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Welcome to Buffalo Heart Health.  Buffalo Heart Health is a forum for patients to learn about their options when it comes to cardiac care.  We will gather the most recent journals, studies, and news on the options for cardiac care and post them in this forum.  Please take advantage of the opportunity to post comments about each article in regards to your opinions and experiences.  Your insight on these topics may help others who are facing a great decision in their lives.

“a well informed patient works in harmony with their medical doctor toward a positive outcome” 
– A.W. Robbins 1956 

THIS MONTHS FEATURE TREATMENT–CALL DR. MIKE 716.681.2968

What are Bioidentical Hormones?

Hormone levels decline as we age; bioidentical hormone therapy replenishes the hormones that your body needs to function. BodyLogicMD’s bioidentical hormone doctors use natural or bioidentical hormones versus bio-similar or synthetic hormones. Bioidentical hormones are molecule-by-molecule, exactly the same as the hormones present in the human body. At BodyLogicMD, your anti-aging physician will assess your individual needs and work to restore these hormones and customize a medical plan specifically for you.

Is Bioidentical Hormone Therapy For You?

BodyLogicMD anti-aging physicians offer bioidentical hormone therapy integrated with proper fitness and nutrition for women and men. This preventive medical approach helps put an end to the suffering caused by stress induced adrenal fatigue, signs of early menopause, menopause, perimenopause and andropause (the male menopause).

An Integrated Approach to Natural Hormones

Your BodyLogicMD anti-aging physician will also discuss the importance of good nutrition, fitness and lifestyle choices in your journey to better health with natural hormones. Eating right and exercising are equally important aspects of bioidentical hormone therapy or hormone replacement therapy (HRT). If your hormones are out of balance, your body will not respond optimally to improved nutrition and exercise. As your hormones, nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle improve – you will begin to feel like your old self with improved energy, vitality and results.

Who needs Bioidentical Hormone Therapy or HRT?

Women suffering from early menopause symptoms looking to put an end to hot flashes, night sweats, memory loss, mood swings, weight gain, low libido and hair loss in women are turning to BodyLogicMD to replace natural hormones. These certified anti-aging physicians design individualized programs specifically for each woman suffering from early menopause symptoms, menopause, perimenopause, and severe PMS.

Men experiencing the male menopause who want to get a grip on weight gain, lost libido, fatigue, stress, energy, muscle mass, and body fat are also finding solutions through BodyLogicMD’s natural hormone therapy. For men, andropause (the male menopause) happens gradually and when diagnosed, the symptoms are successfully treated using bioidentical hormone therapy.

DES (Drug-Eluting Stents) Linked To Serious Side Effects

Drug-eluting stents (also called medicated or drug-coated stents) were invented in response to a common side effect of balloon angioplasty surgery in which the coronary artery became weak and prone to collapse. Stents are a metallic metal “scaffold” or tube that is inserted into the coronary artery in order to prevent collapse. Further developments in stent technology led to drug-coating in which the stent was coated with a pharmacological agent designed to prevent reblocking (restenosis) through the delivery of time-released drugs into the bloodstream.

DES therapy is accompanied by antiplatelet drugs designed to prevent clotting of the blood within the arteries for at least six months. Common drugs include Ticlid and Plavix, which help to ensure that restenosis does not occur during the time in which the heart’s cells are growing over the stent and allowing it to “grow” into the anatomy of the coronary artery.

Growing Popularity

The first stents were used in France in 1986, and the first FDA approval for a metal stent ocurred in 1994. Drug-eluting stents were first introduced in the 1990s and have since grown into a multi-billion dollar business with over six million prescriptions in America and over $5 billion in revenues per year. American manufacturers include Medtronic, Boston Pharmaceuticals and Cordis, and the drug is also manufactured and marketed in Europe.

Drug-Eluting Stent Side Effects

Despite their growing popularity, drug-eluting stents have been linked with severe side effects including allergic reactions, increased risk for cardiac-related deaths and heart attacks, and thromobosis (blood clotting). The FDA warned United States patients about the Cordis CYPHER stent in 2003 after use of the CYPHER stent led to deaths in some patients due to sub-acute thrombosis, in which blood cells gather and clot around the stent, preventing the passage of blood through the artery.

In addition, a 2006 study conducted in Switzerland found that patients with drug-eluting stents are up to 40 percent more likely to die of a cardiac event, or experience a heart attack after insertion of a DES device.

In addition, increased incidence of non-cardiac conditions such as lung disease, cancer and stroke were found in some stent patients.
Stent thrombosis, a condition in which blood clots in the artery and prevents blood flow, is among the most dangerous side effects of DES treatment. The risk also exists with non-medicated metal stents, but a disturbing trend has appeared in coated stents in which patients experience a linear and cumulative rate of thrombosis over time.

The release of medication from the stent can lead to delayed healing and actually increase the likelihood of thrombosis at the stent site. In fact, in June 2006, Boston Scientific itself admitted that its own studies showed a higher increase in late stent thrombosis with its medicated stent product, implying that all drug-eluting stents might have this effect (a claim which was vigorously denied by its competitor companies).

Another drug-eluting stent side effect is dependence on antiplatelet drugs over the long-term. Since patients are usually put on Plavix and similar antithrombosis drugs after stent insertion, they are subject to the side effects of those drugs, which include a myriad of symptoms such as gastrointestinal bleeding, strokes, rashes, chest pain, flu-like symptoms, allergic reactions, and inability to have surgery in life-threatening conditions due to the drugs’ blood-thinning and anti-clotting effects. This is in addition to the cost of long-term Plavix use: while the minimum antiplatelet drug therapy averages around six months, some patients are prescribed Plavix for life.

If You’ve Experienced DES Side Effects

If you have experienced side effects due to medicated stent insertion, seek medical attention immediately. Then start looking for a lawyer who is experienced in medical device litigation. Your drug-eluting stent attorney can help you evaluate your potential claim and tell you whether you qualify for benefits such as future medical care, compensation for pain and suffering, and/or a monetary settlement for your medical fees.

About the Author

Visit http://www.LegalView.com for more on hernia patch recalls, or learn about other prescription drug and surgical drug recalls such as the Zetia and Vytorin, Avandia, Chantix side effects as well as the Trasylol Aprotinin recall, which can be found at http://trasylol-aprotinin.legalview.com/.

Author Profile: ahaburchak

 

If you’ve had a heart attack or a bypass operation, there’s an easy way to help prevent another one: stick with rehab.

People who get all 36 sessions of cardiac rehabilitation that most Medicare plans cover are less likely to die or suffer a heart attack in the next three to four years than people who have fewer sessions, a new study finds.

The research could encourage the multitudes of heart patients who don’t follow doctors’ orders to heed their advice. Only about one-fifth of heart patients even try rehab. Of those who do, few get all the sessions that are recommended.

The new study is one of the first big efforts to look at how survival is affected by the “dose” of rehab that heart patients get. Researchers saw a clear trend in this 65-and-older group.

“What this study shows in a very convincing manner is that the more sessions a cardiac patient goes to, the better off they are,” said Dr. Stanley Hazen, preventive cardiology and rehabilitation chief at the Cleveland Clinic.

He had no role in the study, which was led by Duke University scientists and published online Monday in Circulation, an American Heart Association journal. Federal grants paid for the work.

Say “rehab” and many people envision weak heart patients being pushed to run on a treadmill. Exercise is crucial, but “they don’t need to be grimacing and jogging around the track,” Hazen said. “It can be just a brisk walk or swimming or a stationary bike. That’s the key: find something you enjoy and are willing to do.”

To be covered by Medicare, rehab also must include lifestyle counseling - nutrition advice, weight management, help to stop smoking, even cooking classes and pointers on reducing stress, said the study’s leader, Duke biostatistician Bradley Hammill.

Many patients find they enjoy the counseling, he said. For some, it’s the first time anyone has explained the “how-to” of healthy living.

“After you’ve been hospitalized and somebody then talks to you about these lifestyle changes, it might be more likely to sink in. It’s the teachable moment,” Hammill said.

His study used records on more than 30,000 Medicare recipients who went for at least one rehab session after being hospitalized for a heart attack, a bypass operation, or chronic and severe chest pain due to clogged arteries.

More than three years later, 18 percent of those who attended fewer than 12 cardiac rehab sessions had died versus 11 percent of those who went to all 36 sessions. After taking into account age and other differences in these groups of patients, that works out to a 47 percent reduction in the risk of death for those attending 36 sessions. Heart attacks also were less common in that group.

There was a strong trend: as the number of classes went up, the risk of having a heart attack or dying in the next few years went down.

Surprisingly, only 18 percent of study participants went to all 36 sessions, even though Medicare - the government health care program for those 65 and over - was footing the bill. Researchers don’t know why so few stuck with it.

“It can be everything from the time required multiple times a week for so long, or transportation issues. Or it may just be that they feel better and don’t feel the need to finish,” Hammill said.

That’s the case with Tony Rugare, an 84-year-old Cleveland area man who had a quadruple bypass operation in October. He attended his fourth rehab class on Monday and plans to do only a dozen more.

“It’s a hassle getting here and parking,” he said. Once he’s had 16 classes, “by that time I think I know what to do and can go on my own.”

However, it could be that sicker patients drop out of rehab sooner, Dr. William Weintraub wrote in an editorial in the journal. He is a heart specialist at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del. Because the study can’t account for why people went to fewer or more sessions, it cannot prove that rehab alone accounted for better survival, he wrote.

But there’s good reason to believe it did: researchers did a separate analysis on only folks who went to at least six sessions and still saw the trend of fewer heart attacks and deaths with greater attendance.

Dorothy Roberts went to her seventh session at the Cleveland Clinic on Monday. She walks on a treadmill and is trying to quit smoking. Roberts, 62, said that her artery-opening angioplasty procedure was a “very scary” experience, so she plans to complete all 36 rehab sessions covered by her private insurer.

“If you have a second chance at life, you do what you can to stay here,” she said.

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On the Net:

Circulation: http://www.circ.ahajournals.org

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

 Questions to ask if your doctor tells you that you need stenting or coronary artery bypass surgery.

 

1.       Am I in danger of dying if I don’t have the procedure?

2.       Will the procedure prolong my life?

3.       What will happen if I refuse the procedure?

4.       Will medicine work just as well as stenting or surgery?

5.       Are there any other procedures available to reduce my symptoms such as chest pain or shortness of breath?

Facts

  1.     It has been known since 1979 that coronary artery bypass surgery only prolongs life under the      following circumstances.

a.       Left main disease or left main equivalent disease.

b.      Three vessel coronary artery disease with depressed heart function.

 2.     Since 2007, the results of the COURAGE TRIAL showed no difference in longevity in patients with chronic coronary artery disease who were treated with stenting as compared to patients who were treated with the usual cardiac medications.  Stenting has been shown to be beneficial in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarctions if the procedure is done within six hours of the onset of chest pain.

   3.     Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery has been shown to be superior to stenting for the long term relief of angina and also prolong life in diabetic patients.

 

Fast Facts on Coronary Heart Disease:

• Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States
• There are nearly 1.5 million heart attacks per year in the US, according the American Heart Association
• An American will suffer a heart attack every 34 seconds
• Coronary heart disease is also the leading cause of soaring health care costs; more than $475 billion spent annually on treating CHD, including
  • $100,000 for each coronary bypass surgery
  • $50,000 for each angioplasty
  • $30,000 for each diagnostic cardiac catheterization
• There are nearly 500,000 coronary artery bypass grafts and 1.3 million angioplasties performed every year
• Stress is thought to contribute to development of CHD

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