Articles Tagged ‘heart’
Articles & Studies | By December 29, 2008 | By T. A. McNamee, MD | 2 Comments
Sometimes It’s Good to Be Cold – Therapeutic Hypothermia
The upper Midwest has been besieged by a bitter cold front for the past several days. Chicago recently reported wind chills of 30 degrees below zero, and several locations in North and South Dakota posted high ambient air temperatures of several degrees below zero, without wind chill. Though not exactly what most would consider desirable temperatures, cold temperatures, and more specifically hypothermia, have played an interesting role in health care. In its infancy, induced hypothermia was used primarily for amputations, in the hopes of providing some pain relief before the era of anesthesia. More recently, hypothermia has shown benefit in several areas, including the following: Read more →
- Should Doctors Engage in Racial Profiling?
- How Much is a Pound of Prevention Worth?
- Water – How Much is Too Much?
- Death from Broken Hearts and Octopus Traps
- The Virginia Tech Massacre
- Portrait of an Alzheimer’s Patient
The time was June 2000. Scientists with the Celera Genomics Corporation, in conjunction with the international Human Genome Project, announced that they had successfully derived the entire sequence of the human genome. Furthermore, they noted that humans share 99.9% of their genetic code with one another. This discovery served as the platform for the medical community to declare that there was no genetic foundation for the notion of race, and we were all just human beings. Read more →
The cholesterol-lowering drugs collectively known as “statins” are among the top drugs sold in the United States, and worldwide. Although current guidelines only recommend the use of statins for people with elevated cholesterol, there is new evidence that these recommendations should be expanded. The November 20, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine will report the findings of the Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER), which were also reported on November 9 at an American Heart Association Conference in New Orleans. The JUPITER trial studied nearly 18,000 healthy adults without high cholesterol and found that daily therapy with rosuvastatin (Crestor) significantly prevented cardiovascular events. Read more →
A few years ago, my friend encouraged her father to drink large amounts of water through hot and sultry summer afternoons in India in a bid to sustain hydration in him — with solely good intentions. The next year, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy — which meant that his heart muscles were not pumping efficiently; leading to water retention and dilation of the heart. While the water drinking of the previous year did not cause the heart failure, co-existence of both events could have had a devastating effect on his health. Unfortunately, a woman from Sacramento, CA was not as lucky, and died as a result of consuming too much water. She voluntarily consumed about 8 ounces every 15 minutes for a whole day while controlling her bladder. Read more →
It is now established beyond any doubt that women in particular can die of a broken heart. The good news is that if you can make it to hospital, your chances of survival are pretty high.
First described in 2005 in Japan, the Tako-tsubo syndrome (or the “broken heart syndrome”) is being increasingly reported in world literature, although it must have been happening all the time. In 80% of cases, it reportedly occurs in post-menopausal women above 60 years of age after an episode of stress or occasionally related to anger. Death of a close relative is the most common situation. Read more →
I’ve been pondering exactly how to post about what happened this week at the campus of Virginia Tech. I’ve got so many emotions about the killings of so many innocent people. I’m deeply saddened by all of it. At times, I’m a little numb because death is really something that is a daily part of a physician’s life. I’ve also just felt angry at society for allowing this to happen. At other times, I’m just angry with the killer.
The news has been going nonstop about this event. Who is to blame? Mr. Cho? His parents? His friends? The Virginia Tech community? No one? Read more →
Living with Alzheimer’s disease is challenging for the patient and the entire family. AP Psychology student and elder brother Steven and Robert Griegoliet document the daily life of their grandfather James Conran suffering with Alzheimer’s. “During my grandfather’s last few days at home before his admission into an assisted living home geared towards Alzheimer’s patients, I made a short documentary,” says Robert, who serves as the director, editor, researcher, and cameraman of the project. “The video shows the dementia in a humorous, factual, and heart-touching way. Symptoms of dementia are listed throughout the video along with examples from my grandfather. It was my brother’s final project for psychology, hence his name in the credits, not mine.” Read more →
Monday, March 22, 2010
- Religion - A "Natural" Phenomenon?
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 1 - The Five Myths
- How Culture Shapes Our Mind and Brain
- Sex, Violence and The Male Warrior Hypothesis
- The Secret to Good Health – Listen to the Data
- If Herbal Medicine is Medicine, Shouldn't it be Treated as Such?
- Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Neuroscience Conferences for 2010
- Too Much Information?
- "I Feel Your Pain" - The Neural Basis of Empathy
- Income Inequality and Health Outcomes
- The Evolution of Depression
- Journal Retracts Autism Research
- Speaking in Tongues - A Neural Snapshot
- Why Some Human Brains Become Leaders, While Others Followers?
- Post-Partum Psychosis - Rare but Real
- Is Your Doctor Happy or Burnt-Out?
- Worried Well on the Web
- Ginkgo Biloba Ineffective... Again
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 2 - The Solutions
- Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction
- Empathy – How Much is Too Much?
- Let the Matches Begin!
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 4 – Their Life Today
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 3 – Try to Work Out their Troubles
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 2 – Revealed to be Complicated
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 1 – Introduction
- Deep Brain Stimulation – A New Frontier in Psychiatry
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 3 – Equip Teachers with Prescription Pads?
- Why Some Human Brains Become Leaders, While Others Followers?
- Brain Blogger Finalist for Two 2010 Research Blogging Awards in Neuroscience and Psychology
- Tall Tales of Diabetic Amputations
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 2 – The Solutions
- Brain Blogging, Forty-Ninth Edition
- How Your Brain Groups Words
- The Child Brain and the Playing Teacher
- You Have a Right to Choose if we Agree
- Measuring Quality in Primary Care
- Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me A Match – The NRMP Main Residency Match
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 1 – The Five Myths
- When It Comes to Aging, Size Matters
- i agree you dianne...
- Often, patients report persistent physical symptoms, but no somatic ...
- Great help, understood who is a LEADER & a FOLLOWER. Is there a category wh...
- Don't agree, to my opinion empathy is not easily learned, it's a quality not eve...
- Thanks, got the meaning of INTELLIGENCE/IQ....
- I'm a 54 yrs old woman .i was working for a retail company for 5 yrs ,my husbend...
- Thanks so much for sharing. My daughter began having seizures when she was 17. S...
- yea ur right lol lughter the best medicine i cnt do without it in a day!!!!!!!!!...
- Very touching story. My heart goes out to your family. Seizures are tough. And ...
- Thank you for sharing your nephew's story. So hard on those who love him, but I...
- Congratulations to all who've matched! Although the results of NRMP Main Residen...
- It's been almost 25 years since my son suffered a TBI in an accident. He was onl...
- I tend to agree with the teachers.But a teacher can only keep a record about the...
- Very interesting article, the 5th paragraph gets a little biased...but I still e...
- Dear Dan,There is certainly much clinical interest in this field. ClinicalTr...
- I recently commented on a sciencedaily.com article reporting success with TRD an...
- I have family members who are teachers. After sharing this article with them, th...
- It is great that people are challenging the use of this medication. As, a societ...
- I agree with the stand of the teachers and their children's that more than half ...
- I think that there’s also a social aspect to it. If you grow up in an area where...

