Stories That Could Save Your Life
Fight the Ladykiller
For generations, heart disease has been the #1 killer of women, striking women of every age, color and culture. Heart disease claims one woman every MINUTE, killing more women than men, and more women than all other cancers combined. Fight the Lady Killer - #GetHeartChecked. #heart
Heart disease remains the world’s No. 1 cause of death—and COVID-19 will likely keep it there
Michael Walter | January 27, 2021 | COVID-19
“COVID-19 has taken a huge toll on human life worldwide and is on track to become one of the top three to five causes of death in 2020,” wrote Salim S. Virani, MD, PhD, chair of the writing team behind the report and a cardiology professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said in a statement. “But its influence will directly and indirectly impact rates of cardiovascular disease prevalence and deaths for years to come…”
Neurologists Explain why COVID-19 Increases a Person’s Risk of Stroke
Michael Walter | December 21, 2020 | COVID-19
angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) production can help the virus “bind” to certain cells and enter a person’s blood vessels—and ACE2 production rises due to shear stress.
“This finding could explain the increased incidence of strokes seen in COVID-19 infections,” corresponding author Jason D. Hinman, MD, PhD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said in a statement.
The team also found that, after COVID-19 binds to a person’s endothelial cells, it is possible to differentiate those cells from cells that originate in other parts of the body.
“There’s a unique brain endothelial response to the virus that may be helpful in identifying patients who are have a higher risk for stroke,” Hinman added.
Confirmed: AFib patients with COVID-19 face a greater risk of death
Michael Walter | January 28, 2021 | Heart Rhythm
“Atrial fibrillation (AFib) patients hospitalized with COVID-19 face a heightened risk of poor outcomes, including death, according to a new meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Cardiology.”
“Women: Don’t Ignore These 3 Subtle Heart Attack Symptoms”
Dramatic chest pain isn't always one of the clues
We always associate chest pain with heart attacks, and for good reason, but it’s not the whole story ― especially for women. While chest pain is the most common symptom of a heart attack, women can have symptoms that aren’t related to chest pain at all, says cardiologist Leslie Cho, MD. They need to be on the lookout for other, subtler symptoms.
“Also, we need to dig deeper into the symptom of chest pain for both men and women as it relates to heart attacks,” Dr. Cho says. “It is seldom as dramatic as you might think, and it can feel like pressure or heart burn that comes on over time.”
Featured in Wall Street Journal:
The Scan That Saved My Life
“After decades of exercise and healthy, a reporter’s blocked artery came as a shock; the debate over testing to prevent debilitating strokes” - Thomas Burton
Reporter Thomas M. Burton, right, spoke this month with Bruce Perler, a professor of vascular surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. On June 27, Dr. Perler performed an operation to unblock one of Mr. Burton’s carotid arteries. STEPHEN VOSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL