Harvard Heart Letter articles from August 2003

Harvard Heart Letter archives from August 2003

Guidelines put on pressure to lower pressure.(blood pressure)
August 1, 2003... Updated category of prehypertension puts millions on alert for early action. One morning in the spring of 2003, 45 million Americans who had gone to sleep with normal blood pressure woke up with higher-than-healthy blood pressure. The...

Lyme disease can tick off the heart.
August 1, 2003... Preventing a heart infection is one more reason to guard against tick bites. When the weather is warm, working outdoors or walking in the woods is likely to net you a tiny, blood-sucking hitchhiker - a tick. In some parts of the United...

Talk your way to better heart failure treatment.
August 1, 2003... "What we've got here is failure to communicate." This line from the classic Paul Newman movie Cool Hand Luke certainly applies to heart failure: Hormonal communication that compensates for the pumping problems at the root of heart failure...

Heart Beat - Location, location, location.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... While you probably can't blame your heart disease on where you live - it stems from a complex mix of genes and individual choices - your location may contribute to the problem. As these maps of heart disease deaths in women (top) and men...

Heart Beat - Cool therapy for heart attack.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... "Chilling out" may someday be part of the protocol for treating people whose hearts suddenly stop or those having heart attacks. Promising but preliminary work shows that cooling the body protects the brain and the heart when blood flow stops...

Ask the Doctor - Why did my blood pressure suddenly shoot up?
August 1, 2003... Q I have been taking medicines to control my blood pressure for about 15 years. My doctor and I have changed what I take many times. The combination that seems to work best is 50 milligrams (mg) of Cozaar and 4 mg of Hytrin a day (the...

Ask the Doctor - Are my ears a window to my heart?(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Q While I was getting my teeth cleaned, the dental hygienist asked me about my heart condition. She seemed surprised when I told her I had a healthy heart, because she said I had creases on both my earlobes. Is this an urban legend, or is it...

Ask the Doctor - Alternatives to aspirin?(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Q Almost every day I read how important it is for people with heart disease to take an aspirin. Unfortunately, I am allergic to aspirin. There must be others with the same problem. Are there viable alternatives to aspirin? It's discouraging to...