Getting off to a good start

START the new year on the right note by giving yourself a clean bill of health. While heart attacks and stroke remain important causes of mortality, advances in medical sciences have made heart attacks and stroke largely preventable. And with an increasingly ageing population, preventing memory loss also becomes more relevant as longevity increases.

Preventing a catastrophic heart event

While most expect patients with heart disease to have chest pain or shortness of breath, the reality is that many patients with serious heart disease do not have any symptoms, and this is especially so if they lead sedentary lifestyles.

Mr A, Mr B, Mr C and Mr D (whose ages ranged from the 40s to 70s) were seen recently and what they all had in common was the presence of life-threatening heart artery disease without any chest pain or shortness of breath. They all had near total or total occlusion of their main heart artery (also called the left anterior descending, or LAD, artery which supplies the main pumping chamber of the heart). Mr A had single artery disease, Mr B had two out of the three major arteries blocked, Mr C had blockage of all three major heart arteries (total occlusion of left and right heart arteries) and Mr D had 80 per cent occlusion of the left main artery (LM) in addition to severe narrowing of the three major heart arteries. The LM is the artery which branches into the LAD and the left heart artery, and …