As wake-up calls go, a heart attack is a big one. You might expect that people who survive one would do whatever they can for their hearts, at least right after getting out of the hospital. That isn't necessarily the case. In a Canadian study, about 25 percent of heart attack survivors didn't fill their prescriptions for potentially lifesaving heart medicines. And those who didn't fill any of them were 80 percent more likely to have died within a year than those who filled all of them.

Taking several medications every day isn't an easy task. Here are a few strategies that can help:

> Ask your doctor for once-a-day medicines, along with less expensive generics to ease the financial burden.

> Use a pillbox with compartments for each day.

> Position your pills where you can't miss them, like on the kitchen counter or next to your toothbrush.

> Report what you think might be side effects instead of suffering silently (and maybe skipping medications).

> Try an alarm. A host of programmable watches or pillboxes can let you know when it's time to take a pill. You can also program a cellphone or personal digital assistant, or subscribe to a service such as CareText or OnTimeRx.

—- Harvard Health Letters

Systolic results need more attention

Doctors need to rethink the way they measure blood pressure and focus only on the higher of the two conventional readings in patients older than 50, European experts said recently. Systolic pressure —- the peak pressure in the arteries at the start of the heart's pumping cycle —- is the key risk factor for older patients who are most susceptible to heart problems, researchers reported in the Lancet medical journal.

—- Reuters

Quick weight gain in college concerns researchers

"Freshman 15," the idea that new college students put on 15 pounds of weight in the first year, may be a myth, but young women do gain about 5 pounds, Canadian researchers report. "It's still alarming because that happened over six to seven months," Dr. Janis Randall Simpson told Reuters Health. "If young women going to university continue to put on weight at that rate, it could be very problematic."

—- Reuters Health

Optimism may help stroke survivors recover

Stroke patients who have a positive outlook function better on their own three months after leaving the hospital than stroke survivors with a gloomier attitude, new research shows. This greater independence translates to requiring less help with activities of daily living such as bathing and preparing food, report Dr. Glenn V. Ostir of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and colleagues.

—- Reuters Health