CardiacHealth’s “Ask Dr. T” was listed as one of the Top 10 Heart Disease Blogs of 2012 by Healthline Networks, a leading healthcare Internet company.

Last week I participated in a Podcast and sevral articles "New fronts in heart disease: perspectives from a heart surgeon" that were published in the Digital Journal. In it, I had the opportunity to discuss advances in the the treatment and prevention of heart disease. These were the questions that I addressed during the interview. For the answers I chose from a large variety of topics, outlined below. Of course, this is a very incomplete list, but nonetheless it involved far more that what could be covered in a half-hour podcast:

CardiacHealth  has been listed as one of the "Best of Cardiac & Heart Sites" by Pacific Medical Training

Diabetes affects nearly 26 million people, 8.3 percent of the U.S. population, or almost 100 million people if patients with pre-diabetes are included. The number of Americans with diabetes is projected to double or triple by 2050.

Where I live, on February 21, 2013 the issue of gun control resulted in an emergency session by the Maine Legislature, and a bipartisan resolution to enact a new law that will make identifying information of concealed-weapons permit holders private. It was the direct result of a perfectly legal request by a local newspaper last week for information on these permits. The resulting public furor, as well as a not-so subtle threat to withdraw advertising, prompted a hasty withdrawal of the request.

Yesterday, the medical correspondent to NBC aired a story with the conclusion: if you snore, you are at risk for developing heart disease.

Americans have the highest obesity rate in the world

(Image from: The World’s Top 10 Fattest Countries)

We have written about the effects of obesity on the economy a number of times. Here are the latest statistics:

Since the Korean war in 1953, examination of soldiers killed in action has shown evidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), even at a young age (av: 22 yo).  Gradually, the incidence CAD in soldiers has decreased from 77% to 8.5%:

Governor Chris Christie has done the fight against the obesity epidemic in America no favors, when he lashed out against a former White House physician worrying he might die in office as a result of complications caused by his excess weight.

ScienceDaily, 02/01/2012

Talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, 50, announced  she had sustained a heart attack that required treatment with a stent. At first she thought she pulled or strained a muscle. It wasn't until she felt nauseous and clammy that she realized something might be wrong. As she wrote on August 20th:

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death, responsible for over 800.000 death/year in the US.

The major Risk Factors for CVD and Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) are similar for both men and women, with several additional risk factors for women associated with pregnancy and polycystic ovaries:

A poor diet is responsible for a number of chronic illnesses such as high cholesterol, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, resulting in as much as 75% of the cost of medical care in the United States.

World-famous musician and singer Barry Manilow is one of the more than 2.5 million Americans living with Atrial fibrillation (AF, or AFib), a disease that causes your heart to race and beat out of rhythm, and make it hard to pump blood efficiently to your body.

People without heart disease should think twice before taking cholesterol-lowering statins. In a review of the medical literature, researchers found the drugs did appear to slash deaths ever so slightly in patients at low risk of heart disease. But many of the reports they looked at -- all but one funded by drug makers -- were flawed.

Ivabradine, a “sinus node inhibitor”, is now marketed in 27 European countries for the symptomatic treatment of chronic stable angina pectoris in patients with normal sinus rhythm who have a contraindication or intolerance to beta-blockers.

Former President Bill Clinton has become a vegetarian and now weighs again what he did in high school, and was recently named PETA's 2010 Person of the Year.

Excessive weight affects virtually every organ system in the body, increasing the risk of diabetes, myocardial infarction, troke, cancer, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, and other chronic diseases.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today released a Finance Committee report detailing the case of a doctor who reportedly implanted nearly 600 potentially medically unnecessary stents from 2007 through mid-2009 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland, and his relationship with the manufacturer of the stents, Abbott Labs.  The Senators’ report found that the questionable stent implantations cost the Medicare program $3.8 million during that period.

Rahm Emanuel said today city workers should take better care of themselves -- with City Hall's help -- as one way to  save taxpayers money by reducing health care costs.

A September 20, 2010, NYTimes article describes inaccurate outcomes with a point based tool to calculate your chances of developing coronary artery disease & stroke over the next 10 years. The simplified system was developed so doctors and patients would not need a computer. Each risk factor corresponds to a number of points; the more points you have, the higher your risk.

LONDON - Stroke patients over 70 who get stents to keep their arteries open may be doubling their risk of having another stroke or dying compared to patients who get surgery instead, a new study says.

Decreased Oxygen blood levels in the brain during heart surgery correlates to increased risk of suffering from the mental impairment dubbed "pump head".

May 21, 2010

A non-invasive and much cheaper test for coronary disease is available when  a diagnosis of CAD is uncertain. Until recently, CT Coronary Angiography (CTCA) could not adequately identify coronary artery blockages. While not accurate enough to provide a pathway necessary to identify and treat these lesions, it avoids the risks and high costs of cardiac catherization, an important benefit. CTCA is most useful in patients with moderate risk for coronary artery disease.

Losing weight is difficult, and keeping it off may be even harder. In a study, published in the March 24 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, middle aged women of normal weight needed at least an hour of moderate exercise a day to prevent gaining more than five pounds over a three-year period.

In a study, published on-line in the journal Circulation on April 13, 2010, cardiologists were asked under what circumstances they would order a cardiac catheterization. 29% of physicians ordered the test for other than clinical reasons, foremost amongst them malpractice concerns. About 25% of the doctors ordered more tests than were necessary, driving up costs. Others did it because of concerns of what competing colleagues would do in similar circumstances. The cardiologists indicated they rarely ordered a cardiac catheterization for financial reasons.

In a February 11, 2010 article published in the Wall Street Journal the excessive use of coronary artery stents was exposed. The COURAGE study, published in 2007, argued that 1 million PCI procedures are performed each year, with at least 30% being performed in stable CAD patients. Based on the COURAGE trial results, 300,000 of these procedures could be deferred.

Calculate the cost of your Healthcare under the new Healthcare Reform Bill

This link from The Kaiser Family Foundation calculates the costs for persons aged 19-64 who have to buy their own health insurance. As a drawback of this calculator it doesn't compare with costs under the previous system.

http://healthreform.kff.org/Subsidycalculator.aspx?CFID=23012004&CFTOKEN=77740642&jsessionid=6030617e4563721fa11313c7d5a7c756271b

The new Healthcare Bill

With the passage of this new Health Care Reform Bill, do you think that the pros outnumber the cons?

Obama explained in its signing ceremony at the White House that “this legislation is not going to repair every thing that ails our health care system, but it moves us decisively in the proper course.

Will this $940 billion new Health Care Reform Bill be advantageous for the the vast majority of People in America? Let’s look at a number of the facts as we try to clarify the benefits and drawbacks of this new Health Care Reform Bill:

On Healthcare:

What is the alternative to ObamaCare?  None has ever been proposed by the Republicans other than canceling it altogether.