A new type of treatment for cardiac fibrosis is on the horizon. Fibrosis occurs when an excess amount of matrix proteins, like collagen, develops and leaves pathological scarring. The heart becomes “stiff”. With inflexibility, the heart can not work properly, ie. it can not flex and relax.
Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death in the “Western world”. And with heart disease being so prevalent, too many patients deal with cardiac fibrosis on a daily basis.
The National Institutes of Health and the Novartis Corp. have funded an animal study that may lead to a possible treatment…
The …read more

Cardiac disease deaths fall while obesity and diabetes are on the rise.
So, that’s surprising? How can the amount of diabetics rise and yet cardiac disease among the very same people is decreasing. Bizarre? No…
Epidemiologists at the University of Liverpool and the Heart of Mersey have found that approximately half the recent fall in coronary heart disease deaths in the US is due to positive life style changes and a further half to medical therapies.
So yet another tribute to the ol’ healthy lifestyle. Diet and nutrition play such a big part. So, I promise …read more

What came first, the chicken or the egg? That is a question I often ask myself while “taking care of” my cardiac patients. As a nurse, my mind often wanders to the thought of, “what if they had taken better care of themselves years ago”? Now, I know that genetics and family history plays into cardiac disease, but so does obesity, lethargy and an unhealthy lifestyle.
So when my patients that haven’t exercised in years, not even a walk to the end of the driveway, are admitted to the hospital with CHF, MI, STEMI’s, angina, ACS and high …read more