bhf.org.uk\/londonmarathon2022<\/p>\n
IN futuristic labs up and down the country, scientists are growing new heart cells and tissue from scratch.<\/p>\n
Professor Stefan Hoppler and his team at the University of Aberdeen are growing heart muscle cells from stem cells and focusing on a protein called troponin T, which helps the heart to contract and relax.<\/p>\n
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Theyre using the cells to mimic how heart muscle develops in the womb and hope that one day lab-grown ones will improve recovery after a heart attack.<\/p>\n
Professor Sanjay Sinha at Cambridge University is using stem cells to grow actual beating heart tissue, in an effort to help more people with heart failure live healthier lives.<\/p>\n
The ground-breaking tech could eventually be applied to damaged sections of the organ to encourage it to repair itself.<\/p>\n
Then you have Dr Mairi Brittan, at the University of Edinburgh, who is looking at clone cells, or endothelial cells, found on the inside of blood vessels.<\/p>\n
These cells are copies that move to areas that lack oxygen, and then create new blood and lymphatic vessels.<\/p>\n
Dr Brittan and her team think finding ways to stimulate these cells after a heart attack could help the heart learn to rewire blood vessels and provide damaged areas with more oxygen.<\/p>\n
This could save muscle and prevent heart failure.<\/p>\n
Laura Stewart, 39, a fitness instructor who lives in Newport, Wales, with husband Alex, 48, and daughter Orla, four, is living proof of the importance of heart disease research.<\/p>\n
In 2013, she was training for 10k races and marathons when she noticed her heart kept skipping beats, even when she was sitting relaxed on the sofa.<\/p>\n
She recalled: It felt as if my heart would stop then suddenly beat quite hard. It would take my breath away.<\/p>\n
Laura eventually saw her GP, who ordered an ECG that showed she had a condition called heart block.<\/p>\n
She said: Its very serious but there are different levels first, second, and third degree. I was showing as first degree so he said theyd keep an eye on me and run further tests.<\/p>\n
Six months later. Laura had a second ECG and just as it happened, her heart went into complete block, which can be fatal.<\/p>\n
I was very lucky they saw it, otherwise I might not be here today, she says. I was shocked to be told the treatment was to be fitted with a pacemaker.<\/p>\n
I was a fit and healthy 31-year-old. I didnt feel unwell. I didnt smoke. There is no history of family heart disease.<\/p>\n
Laura was doing everything right. She had just been unlucky.<\/p>\n
She had surgery in April 2014 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, South East London.<\/p>\n
Five other women on the ward all in their 70s and 80s were having the same procedure.<\/p>\n
I kept thinking, I shouldnt be here. says Laura.<\/p>\n
Physically, she recovered well, but mentally it was much harder to come to terms with. I found it hard to accept this was something Id have for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
Almost eight years on, Laura says the operation has meant she could have her daughter.<\/p>\n
She says: If it wasnt for this amazing surgery, I would never have been able to have children my heart wasnt strong enough.<\/p>\n
Studies are carried out on pacemakers all the time and if I were to ever need a new one maybe it will be smaller, maybe the battery will last longer.<\/p>\n
Maybe Ill need a different implant altogether. There could be all sorts of advances that might benefit my life.<\/p>\n
INCREDIBLY, zebrafish could provide the answer to getting heart patients back on their feet.<\/p>\n
Dr Sarah De Val, at the University of Oxford, is studying developing blood vessels in zebrafish embryos.<\/p>\n
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Her teams aim is to manipulate blood vessel growth in the human heart so it can bounce back better after a heart attack.<\/p>\n
Their research on zebrafish a tiny, blue and silver freshwater species could one day benefit Lisa Brereton, 49, who suffered two heart attacks before the age of 40 and now lives with heart failure.<\/p>\n
The NHS manager was 38 when she went from being absolutely fine to being in pain. I was feverish, with pins and needles in my left arm.<\/p>\n
The pain kept her up at night but doctors could not work out what was happening, until May 2011 she went to an out-of-hours GP feeling very unwell.<\/p>\n
She says: He sent me to A&E. I was admitted to the cardiac unit and underwent an angiogram which revealed Id had a heart attack on the Friday.<\/p>\n
This came as a huge shock, as Id been out with my mum in the evening, and although I was in pain I dosed up on painkillers and still went.<\/p>\n
Its strange when people ask me what it feels like to have a heart attack, as I have no idea. Its a myth that you always suffer chest pain and collapse. For me, it wasnt like that.<\/p>\n
Lisa, who lives in Crystal Palace, South East London, had two stents fitted and was discharged with a monitor to check on her heart activity, which a month later flagged her troponin levels were raised an sign of heart-related activity.<\/p>\n
She says: I had an angiogram and unfortunately during the procedure had a spiral dissection where a tear forms in a blood vessel, causing the heart distress.<\/p>\n
Three more stents were fitted but two years later Lisa was feeling shattered and breathless again.<\/p>\n
She had a leaking valve and also needed a coronary artery bypass graft, which involved open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n
In June 2013, surgeons took a blood vessel from Lisas arm and attached it to the coronary artery to boost blood flow to the heart, and her mitral valve was repaired.<\/p>\n
She says: The recovery was tough. I couldnt get upstairs at home without stopping for a rest and could only walk short distances.<\/p>\n
In January 2014, the valve began leaking again and needed replacing.<\/p>\n
She says: I found this very hard to take, as I hadnt fully recovered from the first operation.<\/p>\n
I was not mentally prepared to go through it again.<\/p>\n
Fortunately her doctor was amazing and found a trial drug usually used to improve the quality of life of elderly people too unwell for surgery.<\/p>\n
She has been on it ever since and it has slowed the leak.<\/p>\n
She says: I still have a reasonable quality of life,. I do Pilates and I swim.<\/p>\n
I still get tired very easily and if I want to go out in the evening I have a rest in the afternoon to give me energy.<\/p>\n
I might have to consider surgery for a metal valve in the future, but right now Im just trying to live my best life.<\/p>\n
PROFESSOR Mauro Giacca at Kings College London and Dr Joaquim Vieira at the University of Oxford are hoping to advance heart treatment by exploring genetics.<\/p>\n
Professor Giacca has been injecting mouse hearts with microRNAs small molecules that turn genes off.<\/p>\n
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They make heart muscle cells multiply, which thickens and strengthens the heart muscle.<\/p>\n
Potentially this could lead to stimulating human heart cells to regenerate and fix damaged areas.<\/p>\n
Dr Vieira, meanwhile, is working on genes that in embryos in a process called the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) cause the heart to repair itself. If all goes well, patients could have access to the life-saving results within five to ten years.<\/p>\n
In the meantime we can all adopt lifestyle changes to boost our tickers.NHS consultant cardiologist Kevin Fox says: The best thing you can do to keep your heart healthy is to stop smoking.<\/p>\n
Reducing your salt, fat and red meat intake also helps, as does exercising regularly.<\/p>\n
But all the radical scientific love and research offers huge hope for people like Laura and Lisa.<\/p>\n
For anyone living with heart failure, that is definitely better than a bunch of roses from the garage this Valentines Day.<\/p>\n
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Read more from the original source: <\/p>\n
How scientists are fixing damaged hearts like these with help of mice, zebrafish... and cloning - Central Recorder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A GOOD cry, a big tub of ice cream and the support of our friends and family will help most of us get over a broken heart. Continue reading