Can Alcohol Soothe a Broken Heart? [may be effective treatment for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy]

Israel National News ^ | 19:04 Jul. 23, '03 / 23 Tammuz 5763

[yonif]

Alcohol, as it turns out, may be an effective and safe alternative to dangerous and complicated surgical procedures for patients suffering from Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is an excessive thickening of the heart muscle, which blocks the flow of blood out of the heart and to the rest of the body. It is thought to be a major cause of sudden heart failure deaths among athletes and young people. The alcohol treatment, developed and put into practice at the Bikur Holim hospital in Jerusalem, involves the injection of alcohol (97%) directly into the blood vessels supplying the engorged area of the muscle. This injection cuts off supply of blood to the specific area affected, thus lessening the blockage of the exit valve of the heart’s left ventricle. The alcohol injection has thus far led to improved cardiac performance in 90% of the heart patients so treated, eliminating the need for dangerous surgical alternatives.

Professor Andrei Kern, the chief of cardiology at Bikur Holim and the secretary of the European Federation for the Study of Cardiomyopathy, says that the new treatment is not suitable for everyone suffering from the disease. “Others,” the professor notes, “are treated with drugs and/or through implantation of a defibrillator to improve the clinical status and to prevent sudden death.”

[yonif]

Ping.

[camle]

i knew it. enough martinis and you'll forget anybody

[dighton]

It looked like good preventive medicine, right up to the word injection.

[Puppage]

[AppyPappy]

I think I got it bad.

[BluH2o]

The alcohol injection has thus far led to improved cardiac performance in 90% of the heart patients so treated, eliminating the need for dangerous surgical alternatives.

Good ... however, I prefer to ingest alcohol the old fashioned way ... not inject it.

[fml]

--i knew it. enough martinis and you'll forget anybody --


And while you try to forget, everyone else gets better looking.

[Cacique]

I knew it. HIC!

[joesnuffy]

I'll drink to that

[harpseal]

I propose a toast to the researchers.

[RS]

Beer ! .... Is there anything it can't cure ?

[Phantom Lord]

"To Alcohol! The cause of, and solution to all of lifes problems." --Homer Simpson

[Phantom Lord]

"Alcohol has ruined my life. I am only 31 years old." --Hans Moleman

[gorush]

If I have to die, let it be from hypertrophic cardiomyopothy while I am putting up a gallant fight.

[Constitution Day]

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -

Benj. Franklin

[Darth Reagan]

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with the fools he must come in contact with every day. Ernest Hemingway

24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? Stephen Wright

[Constitution Day]

Hemingway's quote reminds me that:

"I drink to make other people more interesting."

- George Jean Nathan

[Phantom Lord]

Just wait till Saturday night!

[AnalogReigns]

"Better a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy!" -- W.C. Fields