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Pfizer is investing billions of dollars in treatments to prepare for a looming “heart failure pandemic.”The Covid mRNA vaccine maker is making a big investment in treatment for heart failure as cases of myocarditis and sudden cardiac deaths skyrocket.The pharmaceutical giant recently acquired several companies.This includes a major $6.7 billion cash acquisition of Arena Pharmaceuticals.Arena Pharmaceuticals is a firm specializing in developing treatments, particularly for heart inflammation conditions like myocarditis and pericarditis.Pfizer is now predicted to make tens of billions of dollars in profits from the spike in heart failure.The company is expecting to capitalize on the huge spike in...

One of the world’s leading cardiologists has just given an explosive testimony before lawmakers on Capitol Hill, revealing the devastating side effects of Covid mRNA shots.Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough was among several leading experts, including Dr. Ryan Cole and Dr. Kirk Milhoan, to testify during a congressional hearing on Friday.The hearing was convened by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and sought to examine the risks to public health from the injections.McCullough delivered a powerful testimony in his opening statements, revealing numerous complications he’s encountered among vaccinated patients.“Yesterday, I saw patients with 2-foot blood clots in their legs after the...

Why So Many Heart Attacks, Stenting, and Bypass Surgeries Occur after COVID-19 VaccinationAs a cardiologist, I have received many reports of cardiovascular events (unstable angina, myocardial infarction) occurring after COVID-19 vaccination. Each vignette is different from an explosive fatal heart attack to rapid progression of coronary disease and the need for stenting or bypass surgery. A study by Gundy, who measured multiple biomarkers before and after vaccination was presented as an abstract at the American Heart Association; it predicted heart attacks would happen with COVID-19 vaccination based upon indicators that atherosclerotic plaque within coronary arteries would destabilize with circulatory Spike...

Drinking two or three cups of coffee every day may benefit the heart, according to studies being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 71st Annual Scientific Session. The American College of Cardiology said Thursday that consumption of the caffeinated beverage is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and dangerous heart rhythms, as well as a longer lifespan. The trends also remained true for those with and without cardiovascular disease, with researchers saying the analyses assure that coffee is not linked to new or worsening heart disease.

Last week, the Cardiology Advisor reported that according to a study presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2021 the risk of developing acute coronary syndrome (“ACS”) significantly increased in patients after receiving mRNA Covid injections.ACS covers a range of disorders, including a heart attack (myocardial infarction) and unstable angina, that are caused by the same underlying problem. The underlying problem is a sudden reduction of blood flow to part of the heart muscle. This is usually caused by a blood clot.The study, published 8 November 2021, included 566 patients, aged 28 to 97 years, in a preventive cardiology...

The nation's leading cardiology associations urged caution with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for COVID-19 in patients with cardiovascular disease. "Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin have been touted for potential prophylaxis or treatment for COVID-19; both drugs are listed as definite causes of torsade de pointes" and increase in the risk of other arrhythmias and sudden death, the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the Heart Rhythm Society said in a joint statement April 8 in Circulation. The statement came amid ongoing promotion by the Trump administration of hydroxychloroquine, in particular, for COVID-19 despite lack of strong data. In addition to...

The technique, which involves a simple injection, could aid the recovery of hundreds of thousands of heart failure patients - and could even consign heart transplants to history. Researchers hope to increase levels of SERCA2a, a protein in heart muscle cells that plays an important role in heart muscle contraction The technique, which involves a simple injection, could aid the recovery of hundreds of thousands of heart failure patients. Heart transplants could even be consigned to history thanks to a trial by Imperial College, London, which aims to show for the first time that gene therapy could repair failing organs....

Drugs that are used for treating Alzheimer's disease in its early stages are linked to a reduced risk of heart attacks and death, according to a large study of over 7,000 people with Alzheimer's disease in Sweden.The research, which is published online today (Wednesday) in the European Heart Journal [1], looked at cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs), such as donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine, which are used for treating mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease [2]. Side-effects of ChEIs include a beneficial effect on the vagus nerve, which controls the rate at which the heart beats, and some experimental studies have suggested that ChEIs...

Comment Now Follow Comments Earlier today I summarized the important new PREDIMED study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing the cardiovascular benefits of the Mediterranean diet. This study– a rare and much welcome instance of a large randomized controlled study of a diet powered to reach conclusions about important cardiovascular endpoints– has been widely praised and will undoubtedly have a major effect in the field of nutrition and will influence lots of people to adopt some form of a Mediterranean diet. The study’s major potential weakness appears to be that the control group didn’t get a fair...

Think of it as Liquid-Plumr for the circulatory system. Researchers have designed a clump of tiny particles that rides the current of the bloodstream, seeks out life-threatening blood clots, and obliterates them. The approach works in mice and could soon move on to human trials. Blood clots are bad news for the brain, heart, and other organs. These masses of blood cells can grow big enough to choke off veins and arteries, preventing oxygen from flowing to critical organs. One of the chief obstacles to dealing with blood clots is finding where they have lodged in the body. Even if...

Man pulled over for being radioactive Last Wednesday, Mike Apatow was getting on to Interstate 84 in Newtown, CT, when police stopped him for no reason he could determine. When the cop told him that his car had set off his radioactivity detectors, it started making sense: Apatow was most certainly radioactive. Earlier in the day, Apatow had had a bit of radioactive material injected into his veins. He wasn't trying to turn himself into a superhero—just trying to keep himself alive. The off-duty firefighter had gone to a cardiology office to have a cardiac stress test, which tracks the...

Has the tide turned for salt in 2012? Salt faces regular demonization from the media, lawmakers, and food police, with the hyperbolic Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) even calling it the “deadly white powder you already snort.” But as cardiologist-turned-chef Michael S. Fenster points out in The Atlantic, studies have not conclusively shown that a reduction in dietary sodium equates with a reduction in hypertension or its resulting effects. Fenster also notes that while this theory “makes for great slogans, off the cuff advice, and lazy recommendations,” it “also makes for poor publicly mandated policy.” Big Apple...

Enlarge Image Heart attack. Following a big meal, oily nutrients in the bloodstream of Burmese pythons (shown) spur massive growth of their hearts. Credit: Stephen M. Secor At the end of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the titular villain undergoes a literal change of heart. His blood-pumping organ swells to three times its prior size. The ticker of the Burmese python (Python molurus) similarly balloons, but the cause isn't Christmas cheer—it's a big meal. A new study of recently fed snakes suggests that a precise mixture of fatty acids in the blood drives this cardiac growth, unveiling...

Enlarge Image Self-healing? After a heart attack like this patient has suffered, cells in the heart might be able to make new muscle, a mouse study suggests. Credit: Fotosearch Heart attacks kill because they strangle heart muscle, destroying cells and preventing the organ from pumping properly. Now, researchers reveal that they have nudged cells within mouse hearts to repair some of the damage, a discovery that might prompt new treatments for heart attacks in humans. Researchers are probing several ways to encourage the heart to fix itself. Last year, for instance, cardiac stem cell biologist Deepak Srivastava of the...

FARMINGTON— Cardiologists at the University of Connecticut Health Center have identified a protein fragment that when detected in the blood can be a predictor of a heart attack. Their research, led by Dr. Bruce Liang, director of the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center, is published in the Jan. 11 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Cardiologists found that heart attack patients had elevated levels of the protein fragment known as Caspase-3 p17 in their blood. “We’ve discovered a new biomarker for heart attack, and showed that apoptosis, or a particular kind of cell death, is...

A protein called T-cadherin docks the fat hormone adiponectin to the heart, where it guards against stress-induced damageLA JOLLA, Calif., November 1, 2010 – One of the many advantages of maintaining a normal body weight is having healthy fat, which in turn supports a healthy heart. Fat tissue is increasingly seen as more than just a storage depot – it's also an active secretory organ that normally produces high levels of a cardioprotective hormone called adiponectin. How adiponectin protects the hearts of healthy people has long been a mystery, and now a team led by Barbara Ranscht, Ph.D. and Pilar...

Harry Kalas, the Phillies' Hall of Fame announcer, died at 1:20 p.m. today, the Phillies announced. Mr. Kalas collapsed in the press box at Nationals Stadium in Washington at about 12:30 p.m. and was rushed to George Washington University Medial Center. The cause of the death was not announced. Today's game against the Nationals will be played, but the team will not visit the White House tomorrow. Kalas, who was found unconsious, missed most of spring training after undergoing undisclosed surgery in Feburary. That surgery was unrelated to the detached retina that sidelined him for part of last season. Kalas,...

It's humbling to see medical dogma overturned, but that is exactly what happened when, contrary to deeply embedded thought, scientists led by Jonas Frisen from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm reported in Science today that the heart can grow new muscle cells, and does so regularly, albeit slowly, in the course of a lifetime. To cardiologists, this is a blockbuster discovery, since the heart has been pegged as a disadvantaged organ in terms of injury, healing, and repair. Susceptible to coronary blockages that can cut off blood and destroy major hunks of heart muscle at one time in a heart...

In a finding that may open new approaches to treating heart disease, Swedish scientists have succeeded in measuring a highly controversial property of the human heart — the rate at which its muscle cells are renewed during a person’s lifetime... --snip-- The nuclear blasts generated a radioactive form of carbon, known as carbon-14. The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has gradually diminished since 1963, when above-ground tests were banned, as it gets incorporated into plants and animals or diffuses into the oceans. In the body, carbon-14 in the diet gets into the DNA of new cells and stays unchanged...

It's been a dream for a decade: a single daily pill combining aspirin, cholesterol medicine and blood pressure drugs — everything people need to prevent heart attacks and strokes in a cheap, generic form. Skeptics said five medicines rolled into a single pill would mean five times more side effects. Some people would get drugs they don't need, while others would get too little. One-size-fits-all would turn out to fit very few, they warned. Now the first big test of the "polypill" has proved them wrong. The experimental combo pill was as effective as nearly all of its components taken...