Blisstree » cardiology

Specialized medicine- isn’t it grand?

Kendra James, RN — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:16:19 +0000

Thought I would share this funny little joke that I ran across today… since cardiology is so darn specialized…

What’s the difference between a general practitioner and a specialist?
One treats what you have, the other thinks you have what he treats.

I actually chuckled out loud!

via Professional Jokes

Post from: Blisstree

Specialized medicine- isn’t it grand?

“Patch” Helps The Heart Grow New Cells

Kendra James, RN — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:37:09 +0000

A new “patch” that is placed on damaged portions of a heart can help regenerate cardiac cells after a heart attack and regenerate heart function. This is pretty amazing stuff. Now if we can make the transition from rats to humans we could see a decrease in the need for heart transplants.

“Normally, adult human hearts do not regenerate because the heart doesn’t make more cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) after injury,” explained lead researcher Dr. Bernhard Kuhn, from the Department of Cardiology at Children’s Hospital Boston. “It would be desirable to induce the heart to make new cardiomyocytes after injury.”

Major advantage to this type of therapy…

The advantage of this technique is that it doesn’t require new cells, such as stem cells, to coax the growth of new heart cells. Stem cells might also migrate to other parts of the body, with unknown consequences, Kuhn said. The patch is “also not gene-based, so it’s not gene therapy,” he said.

I will keep you posted!

via Forbes.com

Post from: Blisstree

“Patch” Helps The Heart Grow New Cells

Heart Disease Kills Everywhere

Lei — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:25:23 +0000

Cardiovascular disease is typically associated with the excessive lifestyle of developed countries – higher fat, salt, and sugar intake coupled with physical inactivity. But even in developing countries, heart disease is a serious problem; it kills 13 million people, more than three times the number dying from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Considering that most of the world’s population live in a developing country, heart disease is a problem too big to ignore.

Dr. Runlin Gao, a cardiologist at Fu Wai Hospital:

The total disease burden of cardiovascular disease in China is higher than in the United States and most other Western countries. Cardiovascular disease has been the leading cause of deaths in China since the 1990s.

This suggestion by Dean Jamison, health economics professor at the University of California, San Francisco, was the most interesting and I’m sure many will find it too controlling:

You don’t have to change people’s hearts and minds, you change behavior through changing prices people face or changing specific aspects of their environment like putting in speed bumps or simply taking things off the shelves. They don’t have any choice.

But that’s exactly what will work. When I don’t have chips, cakes, or cookies in the house, I don’t eat it. If they’re there, I’ll eat it and more. It’s human nature.

Human nature will be the downfall of us all no matter where we are – developing country or not.

The Washington Post, April 5, 2006

Post from: Blisstree

Heart Disease Kills Everywhere