Hawthorn extract may help heart failure
Published: Jan. 23, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Heart failure, a common condition that is both debilitating and deadly, is often the result of clogged arteries that put stress on the heart by forcing it to work harder.
Review co-author Dr. Max Pittler of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, England, said perhaps the most famous heart failure patient is Vice President Dick Cheney, who had stents implanted to open narrowed arteries.
The review authors combined the results of 10 studies of 855 patients into a meta-analysis.
The review, published in The Cochrane Library, found that compared to placebo, hawthorn extract boosted the maximum level of physiological workload -- a fact that the review authors described as significant, although they acknowledged they based the finding on small numbers of studies and patients.
The review does not include results of a large uppublished study that suggested hawthorn has only a limited affect on lifespan.
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