Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Cardiology, Diabetes, Exercise, Health Tips, Heart Disease, Holistic Health, Integrative Medicine, The Center for Health & Healing, Vascular Health
Can exercise replace drugs? A study recently published in BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) asked this question for four chronic conditions: coronary artery disease, pre-diabetes, stroke and heart failure. The study, which included more than 330,000 patients, was a “meta-analyses.” In other words, it compiled data from previously published controlled trials that looked at the effects of exercise or drug therapy on survival for the illnesses in question. (more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Cardiology, Diabetes, Health Tips, Heart Disease, Primary Care, Vascular Health
Recent media reports have caused some alarm and confusion about newly published guidelines for statin drugs. Statin drugs reduce cholesterol levels and also decrease cardiac and vascular disease, independent of their cholesterol-lowering effect. Statins provide multiple benefits, but the mechanisms of their actions are not yet fully understood. Like any medication, there is a risk of side effects, which can occur in up to 18 percent of patients and most often consist of muscle pain or temporary derangement of liver function. Rare serious side effects have been described. (more…)
Oct 23, 2013 | Cardiology, Endovascular, Heart Disease, Surgery, Vascular Health
A recent article in the financial press (Bloomberg) drew wide attention to inappropriate and excessive use of stents in patients with coronary artery disease (disease in the vessels that supply blood to the heart). Stents are tiny mesh tubes placed in a diseased coronary artery to “prop” it open after a narrowed segment of it has been expanded by a balloon. (more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Cardiology, Health Tips, Heart Disease, The Center for Health & Healing, Women's Health
Here is the bad news: Heart disease kills more women than do all cancers combined, yet many women still cite breast cancer as their chief health concern. Young women, especially, do not think heart disease is a threat. But, since 1984, more women than men die each year from heart disease. Although death from heart attack has declined in both men and women over the last 30 years, the decrease has been more pronounced in males than females. Depression after a heart attack is twice as likely to occur in women than men, and depression increases the chance of a second heart attack. (more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Cardiology, Heart Disease, Surgery
When deciding on which car or college — or, increasingly, health care provider — to choose, many of us compare reviews and ratings in such sources as Consumer Reports and U.S. News & World Report. More than two decades ago, the New York State Department of Health, itself, began to report information on cardiac surgery because the Commissioner of Health noticed wide variations in mortality rate and complications reported by different hospitals in the state. (more…)
Mar 27, 2013 | Cardiology, Diet and Nutrition, Exercise, Health Tips, Heart Disease, Men's Health, Women's Health
As a cardiologist specializing in prevention of heart attack and stroke, you can imagine I try to practice what I preach. Some of this is easy and comes naturally to me. I was always athletic and competed in track and field while in college, which is one of the things that drew me to the study of medicine. But, like most people, I still have to work at maintaining certain healthy lifestyle choices. (more…)
Can exercise replace drugs? A study recently published in BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) asked this question for four chronic conditions: coronary artery disease, pre-diabetes, stroke and heart failure. The study, which included more than 330,000 patients, was a “meta-analyses.” In other words, it compiled data from previously published controlled trials that looked at the effects of exercise or drug therapy on survival for the illnesses in question. (more…)
