Are You a Ticking Time Bomb? (page 2 of 3)

The Future of Heart Disease Prevention

If Higgins hadn't happened upon that website, he might never have gone to his doctor. But even those who do go might not know their risk. Cholesterol scores can't always tell us who will be at risk. Screening tests catch only half of the population. For patients with symptoms, angiograms (in which a catheter is threaded through an artery into the heart for a look around) can provide good information on plaque buildup, blockages and heart damage -- after the fact. Still, these tests are too expensive and invasive to be used in patients with no symptoms.

And there are millions more like Higgins. In fact, John Postley, MD, an internist on the faculty of Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, says that blood vessels may start to show signs of lifestyle damage at an alarmingly young age. One study reports that the arteries of obese nine-year-olds are measurably stiffer than those of their peers. With the proper diet and exercise, their arteries can return to normal. By our mid-30s, the stiffening often progresses to hardening of the arteries, characterized by the buildup of plaque, which, if ruptured, can result in a heart attack -- within hours. But all plaque may not be equally dangerous. Calcified plaque is considered relatively stable and can indicate healing after a rupture has occurred. Fatty plaque is more susceptible to the cracking and clotting that lead to heart attacks. But most tests cannot detect this kind of plaque. And therein lies the problem: Until recently, doctors simply didn't have the tools to diagnose heart disease in time to prevent heart attacks.

Now, a new generation of noninvasive technology may change that. By looking directly into a patient's arterial walls using CT scanning, high-resolution ultrasound and MRI, doctors can see plaque building up years before it gets to the critical stage. Because risk factors can be as hard to read as tea leaves, Postley believes in proactively using the new diagnostic tools to predict and prevent arterial damage. The results? While we may not have a crystal ball to prevent heart disease, we may someday have the ability to eliminate most killer heart attacks well before they happen.

• • Your Medical Care
• • Anti-Aging
• • Heart Disease

• What Can Be Learned From a President's Heart?
• Evan a President can't command clear arteries.
• 
• Dr. Oz's 5 Tips for a Happy, Heart-Healthy Life
• The way you live does make a difference! Here's a pain-free prescription for bypassing heart disease.
• 
• 10 Easy Steps to a Healthier Heart
• Keep your heart healthy and reduce your heart attack risk with these simple tips.
• 
• Warning Signs of Heart Disease
• Important symptoms to watch out for.
• 
• Exercise Your Heart Attack Risk Away
• A healthier heart is as simple as a daily walk.
• 
• Know the Stages of Heart Disease
• How cholesterol wreaks havoc in your body.
• 

“ Trying to do everything is a one-way ticket to serious stress. Be clear about your limits, and stop trying to please everyone all the time. ”

• See All Tips

Bill Gates my father is not. As church treasurer, he had two computer files labeled "St. Mary's Income" and "St. Mary's Expenditure." While copying them from a Macintosh to a PC, he had no idea the PC would automatically truncate the file names to ten characters, eliminate spaces and replace apostrophes with periods. Now the church's income is stored in "StMary.sin" and expenses in "StMary.sex."

-- Christine Thien