health and wellness
Heart Risks Go Beyond the Heart: Don’t Forget to Check Blood Sugar and Kidney Health
Last Updated on May 4, 2026 by Daily News Staff
Heart Risks Go Beyond the Heart: Don’t Forget to Check Blood Sugar and Kidney Health
(Feature Impact) Diabetes and kidney disease are major risk factors for heart disease, yet many cases are undiagnosed. In fact, most people don’t realize their heart, kidney and metabolic health – how the body creates, uses and stores energy – are connected. Understanding these connections can help you take steps toward protecting your long-term health.
Cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome is a health condition that includes heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes and obesity. Many people don’t realize they’re at risk, though, because they aren’t aware of health risks beyond the heart. Almost 1 in 4 U.S. adults with diabetes are unaware they have it, according to a 2026 statistics update from the American Heart Association. In addition, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that as many as 9 in 10 adults with chronic kidney disease don’t know they’re living with the condition.
Learning about CKM syndrome can be a helpful step in understanding your overall health picture.
How are CKM conditions connected?
Heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes have shared risk factors – including high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar; excess weight; and reduced kidney function – and they’re closely linked. Having one condition often increases the likelihood of developing the others.
“We are encouraging people to become aware of the connection between conditions so they and their health care team can think about their overall health beyond individual conditions,” said Stacey E. Rosen, M.D., FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association, executive director of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health and senior vice president of women’s health at Northwell Health. “Understanding the connection helps you better prevent complications through lifestyle changes and appropriate treatment.”
The biggest health threats from CKM syndrome are disability and death from heart disease and stroke, which make up the “cardiovascular” part of CKM. The “metabolic” part includes diabetes and obesity. Kidney disease is closely linked with both metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
How common is CKM syndrome?
CKM-related risks are common. Nearly 90% of U.S. adults have at least one risk factor for CKM syndrome. The 2026 statistics report showed about half of all U.S. adults have high blood pressure, about 1 in 3 has high total cholesterol, more than half have prediabetes or diabetes, about 1 in 7 has kidney disease and more than half have a high waist circumference.
These risks often develop slowly, with few or no symptoms at first, but you can stay informed. Rosen emphasizes regular screening of your cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic health, which can catch problems early.
“Due to the current risk factor rates, everyone could benefit from being screened this way,” she said.
Regular check-ins with your health care team can offer a clearer picture of your CKM health. They can check your:
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol panel (total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, HDL (good) cholesterol and triglycerides)
- Blood glucose (blood sugar), measured in either the short term as fasting glucose or long term as A1C
- Body weight and size, measured by body mass index and waist circumference
- Kidney function, using both UACR and eGFR
These results can be used in the PREVENT online calculator to estimate your risk for cardiovascular disease over the next 10 or 30 years. CKM syndrome can often be prevented and improved with healthy daily habits like those in Life’s Essential 8 and science-based treatments.
The CKM Health Initiative was introduced by the American Heart Association to raise awareness of the connections between CKM syndrome conditions and improve diagnosis rates. It’s supported by founding sponsors Novo Nordisk and Boehringer Ingelheim, supporting sponsors Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Bayer, and champion sponsor DaVita.
Visit Heart.org/myCKMhealth to learn more about CKM health, including screening and treatment options.
SOURCE:
Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
Last Updated on July 17, 2026 by Daily News Staff
(Family Features) Most people think of heart attacks as debilitating pain in the chest. However, that’s not always the case, especially for women, and missing the signs can be a matter of life and death.
Although heart disease is the leading cause of death among American women, according to the American Heart Association, symptoms are often overlooked or explained away as less worrisome conditions.
“Men and women experience many aspects of life differently, and heart disease is no exception,” said LeAnne Bloedon, MS, RD, vice president of clinical development, Esperion Therapeutics. “Symptoms of a heart attack aren’t as obvious as many women think, and failing to recognize the danger and get help can have catastrophic results.”
One heart disease risk factor, for example, is high LDL cholesterol. Often referred to as a “silent killer,” it doesn’t always present noticeable symptoms. In fact, data suggests women with high LDL cholesterol are not diagnosed or treated as early or aggressively as men, which can put women at an increased risk for cardiovascular events. Understanding how men’s and women’s risk and symptoms differ may help identify and treat a serious heart health problem before it causes lasting damage.
Anatomy Differences
Some differences between men and women are present in the body’s internal systems, including the cardiovascular system. Women generally have smaller hearts and narrower blood vessels.
This can affect heart health in numerous ways, including less efficient stress responses and greater risk of widespread plaque buildup, especially in smaller vessels, called microvasculature, which can pose treatment challenges.
Cholesterol Buildup
Hormones influence aspects of the body’s function, including cholesterol levels. Estrogen, a female sex hormone, raises HDL (good) cholesterol levels. This may be why women tend to have more HDL cholesterol and lower LDL (bad) cholesterol than men, especially before they reach menopause, though inherited high cholesterol can affect women of all ages.
“It’s critical to raise awareness about the importance of measuring LDL cholesterol, diagnosing high cholesterol and treating elevated LDL cholesterol per guidelines and individual patient needs,” Bloedon said.
Risk Factors
While there are shared risk factors for heart disease among men and women (such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes), some risk factors disproportionately affect women. For example, uncontrolled cholesterol in women, particularly after menopause, can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Care and Treatment
“While you may not be able to fully prevent heart disease, you can understand the risks and take proactive steps,” Bloedon said. “Commit to a healthy, smoke-free lifestyle. Exercise regularly and eat a well-balanced diet with limits on processed foods, sugar, sodium and alcohol. Take any medications as directed by your health care provider.”
Statins, which reduce the production of cholesterol in the liver and lower cholesterol levels in the bloodstream, are the medications most often prescribed to help manage high LDL cholesterol. While generally well-tolerated, statin intolerance (the inability to take a statin at any dose or the recommended dose) does occur in some patients and is more common in women.
Talk with your doctor about other steps you can take to manage elevated LDL cholesterol levels and learn more about women’s heart health at goredforwomen.org.
Symptoms of Heart Attacks in Women
Women’s experiences with heart disease may be quite different from men.
For example, according to the Heart Disease Foundation, women are likely to be older when they experience a heart attack. They may also attribute symptoms to other conditions, such as diabetes or arthritis.
Further complicating matters, several diseases mimic heart attacks so getting to the root of the problem can be tricky. Women are more apt than men to experience a coronary spasm, coronary dissection or broken heart syndrome.
What to Watch For:
- Like men, women experiencing a heart attack may notice prolonged or reoccurring chest pain or pressure.
- In women, that pain may extend to the arms, back, neck, jaw and stomach.
- Some women experience shortness of breath with no chest pain at all.
- Other symptoms women are more likely to report can be easily mistaken for other conditions. Some of these signs include unexplained fatigue, disruptions to normal sleep patterns, lightheadedness, nausea and cold sweats.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
SOURCE:
Dive into “The Knowledge,” where curiosity meets clarity. This playlist, in collaboration with STMDailyNews.com, is designed for viewers who value historical accuracy and insightful learning. Our short videos, ranging from 30 seconds to a minute and a half, make complex subjects easy to grasp in no time. Covering everything from historical events to contemporary processes and entertainment, “The Knowledge” bridges the past with the present. In a world where information is abundant yet often misused, our series aims to guide you through the noise, preserving vital knowledge and truths that shape our lives today. Perfect for curious minds eager to discover the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of everything around us. Subscribe and join in as we explore the facts that matter. https://stmdailynews.com/the-knowl
health and wellness
Heat waves can leave homes dangerously hot – even for young, healthy adults
Heat waves can turn homes into dangerous heat traps—especially during blackouts or in houses without AC—pushing indoor temperatures and humidity into lethal territory even for young, healthy adults, not just the elderly.
Heat waves can leave homes dangerously hot – even for young, healthy adults
Zoltan Nagy, Eindhoven University of Technology
Most people know that heat waves can be dangerous, but what they may not realize is that the heat indoors can be much worse than outdoors.
When the power goes out and air conditioning stops, or in homes without cooling, a house starts to function like a greenhouse during a heat wave. Heat enters through windows and walls and has nowhere to go. Air stagnates.
Within hours, indoor temperatures can climb well above what the thermometer shows outside, especially on upper floors and in rooms with south-facing windows. Over longer periods, especially if temperatures don’t cool off overnight, conditions can become lethal.
Most heat-related deaths occur indoors. When a heat dome sent temperatures soaring in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, 98% of the more than 600 deaths in British Columbia happened inside homes. Washington and Oregon also saw high numbers of deaths in homes that lacked air conditioning.
In Europe, where only 1 in 10 households have air conditioning, heat waves killed an estimated 60,000 people in 2022 and 47,000 in 2023, largely inside buildings never designed for these temperatures.
People of all ages are at risk in heat waves like these. I spent eight years at the University of Texas at Austin studying how buildings respond to extreme heat. In a recent study, my team assessed the heat risk in every single-family home in Austin.
We found that even younger, healthy adults face far more risk than they realize.
How hot is too hot for a human body?
Your body maintains a core temperature of about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). To cool down, it pushes blood to the skin and sweats. But when air temperature is high, that convective cooling weakens. When humidity is also high, sweat cannot evaporate.
If the body has no way to release heat, core temperature rises. If the core temperature increases past about 104 F (40 C), the body’s thermoregulation starts to fail. Past 109 F (42.8 C), death becomes likely.
What makes indoor heat especially dangerous is that it does not let up at night in homes that lack air conditioning. Outdoor temperatures typically drop after sunset, and someone outside can get a few hours of recovery. But a poorly insulated home that has been absorbing heat all day releases that heat slowly, keeping indoor temperatures elevated through the night. A person inside the home never gets a break.
After two or three nights of this, even healthy people start to be at serious risk for heat-related illnesses.
Why homes heat up more than people expect
People tend to underestimate indoor heat for a few reasons.
One is that the thermostat typically sits on one wall in one room. It does not tell what the temperature is in an upstairs bedroom or near a sun-facing window. In older, underinsulated homes, the actual felt temperature can exceed 90 F (32.2 C) even when a thermostat reads 75 F (23.9 C). The hot walls, ceilings and windows can radiate heat directly onto your body.
Another reason is that people assume all homes respond to heat the same way. However, a newer home with double-pane windows and good insulation acts like a thermos, keeping heat out for a longer time. An older home with single-pane windows and cracks in the walls heats up fast.
Two houses on the same street, exposed to the same outdoor conditions, can have completely different temperatures inside. And in a blackout, where neither home has cooling, those differences can become a matter of life and death.
What we found in Austin
Our study combined two datasets. From Austin’s tax appraisal records, we pulled basic property information, such as the year the home was built, the size and the number of stories for each of the city’s 213,000 single-family homes. We then matched each home to the most similar energy simulation models in a U.S. Department of Energy database that contains thousands of detailed, physics-based building energy models representing the U.S. residential building stock.
Using those models, we simulated each building’s indoor temperatures over time during a three-day heat wave and power outage with outdoor temperatures above 110 F (43 C).
We found that 85% of homes got hot enough to pose a significant risk of death for an elderly occupant. But what surprised us was the risk to younger people.
Under today’s climate conditions in Austin, about 15% of homes already have the potential to get hot enough without air conditioning to pose serious heat risks to healthy adults. Under future warming scenarios, that number jumps to as high as 65% if average summer highs reach 104 F (40 C). Further, climate projections for Austin show that heat waves will double in frequency by the end of the century.
We found three types of buildings and accompanying risks:
- Resilient homes, which are newer and well insulated, tended to have temperature and humidity conditions that would be survivable for an elderly occupant throughout the simulated heat wave with blackout.
- Critical-risk buildings, which are mostly older homes, became dangerous almost immediately.
- And then there was the middle group – homes where temperatures rose slowly during the simulated blackout, day by day, possibly giving occupants a false sense of security until it was too late.
Texas has already seen conditions like our case study’s – a heat wave paired with a power outage. In 2024, a derecho knocked out power for nearly 900,000 Houston households while the heat index climbed to 100 F (37.8 C). Seven weeks later, Hurricane Beryl cut power to 2.6 million homes, leaving them without power for over three days, with temperatures over 90 F (32.2 C).
What you can do to stay safe
If you can’t get cooling at home, there are steps you can take that can help.
Move to the lowest floor of your home, where it will be coolest. Close the blinds and curtains on sun-facing windows. Drink water constantly to stay hydrated, which is essential for regulating body temperature.
If you’re facing a blackout, be sure to also check on elderly neighbors, especially those living alone. You can also try to find a public cooling center; many cities now open them during heat emergencies.
Longer term, upgrades such as reflective window film, attic insulation and lighter-colored roofing can reduce how much a home heats up. After the 2021 heat dome, British Columbia’s coroner recommended updating building codes to address heat.
Our own findings point in the same direction: We propose that new homes should be required by building codes to maintain conditions in which at least light physical activity remains possible for all occupants for at least 72 hours during a power outage.
As summers get hotter with climate change and blackouts become more frequent, the risks of people suffering heat illnesses will only continue to rise.
Zoltan Nagy, Professor of Building Services, Eindhoven University of Technology
Heat waves can leave homes dangerously hot – even for young, healthy adults
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
💪 Your health journey starts here! Explore the latest health news, fitness tips, wellness trends, and healthy living advice. Share your thoughts in the comments and subscribe to the STM Daily News newsletter to stay informed and inspired every day.
(Feature Impact) Relationships and plumbing have something in common: they can both benefit from practicing smarter bathroom habits. Whether you’re sharing a household with your family, a partner or roommates, good etiquette in these frequently shared spaces can save everyone’s sanity – just like rethinking your flushing routines can save your pipes.
From simple annoyances like leaving the toilet seat up to potentially costly mistakes like clogging your plumbing by flushing the wrong items, a new survey from the Responsible Flushing Alliance (RFA) illuminated a variety of bad habits that cause the most tension in American homes.
In addition to shedding light on these problems, the alliance outlined solutions you can implement at home to restore peace in your restroom. Plus, you can gamify the habit changes to make them more entertaining.
“Our goal is to revolutionize public education by keeping it highly engaging, memorable and fun,” RFA President Lara Wyss said. “We are challenging the public to rethink their everyday habits.”
Get started with these seven tips:
Replace the toilet roll properly
Don’t be the reason someone gets stranded with nothing but a cardboard tube in their moment of need. Keep extra rolls nearby, and when you’re down to the last square of toilet paper, make it a race against the clock to replace it.
Use the (flush) force
An unflushed toilet was listed as the biggest bathroom pet peeve by 37% of survey respondents. To make it fun for the family, introduce a new tradition: before you leave the bathroom, pretend there’s an invisible force field pushing you back to make sure you’ve flushed and are good to go.
Hunt for sink and shower hair
Leaving hair in the drain isn’t just a source of potential plumbing clogs – it’s also an irritant for 35% of respondents. After you shower or style your hair, make it a game to see how many stray strands you can capture and deliver to the trash can.
Clean it and close it
You’ve probably heard jokes about people who leave the toilet seat up, so don’t make yourself the punchline. For a completely un-mockable routine, grab the brush to give the bowl a quick swish after you flush, ensure the seat is down and use an anti-bacterial wipe to leave everything sparkling. You’ll notice cleaning wipes bear the Do Not Flush symbol, which means they go in the trash and never the toilet.
Conquer the counter
Toothpaste and water often splatter all over the place, so to be a polite bathroom roommate, wipe up the mess before it’s even had a chance to dry. Keep cleaning wipes or rags within easy reach and give yourself a 10-second deadline to leave surfaces spotless.
Practice good towel etiquette
Wet towels don’t belong on bathroom floors. If they still have a use or two left in them, banish them back to your towel rack. Otherwise, challenge yourself to a game of laundry basketball, aiming for the hamper.
Don’t flush the un-flushable
According to an RFA survey, half of Americans are still flushing things they know they shouldn’t, like paper towels, feminine hygiene products and non-flushable wipes. Since clearing a clog in your home can cost anywhere from $300-$15,000 or more, the only thing you’ll be draining with habits like these is your wallet.
“Always check wet wipes for the Do Not Flushsymbol and disposal instructions, which helps us protect not only the health of our homes and environment but our relationships, too,” Wyss said.
Visit FlushSmart.org to learn more about good bathroom etiquette, take an interactive quiz and put these tips into practice with a seven-day challenge.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock (throwing away non-flushable wipe)
SOURCE:
💪 Your health journey starts here! Explore the latest health news, fitness tips, wellness trends, and healthy living advice. Share your thoughts in the comments and subscribe to the STM Daily News newsletter to stay informed and inspired every day.
