Do We Really Know What Causes Heart Attacks?
Is everything we thought we "knew" about heart disease wrong?
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1104631
This study showed that:
"Among patients with acute myocardial infarction without prior cardiovascular disease, in-hospital mortality was inversely related to the number of coronary heart disease risk factors."
That means that people dying from their first heart attack had less conventional risk factors than those that survived. Those traditional risk factors are:
- Hypertension
- Smoking
- Cholesterol
- Family history
- Diabetes
These appear to be obvious things that we've had ingrained into our minds that they lead to heart attacks. We need a better framework for gauging and assessing risk. Things like inflammation, stress levels and management practices and nutrition are likely bigger pieces to the pie. Unfortunately assessing these take time, too much time to fit into the 7 minute office visit. It's easier to look at a cholesterol level and write for a statin. Or see the smoking checklist and say, "Stop." Let's not forget the "care" part in healthcare.
Contributed by:
Dr. Jeffrey Gladd
Owner
Dr. Jeffrey Gladd graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine in 2001. He then went on to train in family medicine...
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