The American Heart Association and the NFL Alumni Association are sharing the 8 steps to boost heart health in a collaboration focused on improving men’s health

In a randomized clinical trial in China, giving the clot-busting medication alteplase up to 24 hours after stroke symptoms first appeared increased the odds of better recovery by 50% compared to those who received standard antiplatelet treatment.

Stroke survivors were more likely to have little or no disability after 90 days if a clot was removed from a large brain artery followed by the injection of the clot-dissolving medication tenecteplase directly into the artery near the blockage, compared to people receiving standard medical treatment after clot removal. In this trial, standard care was clot removal without clot-dissolving medication.

The American Heart Association’s 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update reports that while progress has been made in reducing cardiovascular and cerebral health disparities, Black communities in the United States still  face disproportionately higher risk of heart disease, stroke and hypertension.

Neither a placebo procedure nor two different doses of transcranial brain stimulation, which send electrical signals through the skull, improved mobility recovery in stroke survivors receiving movement therapy. Motor function was similar among survivors who received electrical brain stimulation combined with movement therapy or a placebo combined with movement therapy.