Awesome.

http://tinyurl.com/c3u2lq

 

Oh happy day. We will soon be getting a "one size fits all" pill called a polypill. One that contains five medicines, a beta blocker, an ace inhibitor, a diuretic, a statin and aspirin.

Forget the fact that one person's need for different amounts of one of these medicines may differ from that of another person, you are all going to get the same amounts. I say you are all going to get the same amount because old Smitty is not going to take that thing.

I don't care how many trials they have run. I'm sure it has possibilities for simplifying the doctor's work, but I also see it as a good way to increase the business of the undertaker.

One of the reasons I will not take the medicine Plavix...

 

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/28/new-device-treats-common-heart-rhythm-disorder.html

(Copy & Paste to your Browser)

 

I recently read this article in the National Post and thought I would share it. The idea is so simple, I had just assumed it was automatically being done.

---

Airline pilots have used them for years as a proven method to make flying less dangerous. Now there is evidence that surgical staff can dramatically curb the amount of harm they inadvertently do to patients simply by working through checklists before, during and after operations.

Employing a standard checklist slashes the number of serious complications and deaths from surgery by more than a third, an international study published Wednesday by hospitals in Toronto and seven other cities concluded.

The concept could have a huge impact if in...

 

By Alex Nussbaum
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- A beating heart's excess energy was tapped by British scientists in a first step toward extending the life of batteries that power pacemakers and other medical devices.

A generator inserted into a pig's heart on the tip of a wire produced 4.3 microjoules of electricity, about a fifth the energy needed to fuel a pacemaker and enough to help recharge its battery, researchers said in a study released at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in New Orleans.
Defibrillators and pacemakers are pager-sized devices implanted in the chest to shock faulty hearts back into rhythm. Newer versions track blood oxygen levels, temperature and other data, but advances have been limited...

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4A81SS20081109

 

Saw this article you all might be interested in!

http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=19798

 

From TIME and CNN

Heart disease is often referred to as the leading cause of death in the U.S. — but in fact, nobody dies of heart disease, because there is no such thing. "Heart disease" is a catchall term that includes coronary artery disease, heart failure and cardiomyopathy (just as "lung disease" includes asthma, emphysema and lung cancer). It doesn't include heart attack, though, because a heart attack can be the result of one kind of heart disease or the cause of another — but isn't technically a disease itself.

If that sounds confusing, it's because the heart is only part, though obviously the most important part, of the cardiovascular system, which includes not only the heart itself but also the blood vessel...

 

By Debbie Gilbert

For people with heart problems, having an implanted cardiac pacemaker can be a lifesaver. But there’s a big disadvantage: If you need a magnetic resonance imaging test to diagnose an illness or injury, you can’t have it.
And it’s not for the reason you might think.

"Metal itself is not the problem," said Dr. Karthik Ramaswamy, a cardiac electrophysiologist with Northeast Georgia Heart Center.

People with certain types of metal objects inside their bodies, such as steel rods, plates or staples, cannot have an MRI because the machine contains gigantic magnets that could actually pull these objects out.

In recent years, most medic...

 

Sign me up! :-)

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/6762/

 

Copy and paste link into browser


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HEART_DEVICES?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

Are you tired of trying to get information about your heart condition from your cardiologist? Well take a look at what's available on EBay.

PORTABLE HANDHELD ECG EKG HEART MONITOR, NEW - Item number: 130220551045

Get the optional USB cable for only $7 extra and it will download the data to your PC and the software which will diagnose the data and give you your condition. The optional software ($35) will include 13 extra different types of arrhythmias. Looks pretty darn interesting.

This has to be a cardiologist's worst nightmare. A patient with the ability to have "do it your self EKG" and the software to give them a diagnosis.

Wonder when we will be able to get a do it yourself pacemaker ki...

 

I am sure some of you are on the drug DIGITEK. If you are not aware, it has been recalled. Check with you Pharmacist, your Doctor, go on-line at www.actavis.us or call 888-276-6166 for more information

 

So a man went to jail, and he was in his cell, when someone said 34, and the whole hall erupts in laughter. The man asked his cellmate what was so funny. he answered, '' Well, weve all been here so long, that instead of telling the jokes, we numbered them. try it.''. so the man says ''72'', and everyone is silent. the man asked his cellmate what was wrong, and he answered '' well, some can tell 'em, and some can't''.

 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - Implanted heart
defibrillators, which automatically shock a fluttering heart
back into a normal rhythm, can be hacked from the outside, U.S.
researchers reported on Wednesday.

There is no immediate danger to patients, the team of computer experts, electrical engineers and cardiologists
said.

But they made one Medtronic Inc device give up
patient information off its computer chip, got it to fire
improperly, and ran its battery down, all using inexpensive
equipment.

They offered a way to fix these weaknesses and said they
were publishing their findings not to frighten patie...

click to read more...

 

I found this article in Reader's Digest, and I was so fascinated that I had to share it with you.
In the near future, there will be a new protein, like a seed that causes new vessels to sprout, creating a network of capillaries and small arteries.
Could that be the end of open heart bypass surgery, or a cure for CHF?
Please read on.

~ Dominique ~

New Treatment for Heart Transplant Hopefuls
An experimental treatment is giving desperately ill heart patients a new lease on life.
By Lisa Collier Cool
From Reader's Digest
February 2008

Last Resort

Jim Blevins and Gail Keller were heart patients who'd run out of time. They had literally no options left—until they volu...

 

Have you seen the new pm by Biotronik. I read about it and it sounds great. It is called the Biotronik Cylos 990, Works on the right ventricular and knows when it is not doing its job. The reactions on it are apparently much quicker than an ordinary pm.

Bella

 

Just an FYI...I didn't know if anyone has read the story about the lab-created heart. Here is a link for the story at CNN if you're interested:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/14/rebuilt.heart/index.html

I'll also paste the news below in case you don't feel like cutting and pasting into your web browser.

ela-girl

---------------------------------------------------------

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Creating a replacement heart for some of the sickest patients may be one step closer, if new research in rats pans out in humans.


Researchers stripped cells from a rat heart and replaced them, getting them to grow into a "bioartificial" heart.

Researchers at the ...

 

Here's a good article-I've been telling people this for years!


Antibiotics May Not Aid Sinus Infections

By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer


CHICAGO (AP) -- Just in time for runny nose season, new research suggests routine sinus infections aren't really helped by antibiotics and other medicine that's often prescribed.

In the British study, people suffering from facial pain and a runny nose with greenish or yellowish mucous generally improved within about two weeks - whether they took the standard antibiotic amoxicillin, steroid nose spray or fake medicine.

The results, based on patients' reporting whether their symptoms had improved, echo previous findings in children.<...

 

Many of us feel like we may be walking around with a disaster waiting to happen in our chests. The following excerpts from an article on defective devices will not help those feelings but it is something very real that we have to consider. The article was of great interest to me because it tells me many things about what my recourse may be in the event I get a defective device as my replacement pacemaker, which will probably be in 2008.

From the Austin American Statesman - “The case dates back to a 1976 law enacted in response to the public health disaster caused by the Dalkon Shield intra-uterine birth control device. At the time, the federal government did not regulate medical devices. After lawyers for injured victims unc...