Submitted by Dr T on July 13, 2011 – 4:39pm Question: My brother is 34 years old with Type I Diabetes. He is healthy overall and runs/exercises regularly. He’s had chest pain now for about 2 months, with changes in severity. He’s been to the ER, his family dr, etc. He’s had an endoscopy, stress test (scoring in 96th percentile), …
High cholesterol in a very healthy male
Submitted by Dr T on July 13, 2011 – 8:51am in Other Question: I am a healthy 55 year old man, who does not smoke, who exercises, and eats a low fat diet with lots of fruits and vegetables (I have been a vegan for 14 years.) Nonetheless, probably due to genetics, I have struggled (sometimes unsuccessfully) keeping my cholesterol …
An abnormal heart shape in a young man
Submitted by Dr T on July 12, 2011 – 9:01am in Other Question: Hello I’m searching for information on the heart. My son age 24 has just been sent back to the states from Afghanistan from his job. After his smallpox vaccination he began having chest tightness and rapid heart rates. He was medically advise to return home and see …
Heart health and Obesity
Submitted by Dr T on July 11, 2011 – 5:32pm Question: My question is could there be something wrong with my heart, because I am 27 and even though I am not big on bulking up, I do enjoy jogging and could really use the exercise because I am now at 285 lbs. 5’11. However, I understand the results of …
More on unnecessary stents
Submitted by Dr T on July 11, 2011 – 11:47am in Professionals It seems I am not the only one writing about over-used stent procedures: Maggie Mahar from Health Beat: “Even though many well-designed clinical studies conclude that drug therapy alone can reduce the risk of heart attack and death in people with stable coronary artery disease just as well …
Is a low HDL a cardiac risk?
Submitted by Dr T on July 11, 2011 – 8:29am in Cardiac Risks Question: Hi. I am a 42 year old male. I just had a physical and my HDL was 29.0. My total chlesterol was 137, Tri 99, LDL 88.2, VLDL 19.8. I weigh about 188 lbs and am 5-10″ tall. I should probably lose about 5 – 10 …
Pregnant and Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM)
Pregnant and Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) Submitted by Dr T on July 10, 2011 – 8:02am Question: Hello. I am 38 weeks pregnant and last week I went into the hospital for severe dehydration and they were all set to let me go, but the on call resident said she didn’t like the way my heart sounded and ordered an EKG/ECG… …
Are insured patients an easy target for unnecessary procedures?
Submitted by Dr T on July 9, 2011 – 5:57pm in Professionals A recent article about usage of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in the US showed that almost 70% of “non-acute” patients had private insurance, not noted as a factor in the patients needing urgent or emergency procedures: In addition, this group of patients was often characterized by the presence …
Worried about peripartum cardiomopathy
Submitted by Dr T on July 9, 2011 – 10:21am Question: I have pregnancy induced PVC’s and PAC’s with some runs of NSVT. A holter showed I have about 7000 per day. I had an echo done in May that was clear. But, I have heard of peripartum cardiomopathy which occurs in the final month or months after pregnancy, and …
New chest pains when suddenly scared
Submitted by Dr T on July 8, 2011 – 9:39am in Chest Pain Question: I recently was driving and thought I was going to be hit by an oncoming vehicle. I was very suddenly scared. When this happened my entire left arm went numb and it almost seemed paralyzed with this feeling slowly wearing off over 30 minutes. I had …