It is so important to take control of your heart health. With heart disease as the number one cause of death of men and women and the number one preventable disease, start with your heart.
Heart Attack while eating at the Heart Attack Grill
True news and headline in yesterday’s paper. Well let’s put it this way, I am NOT surprised. If you are heading for a heart attack you can stop it but not by going to a place that calls itself the Heart Attack Grill. This place has skimpy nurses as waitresses and call their clients patients. They put a patient robe on them and “patients” order a single, double, or triple bypass burger signifying the number of patties.
Many people who have heart attacks are then motivated to make a change to their heart health. Unfortunately, I see people who fall off track, which is normal, but again you can stop this heart attack. Heart disease is frightening and for this person, who I understand is recovering well, I hope this is enough to start to turn his life around.
Regrow Blood Vessels Could be the Next Treatment for Heart Disease
Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the western world. Is there really a treatment for heart disease or is it a band-aid. Researcher in University of Texas demonstrated a new and more effective method for regrowing blood vessels in the heart and limbs. This research has just been successful in rats but could this be the new form of treatment in humans with heart disease. Doctors could bypass surgery all together and instead repair damaged blood vessels simply by injecting a lipid-incased substance into a patient. Once inside the body, the substance stimulates cell growth and spurs the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones. Pretty cool.
This form of treatment has been tried before. “Others have tried using growth factors to stimulate vessel growth in clinical trials and have not been successful,” said Baker, a faculty member in the school’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. “We think that a major reason for this is that previous methods assumed that the diseased tissues retained the ability to respond to a growth stimulus. Our method basically delivers extra components that can restore growth factor responsiveness to the tissue of patients with long-standing clinical disease.”
Doctors have typically treated heart disease by physically opening the closed artery with a stent or bypass surgery rerouting blood flow to the poorly perfused tissue. Both these methods have limitations, however, and are not effective long-term as we do see many people with recurrent heart events. I know this can be reversed with lifestyle intervention and living heart healthy, however it would be great to see the University of Texas team be successful with regrowing blood vessels. I think we might be a little ways from this but it looks promising. I definitely see a political agenda to possibly stay as is. That is another story.
Chocolates, candy, indulgence in food and lots of love are what February is all about. But is all this good for the heart? February is Heart month, and heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death of men and women, yet it is the number one preventable disease. Neglect is responsible for cardiovascular disease being the number one killer.
It is six weeks in from our New Year’s resolutions. Somehow, Valentine’s Day seems to an excuse to forget about those previous goals of a heart healthy lifestyle. People may stray from their goals of a heart healthy lifestyle to indulge is extravagant meals and sweet treats. It can give a lot of people license to disregard their goals completely and resort back to old habits. There’s nothing like a gentle nudge or reminder at this point in the year to put you back on track. What better month than Heart month to do that.
Too many times individuals may be given a clean bill of health yet their risk of heart disease is still high. They visit thier family doctor’s office and and are told everything is ok. We can detect sub clinically what is going on inside the arterial walls. Too many times people leave their health in their doctor’s hands. People have to take responsibility for their health as the best heart attack is the one that never happens.
Take this time of the year to reassess where you are. What is working and what is not working. Then discuss why not or why it is. If you don’t have these check points in the year pretty soon it is months or years that go by where we neglect. Don’t worry what we did in the past or yesterday. Today is a new day and let’s get back on track.
I would like to wish everyone a happy heart month.
To your heart health success.
Yes it is Valentines day. Which is the reason why it is heart month. It is an important time to give your heart and help others but please dont forget your heart. You only have one heart. Take care of it. Love it because it is your only one.
Many times we focus on taking care of others, whether it be at work, family, or loved ones. And this is important but not at the expense of yourself. Neglecting your heart health is the #1 reason for heart attacks and strokes. Please take this time of the year to focus on your heart health. If you are not healthy how can you take care of others. Neglecting our health is easy to do, but it is also easy not to do. Just having healthy snacks, get out and walk, or take some deep breaths every hours is easy to do.
Take today to show your appreciation to others and also take a moment to show appreciation to yourself. Jot down one thing today how you will make a difference for your heart health. One disciplined action yields multiple rewards.
Have a Happy Valentines Day.
Shaw TV came in last month to do a piece on a couple of patients. Thank you very much to those patients who came in. Thier influence is allowing us to achieve our goal to prevent and reverse heart disease.
It is so important to know where you are. Here is a patient testimonial from Mike Gavreau. I hope those of you who are considering our assessment can have Mike show you the importance of knowing your risk.
Cardiologists are now able to log on to their computers and are ready to receive and review cardiac images from patients they themselves would never lay eyes on. This is a project going on inside India. A handful of echocardiographers were able to travel to India and obtain images to be uploaded to a cloud for cardiologists to view on the otherside of the world. The scans were uploaded from Sirsa to a secure “cloud,” then downloaded and read by volunteers around the globe.
It is great that great doctors are now able to view images from anywhere. Just having the ability to obtain good images from echocardiographers is important. This program in India is a funded program. It would be nice to have this program even accessible in remote parts of Canada as well as I know specialists are at a premium.
Yes it is important to get your heart tested. But it depends on your condition. If you have heart disease (heart attack, bypass surgery, or stent) then you have what we call coronary artery disease. The most important thing you can do is pay attention to your body and how you are feeling. Doctors and research is now stating that if they can control patients with medication this would be the best option, because having heart surgery may not prolong your life. I say it becomes super important to ensure that you are taking your daily dose of exercise, and ensure that you are eating your super foods.
The big question I get is then how often should I get tested and what tests should I have?
1. You should have a treadmill test every 1 to 2 years. It is non-invasive and free of radiation. This is to see your fitness level and see how your heart responds to exercise via ECG.
2. You should have an echocardiogram of the heart to evaluate the structure and function of the heart every 1 to 2 years.
What about an angiogram?
Angiograms have a lot of radiation and will not be used to see how you are doing unless you are having symptoms. Yes they will be able to see the vessels but if you are not having any symptoms of heart disease then this is not a great option.
Electrocardiograms (ECGs) are good to have done but it is really not going to see as much as a stress test because it is just a one time snap shot of your heart.
More research is required but carotid IMT could be a great way to keep track of your disease process. I have personally seen patients with heart disease reverse their intima media layer by focusing on our preachings. This test would be done once a year. It is difficult to clinically prove this as it is difficult to find researching dollars.
Yes I know we hear lots that chocolate is healthy for your heart. This is not to say that I would recommend you go to your local corner store and start to load up on chocolate. The same thing goes for drinking. It is the dark chocolate, enriched with flavanoids, where studies have been showing the beneficial effects. The chocolate that you buy can be full of fat and calories that do not contact the high level of polyphenols. I think you will start to see chocolate companies marketing ” I am good for your heart” , do take a look at this. You can get polyphenols and flavanoids from lots of food sources and chocolate may not be your best choice. I don’t think a chocolate bar a day is going to be your answer, but do know that small amounts (dark chocolate) can be getting some heart health benefits. The studies that have been done on chocolate is in its purest form, not the ones we buy at the corner store. Always look at the fat ingredients and the calories. However with that said. I do have a sweet tooth and sometimes it is important to get your fix in small amounts.
I personally have a hershey size kiss once in a while.
In my career I have seen so many people with heart disease and who are trying to avoid a heart attack. The best heart attack is the one that never happens. We know this is the best one, but sometimes it happens anyway. 95% of the people around us are trying to push us to negative behaviours, be it friends, family or marketing. Every year, every quarter, every month, and every day we have to sit down and reassess where things are at. If we truly want to reverse heart disease it takes effort. It is like building a big company, buidling for retirement, buidling a house… it is small steps thats makes the big goals. Trust me it is worth it and I see it so much it is the reason we do what we do.
Ask yourself these questions daily and be honest with yourself.
Every Year: Set your reason. Ask your why? Why do you want to reverse heart disease. Don’t just say I want to be healthy. Give yourself a reason. Eg. I want to play with my kids on the street after work daily.
Write down your goals?
Every Quarter: Ask yourself what worked? If you are trying to lose weight you or reverse heart disease, maybe joining a gym or seeing the Heart Fit Clinic was working for you.
Ask yourself what didn’t work? Going out with your colleagues every friday after work made me want to start up smoking.
Ask yourself what could you have done differently? sometimes we just get lazy and start to follow someone elses advise. That is why you have to set your why. Every Month: Ask yourself, Are you where you want to be?
Are you on the right track?
It takes a little slip to get off track. NO worries it is easy to get back on track. Just got to FOCUS.
Long term use of statins, cholesterol lowering drugs, is unsure especially in apparently healthy patients. What is apprently healthy. Well if someone comes into the doctors office with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, overweight or smoking they may be at risk yet they do not have diagnosed heart disease. It is quite often then we may know the patients risk. However, there is a time and place for recommendations of medications. I say give the patient a chance to make a change. If they do not respond then yes medications may be an option.
I just recently commented on Dr. Seth Bilazaria’s blog regarding the debate that took place regarding my last post with prescribing statins.
Here is what I commented on:
I really love the debate formats too, especially in the cardiology meetings. I cannot believe in the same breath you are saying that we all know the benefits of exercise and diet yet you require a randomized control trials. Let’s think about this for a second. We are talking about apparently healthy individuals who may be at risk and asking them to take a statin.
Using carotid IMT to track disease process has been successful yet who in their right mind is going to fund a study with diet and exercise vs a billiion dollar drug industry.
We know the benefits of lifestyle modification and we know the effects that take place on a biological level towards atherosclerosis yet getting out the precription pad seems to be many doctors course of action. Take some time with patients, learn about them and you will see them adopt healthy changes when you have the “serious” discussion that they may be heading for a heart attack or stroke.
Doctors have a power to maek a difference in their patients lives. Taking out a precription pad for apparently healthy individuals with no diagnosed heart disease is not always the answer. Cardiac rehabilitation programs and heart attack and stroke prevention clinics are the answer, not always drugs. Give the patients a choice, because no drug is free of side effects.
