Harvard Heart Letter articles from March 2009

Harvard Heart Letter archives from March 2009

The flap over mitral valve prolapse.(Disease/Disorder overview)
March 1, 2009... The flap over mitral valve prolapse A billowing mitral valve poses trouble mainly when it gets leaky. It has been a long, strange trip for mitral valve prolapse. Since this valve abnormality gained its name in the early 1960s, it has...

Snapshot of the American diet: Foods out of balance.
March 1, 2009... Snapshot of the American diet: Foods out of balance Simple steps can help add more healthful foods to your diet. As a nation, we aren't eating as if our hearts and health depended on what we put into our stomachs. According to the...

Creating order from chaos: Taming atrial fibrillation.
March 1, 2009... Creating order from chaos: Taming atrial fibrillation Treatment focuses on controlling the heart's rate and rhythm and preventing stroke. Imagine an orchestra directed by many conductors, all with different scores. Each musician...

Heart Beat: Exercise benefits clogged leg arteries.(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Heart Beat Exercise benefits clogged leg arteries Exercise is excellent medicine for people with coronary arteries that are clogged and stiffened by cholesterol-filled plaque. Does it work as well for people with plaque-damaged leg...

Heart Beat: Gasping shouldn't delay CPR.(cardiopulmonary resuscitation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Heart Beat Gasping shouldn't delay CPR While coming out of the theater, you see a fellow moviegoer collapse. You rush over to see if you can help. He isn't moving and doesn't have a pulse, but he gasps for breath every so often. What...

In Brief.(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... In Brief Sleep and heart disease. Cutting short the number of hours you sleep night after night can do more than leave you groggy and reaching for caffeine. A study links sleeping too little with the deposition of calcium in the heart's...

Ask the doctor: Can I have a catheter procedure to stop atrial fibrillation?
March 1, 2009... Ask the doctor Can I have a catheter procedure to stop atrial fibrillation? Q. My doctor told me I should think about having a procedure something like angioplasty to stop my atrial fibrillation. Can you tell me more? A. I think...

Ask the doctor: Can I exercise even though my valves are leaking a little bit?
March 1, 2009... Ask the doctor Can I exercise even though my valves are leaking a little bit? Q. At 78 years old, I am in pretty good shape. A couple of years ago, an echocardiogram showed a small leak in my mitral valve. A year later, a follow-up...

Ask the doctor: Do statins affect blood pressure?(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Ask the doctor Do statins affect blood pressure? Q. I have been arguing with a friend about whether the statin drugs lower blood pressure. Do they, or don't they? A. Statins may lower blood pressure * the evidence is still thin *...