According to an article published by HealthDay News, new research suggests that higher levels of testosterone are associated with an increased risk of heart disease in older men.

The new U.S. National Institutes of Health funded study, concerns men over the age of 65 and is based on a tracking of hormone levels and heart disease among nearly 700 community-dwelling men, found that men on the highest end of the testosterone spectrum had more than twice the chance of suffering from heart disease than those on the lower end of the spectrum.

The finding contradicts previous, smaller studies and is incredibly significant because many older men are using medications that increase their testosterone levels for various, non-life threatening, health issues such as low sex drive and mood disorders.  Based on this research, these men could be putting themselves at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease without even knowing it.

While this research could be a huge step forward in early detection of cardiovascular issues, Dr. Kristen Sueoka, author of the study, believes there is still much work to be done before testosterone levels can be used as a detection tool:

“One day testosterone measurements may be used to help predict which men are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, but we need more studies to confirm that high testosterone is a risk factor for heart disease.”

Waiting even one day to fill a blood thinner prescription is dangerous after heart stent surgery.

New research shows heart stent patients who waited a day or more to fill their prescription for Plavix (blood thinner medication) are twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack or death in the months following the procedure. Yet, one in six patients did not fill their prescription on the day they were discharged. Instead, they waited an average of three days to fill their prescription.

The study calculated 16.3% of heart stent patients waited a day to fill their blood thinners while 2.2% of them never even fill it. Of the people who waited a day or more to fill their prescription, 14.2% of them had a risk of heart attack or death. It is almost double the 7.9% risk for those who fill their prescription on the day of discharge.

Most of the time, the patients who forget to fill their prescriptions are older and have other medications to take. They may prefer to fill some prescriptions over others because they do not realize the importance of all of them.

The best solution to this problem is to help patients transition from being an inpatient to an outpatient. By teaching them the importance of their medication before patients are discharged from the hospital, the less likely they are to procrastinate filling their prescription.