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Posts Tagged ‘Coronary’

High cholesterol can lead to heart disease, and that’s terrible news, because heart disease is America’s leading killer!Watch More Health Videos at Health Guru: www.healthguru.com

Drug Eluting Coronary Stenting Abroad

Drug Eluting Coronary Stenting

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which monitors the use of medical devices, considers both bare-metal and drug-eluting stents to be safe and effective in most people. But, all stents involve some risk. Sometimes the angioplasty procedure itself can cause complications such as a heart attack, blood clots, bleeding or injury to the blood vessels. Both bare-metal and drug-eluting stents have a risk of clotting both early and late after implantation.

It appears that in some people who get drug-eluting stents, there’s a small increased risk of blood clots forming in the stent once the drug coating has been used up — sometimes a year or more after stent implantation. This risk is still quite low; about 0.5 percent or less when stents are used for FDA-approved reasons. The risk appears to be slightly higher when drug-eluting stents are used for off-mark uses, ranging from about 0.4 to 1.6 percent.

Do drug-eluting stents increase risk of heart attacks ?

An FDA advisory panel found that when drug-eluting stents are used “on-mark” — meaning for specific situations approved by the FDA — there was no increased risk of heart attack or death with drug-eluting stents compared with bare-metal stents. But, about 60 percent of the time stents are used for “off-mark” indications — meaning for reasons that, while appropriate, are not specifically spelled out in the FDA guidelines. When stents are used off-mark, it’s generally for more-complex cases, such as in someone who has multiple blockages and other complications.

The FDA panel said when drug-eluting stents are used off-mark, there’s a small but increased risk of blood clotting that can lead to heart attack and death. But, it’s unknown if drug-eluting stents cause this increased risk or whether people in this group tend to be at higher risk in the first place.
There are a variety of potential explanations for blood clots developing later after implantation. Much of it may have to do with how long a person takes anti-platelet medications — aspirin, clopidogrel (Plavix) — which help prevent blood clots from forming in the stents. If these medications are stopped earlier than recommended or an individual doesn’t have an effective response to the anti-clotting medications, there can be problems. People also have varying healing times.

What’s a stent ?

Stents are metal mesh tubes inserted after an angioplasty into an artery that has become partially or completely blocked. Stents help prevent restenosis — when the artery becomes blocked again. Without the use of stents, about 30 percent of arteries become blocked again…

So, bottom line, are drug-eluting stents safe or not ?

Based on all presently available information, drug-eluting stents are safe and effective in most circumstances. The key is you must be willing to take your medications in the prescribed manner and for the prescribed duration to help ensure safety…

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Coronary heart disease is characterized by atherosclerosis, which is the clogging and narrowing of the arteries. The heart is then deprived of oxygen, has distress pumping blood and may mutate. Reckon of it like what an exertion injury can do to other muscles in your body; causing hardening and scar tissue over time.

If your doctor tells you that you have high cholesterol levels or elevated triglycerides, then these are your first clues of metabolic failure. At this point, you will still have a chance of turning your life around before it’s too late!

Most people with coronary heart disease don’t realize they have it until it’s too late, even though basic medical tests can reveal telltale signs like elevated triglycerides and high cholesterol levels. Some people may experience “angina pectoris,” which is the medical term for discomfort, heaviness, aching, burning, numbness or pain in the chest, left shoulder, arms, back or jaw.

Often this pain will feel similar to indigestion but won’t occur around meal times. Depending on what kind of angina you’re suffering from, the pain may come after exertion (stable angina), when sleeping and while out in the cold (prinzmetal’s angina) or sometimes even just suddenly while resting (unstable angina). Shortness of breath, heart palpitations, dizziness, nausea and sweating often accompany the angina symptoms.

No matter what level of coronary heart disease you’re suffering from, lifestyle and diet changes are essential. All other treatments are merely complementary. In some cases, you may be prescribed medications to lower high blood pressure, oxygenate blood, slow the heartbeat down and open up restrictive blood vessels.

In severe cases, balloon angioplasty surgery, stent placement or coronary bypass are needed. Health experts are looking into new treatments like transmyocardial laser revascularization (TMR), which utilizes laser beams to blast through the channels in your heart muscle, freeing up blood flow.

Angiogenesis provides substances through the vein or directly into the heart, where the transporters have failed. Enhanced external counterpulsation can stimulate the opening of blood vessels in a very non-invasive way.

While some people are born genetically susceptible to coronary heart disease, the overwhelming majority of us become victimized by our imbalanced eating habits, our 50 hour work weeks, our poor sleep quality, our lack of exercise, our smoking, our drinking and our stress. There comes a point where we need to realize that work could be the end-all of existence if we don’t better organize our priorities.

On a positive note, more and more Americans are looking for healthier ways of living, judging by the number of self-help books flying off the shelves. There may not be an simple answer for lowering cholesterol or bypassing atherosclerosis, but with a positive attitude and a small bit of hard work, we can live a long, healthy life.

Coronary heart disease is often called coronary artery disease. A coronary artery is blood vessels, which are narrow tubes that carry blood to your heart. Your arteries can get built up with plague blocking the flow of blood and oxygen through them. Plague is a fatty substance made from cholesterol. It can happen in ay artery but it is much more serious if it is the coronary artery. Coronary heart disease can lead to very serious health risks such as angina and heart attacks.

If you are overweight or have diabetes you are more at risk of coronary heart disease. High blood pressure and high cholesterol will also place a person more at risk. Men and women can both get coronary heart disease and it can develop as a person gets older. It can also be a heredity disease.

Lowering your blood pressure if you have high blood pressure can reduce your risks of getting coronary heart disease and the same goes for cholesterol levels. Smokers are more at risk as well, nicotine raises blood pressure. After 2 or 3 years of not smoking your risk will be as low as the risk of someone who does not smoke.

Eating a healthy diet will lower the risk of coronary heart disease. Adding foods to your diet that are low in cholesterol and saturated stout will help reduce the risk greatly. Saturated fats are terrible because your body turns saturated fats into cholesterol. Getting regular exercise can make your heart stronger. Exercise can also lower blood pressure. Taking an aspirin everyday helps prevent heart disease but there are risks of taking it every day. Question your doctor if it is the right treatment for you.

Taking a vitamin supplement can lower a person’s risk of having a heart attack. Vitamin E is really excellent for lower the risk. Alternative Health Supplements offers a product called Super Cardio Program; it combines two vital steps for better cardiovascular health. The heart support has Coenzyme Q10, hawthorne extract, citrus bioflavonoid, and vitamin E to support the health of your heart. The artery support has folic acid, cayenne pepper, vitamins B1, B6, B12, and magnesium to maintain healthy blood flow.

Symptoms of coronary heart disease are most of the time very noticeable, but sometimes you can have the disease and not even know it. Chest pain or discomfort is the most common and noticeable of all the symptoms. The pain happens because there is not enough blood and oxygen getting to the heart. The pain will vary from person to person.

Symptoms may be very noticeable, but sometimes you can have the disease and not have any symptoms. There are two types of chest pain atypical and typical. Atypical is often sharp pain and will come and go. You will feel it in the left chest, abdomen, back, and arm. It is more common in women. Typical chest pain feels heavy or like someone is squeezing you. You feel it under the chest bone and the pain occurs with activity or emotion. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, heart attack, and fatigue with activity or feeling over exerted.

Treatments depend on your symptoms and how severe it is. Sometimes treatment can include one or more of the following; medicine, angioplasty, and a stent. By pass surgery could be required if heart attack was the symptom.