As we age, what and how much we eat tends to change. However, how meal timing relates to our health remains less understood. Researchers at Mass General Brigham and their collaborators studied changes to meal timing in older adults and discovered people experience gradual shifts in when they eat meals as they age. They also found characteristics that may contribute to meal timing shifts and revealed specific trajectories linked to an earlier death. The results are published in Communications Medicine.

There are currently no approved therapies for nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). 

The ODYSSEY-HCM trial compared the cardiac myosin inhibitor, mavacamten, with placebo in patients with symptomatic nonobstructive HCM. 

Mavacamten was not associated with significant improvements in patient-reported health status or peak oxygen consumption. 

Further subgroup analyses are in progress. 

Updated ESC/EACTS* Guidelines for Valvular Heart Disease aim to give patients access to the right treatments at the right time, including to newer, less invasive therapy options. They will help to tackle inconsistent practices that leave some patients under treated. 

The guidelines also stress that patients with complex health needs should be treated by multidisciplinary teams in high-volume specialist centers. 

The guidelines respond to an exponential increase in medical knowledge about valvular heart disease, including new data from randomised controlled trials. 

A new ESC Clinical Consensus Statement aims to raise awareness of the multidirectional relationship between mental health and cardiovascular disease – one increases the risk of the other, and patients who experience both have much poorer long-term health outcomes. It is the first ever ESC Clinical Consensus Statement to be developed on this topic under the auspices of the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. 

The Consensus Statement recommends that systematic screening and support for mental health conditions should become normalised in cardiovascular care, and those being treated for mental health conditions should be regularly assessed for cardiovascular disease risk 

Substantial gaps in knowledge urgently need addressing, including how best to improve the mental health of populations to reduce cardiovascular risk, and how best to screen for- and treat- mental health conditions in people with cardiovascular disease