Harvard Heart Letter articles from March 2003

Harvard Heart Letter archives from March 2003

Hats off to an old blood pressure drug.(diuretics)
March 1, 2003... For treating high blood pressure, an old - and inexpensive - medication is a great place to start or a good one to add. Good news from the largest head-to-head comparison of drugs that lower blood pressure: For many people, the best type...

Should you see about your CRP?(C-reactive protein)
March 1, 2003... A simple blood test for C-reactive protein is joining cholesterol screening as an early warning for heart disease. But not everyone needs it. In the fight against heart disease, cholesterol has long been vilified as Public Enemy Number...

No age limit for cholesterol-lowering benefits.
March 1, 2003... Older people gain as much as younger people from cholesterol-lowering statins. One of the most frequent questions we get from readers is whether an 80- or 90-year-old should bother taking one of the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. One...

Slow? Or steady? Both win the race.
March 1, 2003... For taming atrial fibrillation, controlling the heart's rate or its rhythm work equally well. Either way, it's important to keep taking drugs that prevent blood clots. If your heart slips into the erratic rhythm known as atrial...

Heart Beat - Don't let drug names confuse you.
March 1, 2003... Hundreds of drugs are used to treat or prevent heart disease, stroke, and other problems in the circulatory system. Some have names that can easily be mixed up with another drug, especially when written in a doctor's fast scrawl on a...

Heart Beat - Smart pacemakers join the Web.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The same technological advances responsible for the ever-shrinking and ever-more-versatile cellphone are also being used to engineer smaller, smarter pacemakers and implantable cardioverters/defibrillators (ICDs). The latest generation of...

Heart Beat - Anti-inflammatory drugs may put on the pressure.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... If you are one of the 20 million or so Americans with both arthritis and hypertension, beware that the medications you use to ease your aching joints may also boost your blood pressure. Older nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)...

Ask the Doctor - Diet drugs and heart valve problems.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Q I took the diet drug sibutramine (Meridia) for two months but stopped when I heard that its use had been linked to some deaths. During this time I developed mitral valve regurgitation. Could this have been a side effect of Meridia? A...

Ask the Doctor - Should I worry about my triglycerides?(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Q At age 62 I'm a bit overweight and have diabetes. I take a statin, and my LDL cholesterol is good (84 mg/dL). But my HDL is low (30 mg/dL) and my triglycerides are above 300 mg/dL. Are high triglycerides a problem? A Not long ago, few...