Cardiovascular Medicine & Health Pages
Research in a London pub
By Dr. Gifford Jones
Why would I become depressed in an English pub? It happened during a recent trip to London to interview prominent researchers. Later, I stole away to the English countryside and the relaxing atmosphere of quaint pubs. The last thing I wanted to do while enjoying the local ambience was to think about the dilemmas of medicine. But there in the newspaper was a large headline I couldn’t miss, “Polypill aims to cut heart disease by 80 percent.” So I had to read on.
As people age they often take more pills, many of them to prevent heart disease. Now, British researchers claim they have a way to solve swallowing one pill after another, the “Polypill.”
CRP Predicts Heart Disease Better Than CholesterolBy Dr. Gifford Jones
How much trust would you put in a test when it’s results are 50 percent wrong? It would do little to ease the psyche. Yet for years millions of people have shown blind faith in the cholesterol blood test as the prime predictor of heart disease. This year another one-and-a-half million North Americans will experience the crushing chest pain of coronary attack. But half of these patients will show normal blood cholesterol levels. Now a study from The Harvard Medical School may make another blood test a household word.
Dr. Paul Ridker has followed the fate of 28,000 women for eight years. He found that women with high levels of C- Reactive Protein (CRP) were twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke. And that women with a high CRP were more likely to develop heart disease than women with high cholesterol.
Aspirin Can Prevent Many Serious DiseasesBy Dr. Gifford Jones
How long does it take for good news to reach the public? It appears a long, long time. For several years the medical community has known of the multiple benefits of Aspirin. Yet, I still see patients whose lives could be extended by Aspirin who are not taking it. This is tragic when it can also help patients escape several deadly diseases.
The most recent example was a 55 year old woman who had been suffering from diabetes for 35 years. In addition, she was overweight, a bad combination for a heart attack. Yet, no one had told her she could decrease the risk of a coronary event by taking Aspirin.
A New Technique For Coronary Bypass SurgeryBy Dr. Gifford Jones
How would you like to stitch together two small vessels the size of a piece of spaghetti while riding a bucking bronco? And realize that if you failed the patient would die? This is a tedious task under the best of circumstances. That’s why cardiovascular surgeons have shied away from performing coronary bypass operations on a beating heart. Now, a new technique is being used for some bypass cases without the heart skipping a beat.
This year over 500,000 coronary artery bypass grafts (CABGs) will be performed in North America. The majority will be done by placing patients on a heart-lung machine during the operation. This allows surgeons to suture tiny vessels onto motionless hearts while the heart-lung machine pumps well oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
Eating Almonds To Lower Blood Cholesterol!By Dr. Gifford Jones
Would you like to lower blood cholesterol without having to use cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLDs)? In view of the millions of people taking this medication (I’ve been one of them) you may think this is a nutty suggestion. But if you were to be nuts about almond snacks every day, this would result in a significant drop in blood cholesterol.
Dr. David Jenkins, director of clinical nutrition at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto, studied 27 men and women with high cholesterol for three months.
Rhabdomyolysis And Cholesterol©Lowering DrugsBy Dr. Gifford Jones
I doubt if one person in a million has ever heard of rhabdomyolysis. Least of all been able to spell it But recently this disease made us all sit up and take notice. This happened when Bayer Pharmaceuticals suddenly withdrew its cholesterol©lowering drug (CLD), Baycol, from the market. Baycol has been linked to deaths from rhabdomyolysis. What is this disease and are other CLDs safe?
Rhabdomyolysis occurs when skeletal muscle is injured. This results in the release of toxic cellular components into blood circulation causing damage to kidneys. The result may be complete kidney failure and death.
A New Drug To Lower Bad CholesterolBy Dr. Gifford Jones
Are you tired of hearing friends talk about their cholesterol level? Have you had your cholesterol level tested? What drug are you taking? How important is the amount of triglyceride in the blood? The questions go on and on. Now, there are new more potent drugs to help lower blood cholesterol.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in this country. And getting older is indeed dangerous. For instance, the mortality rate for heart disease under the age of 40 is less than 10 per 100,000 people. For those over 74 years of age it’s more than 1,000 per 100,000.
Should You Put Your Toothbrush in the Dishwasher?By Dr. Gifford Jones
Why did the patient die from a sudden heart attack? The victim was a thin, middle©aged who had never smoked and exercised regularly. Blood cholesterol values had always been normal and there was no history of diabetes. Moreover, both parents were still living and well. Could this death have been prevented by the household dishwasher?
I was skeptical two years ago when I first read about a possible relationship between infection and coronary attack. Now a report from the Harvard Medical School in its publication “Focus”, links chronically infected gums (periodontal disease) to coronary heart disease (CHD).
Baldness, Another Risk Factor For Heart Disease?By Dr. Gifford Jones
What does a man think when the mirror reveals a patch of baldness? Unless he’s Telly Savalas or Yul Brynner, few situations test his vanity more than that reflection. Now a finding may depress his psyche even further. A Harvard study suggests baldness is a symptom of heart disease.
For centuries bald men have been the butt of jokes. An old Czech proverb claimed, “a good man grows gray, but a rascal grows bald.” A Chinese proverb stated, “Of ten bald men nine are deceitful, and the tenth is stupid.”
Stress and CholesterolBy Dr. Gifford Jones
Does stress affect the blood cholesterol level? Today, you would have to be living in a cave not to know that high cholesterol values are linked to coronary attack. What foods should be avoided. How drugs lower blood cholesterol. But ask anyone how stress affects blood cholesterol and you usually draw a blank. It’s ironic when stress is such a common complaint in our daily lives.
In 1968 the Journal of the American Medical Association reported a study carried out at the University of Michigan.
The Tired HeartBy Dr. Gifford Jones
How would you like to move the muscles of your arm 100,000 times every day to push 5,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels? And to know you have to do it 2.5 billion times without failing? Faced with this momentous task your arm muscles would last only a few minutes.
Your heart, day after day without any holiday, pumps 10 pints of blood a minute to keep you alive and functioning. The heart itself weighs only 11 ounces! It’s no wonder that the human heart finally gets tired and quits!
Confused About Your Cholesterol Numbers?By Dr. Gifford Jones
“Doctor, is my blood cholesterol normal?” I’m asked this question repeatedly by patients. It’s understandable that they’re concerned about blood cholesterol. After all, you’d have to be living on another planet not to believe that blood cholesterol was the leading indicator of coronary heart disease (CHD). But is there a specific number that allows doctors to answer “Yes” or “No to this question?
In 1988 The National Cholesterol Education Panel attempted to make the response simple. It chose a blood cholesterol level of 5.2 mmol/L. as normal in Canada. This corresponds to 250 milligrams in the U.S.
The “Beat” And What Happens when it Falters?By Dr. Gifford Jones
Have you ever felt your heart skip a beat? And then worry it’s associated with heart disease? During a normal lifetime the heart beats 2.5 billion times. But sometimes the heart rate slows, races, becomes irregular or has episodes of palpitations. What causes these changes? And when should you consult your doctor?
The majority of people are rarely aware of the beating of their heart. But suddenly a rhythm disturbance occurs and all else is put aside. You listen intensely to the beat of your own heart.
Who Cares? Another Drug To Treat HypertensionBy Dr. Gifford Jones
What’s the first essential to a long and healthy life? If I had to pick one I’d choose healthy arteries, or what Sir William Osler called, “healthy rubber”.
Osler, a wise old owl, had great credentials. During his lifetime he was Professor of Medicine at McGill, John Hopkins and Oxford Universities. And Osler learned that lucky people who inherited “healthy rubber”, didn’t get hypertension.
But today millions of North Americans have hardened, atherosclerotic blood vessels. This condition triggers hypertension. The resulting increased pressure injures both heart and kidneys.
Beware of Mevacor and Grapefruit JuiceBy Dr. Gifford Jones
Do you enjoy grapefruit juice for breakfast? If so be careful how much you drink if you’re taking cholesterol©lowering drugs such as Mevacor, Zocor and Lipitor. Studies show that grapefruit juice carries a powerful punch. It can increase the levels of Mevacor in the blood 15 times. And this may result in rhabdomylosis, a skeletal muscle©wasting disease.
Dr. Dave Bailey, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario was the first scientist in the world to discover that grapefruit juice has the ability to raise the level of drugs in the blood.
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