Harvard Heart Letter articles from September 2004

Harvard Heart Letter archives from September 2004

Getting to the heart of diabetes.
September 1, 2004... Move over, blood sugar. In the fight against diabetes, it's time to focus on managing cholesterol problems and blood pressure, too. Ever since diabetes was first described more than three thousand years ago by physicians to the pharaohs,...

Thwarting an aspirin allergy.
September 1, 2004... Aspirin can trigger allergy and asthma symptoms. Careful desensitization can hold them at bay. Simple, inexpensive aspirin has been hailed as a miracle drug. It can ease pain, cool a fever, and prevent a heart attack. It may even ward off...

Consistent vitamin K helps warfarin do its job.
September 1, 2004... Food can throw off warfarin's ability to prevent blood clots. Keeping your vitamin K intake relatively constant can help you avoid problems with this medication. Most drugs used to fight or prevent heart disease can be taken without a...

New light shines on old "vitamin".
September 1, 2004... Vitamin D's influence extends beyond bone to blood pressure and heart disease. Most of us think of vitamin D -- if we think of it at all -- as a one-trick pony involved in building bone. It's actually far more versatile. Vitamin D is...

The long reach of cigarette smoke.
September 1, 2004... New research extends the case against secondhand smoke by linking it to heart disease. Smoking, first fingered as a prime cause of lung cancer, also contributes to heart disease. Compared with nonsmokers, smokers have double the chances of...

Heart beat; Double trouble.(high blood pressure)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Is your blood pressure high? If so, the odds are good that your cholesterol levels are out of whack, too. A long-term study of more than 2,300 men and women with high blood pressure showed that almost two-thirds had either high LDL (bad)...

Heart beat; Skip your beta blocker, miss its benefits.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... One of the proven strategies for preventing a second (or third) heart attack is taking a beta blocker. By slowing the heart and easing its workload, beta blockers can help heart attack survivors live longer and lower their chances of having a...

Heart beat; Eating to ease inflammation.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Inflammation, so the thinking goes, lights a fire under heart disease by fueling atherosclerosis, the process that gives rise to cholesterol-clogged arteries. Can you cool it? Try a Mediterranean-type diet, suggests a report in the July 7, 2004...

Ask the doctor; Should I have a "diamond-tip rooter" procedure to clean out calcium in an artery?
September 1, 2004... Q My cardiologist had me get a scan for calcium in the arteries. It showed a 50% blockage in a coronary artery. Now he wants me to have the calcium deposits in that blockage removed with a diamond-tip rooter. I am 84 years old, not overweight,...

Ask the doctor; Does low-dose Coumadin plus aspirin prevent blood clots?(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Q I have been taking Coumadin since I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. After I had a pacemaker implanted, my doctor added a baby aspirin. Things seemed to be going fine until a replacement cardiologist told me to stop taking the aspirin...