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Heart Attack
Nearly one third of patients with high blood pressure don’t realize it, and nearly 70 per cent of patients with high blood pressure don’t have it under control. New research has found that the risk of death from heart attack and stroke begins to rise at blood pressure as low as 115/75. Pulse pressure, the difference between the systolic reading and diastolic level, is an indicator of stiffness and inflammation in the blood vessel walls, and studies have shown it to be a strong predictor of heart attack and stroke risk. The ideal pulse pressure is between 30 and 40. Anything above or below that range signals increased risk for heart problems, reaching clinical significance at 60 and becoming even stronger at 70.
Within the next year a simple blood test for the enzyme myeloperoxidase, or MPO, can alert patients with chest pain whether they are at immediate risk for a heart attack.
About 26,000 patients a year have a heart attack after being sent home from the emergency room because existing tests showed they weren’t at risk. Women and younger patients are most likely to be sent home by mistake. Research at the Cleveland Clinic shows that the MPO test not only indicates who is at imminent risk, but also can help to identify those patients most likely to need a major heart procedure or suffer a heart attack during the next six months.
Doctors can now use a combination of CT and MRI scanning to assess whether plaque buildup is benign or risky without subjecting a patient to invasive diagnostic procedures.
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For patients whose LDL cholesterol levels are over 60, or C Reactive protein levels are over 0.5, the rate of recurrent cardiovascular adverse events (heart attack, stroke, aneurysm rupture) is more than double the rate of the average population.
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A very high C Reactive protein blood level in patients with stable angina can signal risk for rapid narrowing of the arteries. It’s important because patients with stable angina, which is chest pain that isn’t a heart attack, may be considered non-urgent candidates for angioplasty. Identifying patients likely to get worse quickly will allow doctors to treat them sooner.
STOP HEART ATTACKS
Most heart attacks do not occur because arteries are narrowed by plaque. Instead, a plaque bursts, a clot forms over the area, and blood flow is abruptly blocked.
The dangerous plaque is therefore the soft, fragile one. Stents and bypass procedures won’t protect against this. Plaque and heart attack risk can change very quickly – within a month- by something as simple as intense LDL cholesterol lowering to 60.
Statin drugs, niacin, antiplatelet drugs such as aspirin, anticoagulants such as Coumadin, blood pressure medication, and smoking cessation are the ways to prevent heart attacks, not the more aggressive and invasive surgical artery opening methods now frequently being employed.
Statins
Patients with acute coronary syndromes (heart attacks) in whom low C-Reactive Protein levels (CRP) are achieved after Niaspan therapy have a decreased risk of recurrent myocardial infarction (heart muscle death) or of death, regardless of the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol attained. The observed benefit was largely attributed to the anti-inflammatory effects of Niaspan. Statin (Lipitor, Pravachol, etc.)
Statins also up-regulate the production of nitric oxide synthase; boosting hepatic nitric oxide production might, in turn, suppress CRP synthesis.
Patients with acute coronary syndromes (heart attacks) in whom low C-Reactive Protein levels (CRP) are achieved after niaspan therapy have a decreased risk of recurrent myocardial infarction (heart muscle death) or of death, regardless of the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol attained. The observed benefit was largely attributed to the anti-inflammatory effects of niaspan. Statins (Lipitor, Pravachol, etc.) are out.
Anti-inflammatories of other kinds are in Curamin, Bromase, and Pycnogeno
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A tape measure around the waist
is a way to measure the
unhealthiest fat in your body. A
waist size of greater than 35
inches in women and 40 inches
for a man is an important
predictor of heart health and
may be one sign that you are at
risk for metabolic syndrome, a
collection of risk factors that
make you vulnerable to diabetes
and heart disease.
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