From the monthly archives:
Stanford School of Medicine November 20, 2007 Michelle Brandt STANFORD, Calif. — The pedometer, a small, inexpensive device that counts the number of steps walked per day, could be key to ramping up a person’s physical activity. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that the use of a pedometer is associated [...]
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We connect to each other through our wounds. Rachel Naomi Remen When is was desperately trying to survive after the heart attack, I read everything I could to try to understand what I needed to do. While there was considerable information about dieting, exercise, supplements, etc., none of the information stood out or made much [...]
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Carolyn Thomas’s excellent and educational blog, www.myheartsisters.org, highlights Dr. Wayne Sotile’s Thriving After Heart Disease. It is very hard to find books about dealing with the emotions of recovering from a heart attack; this book seems to do that to some extent. Dr. Sotile’s book sounds quite worthwhile, but I have problems with the title. [...]
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It is easy to feel sorry for one’s self after a heart attack. However, in comparison, being diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gherig’s Disease) and losing the ability to breathe on one’s own seems much worse. Since she has almost no ability to move her muscles, Erin Worsham draws by using a [...]
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What goes on in the quiet desperate world of cancer is extremely revealing of our own culture. I am attempting to show what really happens: those who get better those who die, the doctors, the methods of treatment, the families of those who are afflicted. I am attempting to explore the psychology of cancer and [...]
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Arthur Dove The Red Sun 1935 When an artist friend of mine saw the material I had drawn after the heart attack (www.heartak.com), she said it reminded her of the work of Arthur Dove. (Dove was essentially the first abstract painter from the United States). He had his first heat attack in 1939; he never [...]
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“Being” in the hospital doesn’t really qualify as “being” in its usual sense of the word. Robert Pope was a young artist in Canada diagnosed with an aggressive from of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He documented his experiences in the hospital through art; the material was published as Illness and Healing: Images of Cancer. His work is [...]
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The PAIN Exhibit is an educational, visual arts exhibit from artists with chronic pain with their art expressing some facet of the pain experience. The mission is to educate healthcare providers and the public about chronic pain through art, and to give voice to the many who suffer in abject silence. (more) The role of [...]
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Medical News Today May 16, 2010 UC San Diego Health System is enrolling a small group of patients in a two-year study to examine the safety of a non-invasive cardiac shock wave procedure for patients with chest pain caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart. Angina pectoris is a debilitating form of pain that [...]
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Singularity Hub May 13, 2010 Research recently published in Circulation Review sheds some light on how human stem cells affect myocardial damage. Scientists studied the long term effects of stem cell therapies by introducing human cells into damaged mouse hearts. Dr. Edward Yeh and colleagues at the University of Texas MD Anderson Center in Houston [...]
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Medical News Today May 15, 2010 Newly published data confirm a non-invasive Respiratory Stress Response (RSR) can quickly and accurately measure the presence of significant coronary artery disease (sCAD), the leading cause of cardiovascular death worldwide. Patients in the study with sCAD had a lower RSR compared to patients without. These data, published in the [...]
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Medcape Today March 26, 2010 A small study published this week points again to the beneficial effects of coffee consumption. Researchers showed that drinking coffee led to improved markers of subclinical inflammation and oxidative stress, as well as increases in high-density lipoprotein (HDL)–cholesterol levels [1]. “We found some evidence of beneficial effects on the lipid [...]
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Boston Globe May 9, 2010 … A recent study by Harvard’s Kaptchuk suggests the importance of ritual and the doctor-patient relationship. A 2008 paper published in the British Medical Journal described experiments conducted on patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Two groups underwent sham acupuncture, while a third remained on a waiting list. The patients receiving [...]
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The Main Artery It appears that concierge medicine is moving beyond primary care to take hold in cardiology. Cardiologists with the Pacific Heart Institute in Santa Monica, CA recently announced that they will start charging patients between $500 and $7,500 for special “extended” access services and same-day appointments. Starting April 1, patients at Pacific Heart [...]
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Medical News Today; May 11, 2010 A study of 10,000 civil servants in London, England found that people who worked three or more hours longer than a normal 7-hour day had a 60% higher risk of developing heart related problems, such as death from heart disease, non-fatal heart attacks and angina. “The association between long [...]
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Reuters, May 7, 2010 – A couple of cups of coffee a day may help some heart attack patients to avoid further serious problems, provided they have normal blood pressure, researchers said on Friday. The finding is somewhat surprising, given the fact that strong coffee can cause palpitations, but it underlines the complex nature of [...]
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MedicineNet; March 5, 2010 Increasing consumption of sugary soft drinks contributed to 130,000 new cases of diabetes, 14,000 new cases of heart disease and 50,000 more life-years burdened with heart disease in the last decade, a new U.S. study finds. “The finding suggests that any kind of policy that reduces consumption might have a dramatic [...]
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Wall Street Journal April 10, 2010 Do you sometimes think you can’t be heart-healthy unless you’re a vegetarian marathon runner with minimal body fat, barely detectable cholesterol and a pact to avoid ice cream that is signed in blood? Well, think again. There’s mounting evidence and support among cardiologists that moderation in the battle against [...]
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Medical News Today; May 5, 2010 A diagnostic tool developed by Rice University scientists to detect heart attacks using a person’s saliva is being tested at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston. John T. McDevitt, professor of chemistry and bioengineering at Rice, and [...]
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Carolyn Thomas’s www.myheartsisters.org — the best heart blog on the web — has a recent post about “Walk often, Walk Far”. The study compared two exercise programs: 1. Standard cardiac rehab exercise: 25-40 minutes of exercise three times per week at approximately 65-75% peak aerobic capacity. This included 25 minutes of treadmill walking and 8 [...]
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