Did You Know That...

A fatal heart attack during sex is more common when a man is with his mistress than when he's with his wife, a new study has found. Researchers at the University of Florence reviewed the available medical literature on infidelity and its effects. Researchers suggested a guilty conscience, the demands of satisfying a younger woman, the strain of keeping the secret; and, the coolness of the fresh sheets may be possible explanations.

Calcium supplements, recommended to elderly people and post-menopausal women, can significantly increase the risk of heart attack. German researchers found those who used calcium supplements ere twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who didn't use any vitamin/mineral supplements. Furthermore, boosting the calcium in one's diet doesn't necessarily stave of heart attack or stroke.

You may never have to get another needle. Scientists at MIT have developed a high-pressure "jet-injection" device that shoots medicine through the skin painlessly (or very nearly painlessly). The device can benefit diabetics and others who have to self-inject; but, are squeamish and avoid doctors' orders. The injector, which looks like a small cylindrical gun, works by means of a powerful magnet attached to a piston that ejects the drug at very high pressure and velocity out through the nozzle - which, the researchers said, is the size of a mosquito's proboscis. So the injection should feel like nothing more than a mosquito bite. There's no word yet on when the device might be available.

Scientists have taken skin cells and turned them into heart cells, which they hope will be able to repair the organ after heart failure. A big advantage of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is that they're derived from the patients themselves, decreasing the likelihood they would be rejected by the immune system. Researchers already knew it was possible to turn hiPSCs into hart cells in young and healthy people; but, now the same result can be reached in elderly patients.