WHAT IS CORONARY ARTERY BLOCKAGE AND A VIDEO ILLUSTRATING ANGIOPLASTY

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Sometimes Doctors Use Only Medicine to Treat a Blockage Watch a Video that Shows How Coronary Angioplasty is Done

The heart is a muscle and like all muscles the heart needs it's own blood supply. The heart gets oxygen and nutrition through it's own blood vessels called coronary arteries. The coronary arteries can become narrowed or blocked by deposits called plaque. Coronary artery plaque is made up of fat and cholesterol that builds up on the inside of the artery walls. This condition is called atherosclerosis . If the coronary artery blockage is not too severe, an angioplasty procedure can be used to open the artery. Angioplasty is used sometimes to open a blockage but not always. Factors involved in deciding to use angioplasty include how stable the heart disease is and how many coronary arteries have blockage. Sometimes just using medications may be sufficient to treat the coronary artery blockage.

Can You Treat Coronary Artery Blockage With Medicine





This Video Explains and Illustrates Coronary Angioplasty

HOW THEY DO CORONARY ANGIOPLASTY

The first heart angioplasty was done in the late 1970s. Angioplasty involves the use of a balloon catheter which is a small, hollow, flexible tube that has a balloon near the end of it.The doctor makes a small incision, usually near the groin, and inserts a catheter into an artery. Then x-rays are used to look at your heart and arteries. Dye is injected to highlight blood flow through the arteries. This helps reveal any blockages in the vessels leading to the heart. The balloon catheter is moved into or near the blockage, and the balloon on the end is inflated. This opens the blocked vessel and restores proper blood flow to the heart.

Omega 3 and the Heart




In some cases, a device called a stent is also placed at the site of narrowing or blockage in order to keep the artery open. A common type of stent is made of self-expanding, stainless steel mesh. Rarely, a special device with a small, diamond tip is used to drill through the hard plaque and calcium that are causing the blockage. This is called rotational atherectomy.

CAN YOU TREAT CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE HEART ARTERY BLOCKAGE WITH MEDICINE IT DEPENDS

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THE DOCTOR FOUND A BLOCKAGE ON AN ANGIOGRAM

How do you treat people with stable coronary artery disease,that is they have some blockages in the arteries that supply the heart muscle(coronary arteries) but they are generally doing well? A New England Journal article said "it remains unclear whether an initial management strategy of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)(that is doing something like angioplasty to open up the artery) with intensive pharmacologic therapy and lifestyle intervention (optimal medical therapy) is superior to optimal medical therapy alone in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events.

Click to Watch a Video Illustrating Coronary Angioplasty and What is Coronary Artery Disease

YOU MEAN YOU DIDNT PUT IN A STENT?

In the very interesting blog of an interventional cardiologist she writes about a conversation she had with a patient after she examined his coronary (heart) arteries with an angiogram and found some blockage. "A conversation after I perform a coronary angiogram: Me: You have a blockage in your artery. Patient: So you put in a stent? Me: No. Patient: You didn't open the blockage? Me: No. You will do better with medicine. Patient: The blockage is still there? Me: Yes. But it was a complicated blockage, and putting a stent in it just wouldn't be the right thing to do. Medication is a better way to treat this. Patient: Medicine? For a blockage?



"It seems intuitive -- Find blockage, open blockage, patient all better. It doesn't quite work that way. In fact, there's a medical trial published last year called the COURAGE trial that found that many patients with stable coronary disease do better with medicines than with angioplasty. There are definitely situations where angioplasty is the right thing to do, but there are others where medicines or surgery are better options".



"Further, any time we place wires, balloons, and stents in a coronary artery, there is a risk. We could tear the artery. We could puncture a hole in the artery, causing blood to accumulate in the pericardium, the sac around the heart. And the dye that we use can cause injury to the kidneys. These are just some of the many possible life-threatening complications.I'm sure there may be a few unscrupulous cardiologists out there who would be willing to put a stent in just about anything. The patient knows the blockage is open and does well, perhaps just as well as if no stent had been deployed, and yet an unnecessary risk has been taken".

Not Quite Common Sense

Optimal Medical Therapy with or without PCI for Stable Coronary Disease

DIET GOOD FOR THE HEART LOW TRANS FAT SATURATED FAT HIGH OMEGA 3 OLIVE OIL LIKE MEDITERRANEAN DIET SEEMS BETTER FOR CORONARY HEART DISEASE

Yet Another Study of the Benefits of Mediterranean Diet for the Heart

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We know that certain types of fats and cholesterol are related to heart problems. Trans fats and saturated fats are discouraged. Trans fats lead to higher LDL, the bad cholesterol associated with coronary artery heart blockage. Doctors have noted that some people have less heart problems and coronary artery disease. People living around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea have in the past been noted to have less than expected amounts of coronary heart disease. Could it be what they eat? The latest study in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests yes.

Click Here to learn about University of Toronto natural foods diet to lower cholesterol




The Mediterranean diet does not regard all fat as bad. In fact, the focus of the Mediterranean diet is not to limit total fat consumption, but rather to make wise choices about the type of fat in the diet. The Mediterranean diet is low in saturated fat. However, it views two types of fat, omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fats as healthy and places no restrictions on their consumption.






The omega-3 fatty acids are found in fatty fish (e.g, salmon, trout, sardines, tuna) and in some plant sources (e.g, walnuts and other tree nuts, flaxseed, various vegetables). Monounsaturated fat is abundant in olive oil, nuts, and avocados. Eating plenty of fruit, vegetables and fish instead of meat, not to mention olive oil rather than saturated fats.

What can you actually eat to copy the Mediterranean Diet



The study by Dr Panagiota N Mitrou (now of University of Cambridge, UK) and colleagues from the US National Cancer Institute appeared in the December 10/24, 2007 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. It confirms that among nearly 400,000 retired Americans, the closer they stuck to a Mediterranean diet, the better the outcome was. They looked at people with various levels of adherence to a Mediterranean diet.



This was just the latest in a line of studies to determine if components of the so called Mediterranean Diet, a dietary pattern based on food patterns typical of many regions in Greece and southern Italy in the early 1960s could account for this observation.

For example, "The Lyon Diet Heart Study enrolled 605 patients who had survived a heart attack. After 4 years, the patients who were eating a Mediterranean diet containing increased levels of both alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and monounsaturated fats (from olive oil and nuts) had a 55% reduction in risk of death and a 50% to 70% decreased risk of recurrent cardiac events, compared with patients who were eating a control diet . The benefits were not explained by changes in lipid parameters."



Understanding the Mediterranean Diet. Again the closer people adhered to the Mediterranean diet, the lower their levels of inflammation, which recent research shows plays a major role in development of heart disease.

Lyon Diet Heart Study