Recent Blog Articles
A muscle-building obsession in boys: What to know and do
Harvard Health Ad Watch: New drug, old song, clever tagline
Concussion in children: What to know and do
What color is your tongue? What's healthy, what's not?
Your amazing parathyroid glands
When — and how — should you be screened for colon cancer?
Co-regulation: Helping children and teens navigate big emotions
Dog bites: How to prevent or treat them
Will miscarriage care remain available?
Can AI answer medical questions better than your doctor?
Heart Health Archive
Articles
Studies hint at limits when reducing salt
“Limit salt” has been a key part of dietary advice for decades. Once aimed at individuals, the FDA is hoping to persuade food companies to cut back on salt added to prepared foods. That’s probably a good idea, since the average American gets more salt—and thus sodium—than needed, most of it from prepared foods. But the question of how low we should go with sodium hasn’t been answered. Two studies suggest that getting too little sodium could pose problems, just as eating too much does. Trials to determine the safest range for sodium aren’t in the offing. What to do in the interim? Aiming for the recommended target of 2,300 milligrams per day from all sources is probably good for most people.
Consumers could save as generic Lipitor hits the market
The patent on Lipitor, the world’s best-selling brand name prescription drug, expired on November 30th. That opens the door for less expensive generic versions of the drug, called atorvastatin, which are now available. In addition to atorvastatin, six other statins are currently available in the United States. Generic drugs are chemical clones of their brand-name counterparts. By law, generic drugs must contain the same active ingredients as the brand-name drug, work the same way in the body, and meet the same standards the FDA has set for the brand-name drug. One big difference is cost. Generic atorvastatin should be less expensive than brand-name Lipitor, although Pfizer, the company that makes Lipitor, is striking deals with insurers and pharmacy benefit managers to price brand-name Lipitor at or under the generic alternatives in order to keep sales of Lipitor as strong as possible for as long as possible.
Angioplasty a day after a heart attack not worth it
Medical therapy is better for late treatment.
Imagine this scenario: You've finally gone to the hospital because of chest pain you were having yesterday. After an electrocardiogram and blood test, you're told that sometime in the preceding 24 hours a clot in one of your coronary arteries cut off the blood supply to a section of your heart muscle. You had a heart attack!
So should you get an artery-opening angioplasty?
No. In 2006, the Occluded Artery Trial (OAT) determined that performing angioplasty — an invasive and expensive procedure — delivered no tangible benefit to people who'd had a heart attack more than 24 hours earlier and who no longer had symptoms.
December 2011 references and further reading
Angioplasty a day after a heart attack not worth it
Deyell M, Buller C, Miller L, Wang T, Dai D, Lamas G, Srinivas V, Hochman J. Impact of National Clinical Guideline Recommendations for Revascularization of Persistently Occluded Infarct-Related Arteries on Clinical Practice in the United States. Archives of Internal Medicine 2011; 171: 1636-1643.
Terkelsen C, Jensen L, Tilsted H, Trautner S, Johnsen S, Vach W, Bøtker H, Thuesen L, Lassen J. Health care system delay and heart failure in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention: follow-up of population-based medical registry data. Annals of Internal Medicine 2011;155:361-7.
Preventing pacemaker, ICD infections now a priority
If one occurs, early detection and immediate action are crucial.
Pacemakers and implanted cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are helping the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people pump at the right pace or nipping potentially lethal rhythms in the bud. But more people are developing infections after receiving such devices. Those infections keep people in the hospital longer and increase their risk of dying.
Putting heart attack, stroke triggers in perspective
The brief boost in risk usually doesn't linger.
Artery-clogging atherosclerosis is a slow, silent process that often begins in one's teens or 20s. Some people with atherosclerosis live out their lives completely untouched by it. Some develop chest pain (angina) or other problems when they exercise or are under stress. And some have heart attacks or strokes.
Beta blockers: Cardiac jacks of all trades
Uses for beta blockers range from lowering blood pressure to improving heart failure.
The release of the first beta blocker in the early 1960s revolutionized the treatment of chest pain caused by exertion or stress (angina). Over the following four decades, these old dogs have learned many new tricks, from protecting the heart after a heart attack to controlling heart failure. Today, millions of Americans take a beta blocker.
Healthy Eating Plate dishes out sound diet advice
More specific than MyPlate, it pinpoints the healthiest food choices.
With the overload of diet advice out there, it's hard to separate objective, scientific recommendations from those that are slanted by commercial or other agendas. That's why teams from Harvard Health Publishing and the Harvard School of Public Health came up with a graphical approach to healthy eating (below). Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate clarifies and amplifies MyPlate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, pointing you to the healthiest choices among the major food groups.
Recent Blog Articles
A muscle-building obsession in boys: What to know and do
Harvard Health Ad Watch: New drug, old song, clever tagline
Concussion in children: What to know and do
What color is your tongue? What's healthy, what's not?
Your amazing parathyroid glands
When — and how — should you be screened for colon cancer?
Co-regulation: Helping children and teens navigate big emotions
Dog bites: How to prevent or treat them
Will miscarriage care remain available?
Can AI answer medical questions better than your doctor?
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