COVID-19 and heart disease are not happy bedfellows but they can become companionable.
As the pandemic rolls on, it is apparent that older people and those with comorbidities are more at risk than others. Those comorbidities include conditions related to long-term elevated cholesterol levels, such as previous heart attack or previous stroke. These raise concerns around how best to approach living in a virus-infected world.
The two words, 'heart failure', send a spark of fear through the healthiest of people. What most people hear are the words 'heart attack' and, even in today's world of medical marvels, they spell F-E-A-R. Yet, those are two very different conditions.
Severe crushing chest pain hits you. OMG - a heart attack! Or is it?
Heart failure, or cardiac failure, is a weighty condition in today's society, affecting approximately 480,000 people in Australia and more than 25 million world-wide. The Cinderella of cardiovascular disease; it is much less known than heart attack or stroke, yet heart failure (HF) is a serious condition with a worse outcome than most cancers. And it affects more women than men.
An ageing population and our western lifestyle are ensuring that the prevalence of a common medical condition, atrial fibrillation (AF), is increasing at such a rate that it is predicted to be the next cardiac epidemic.
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is a common medical condition that arises from a problem within the electrical system of the heart. Although it is widespread - 30 million sufferers worlwide - one of its peculiarities is that many sufferers are not aware they have it and it is discovered after a collapse or as an 'incidental finding', for example, when a patient's pulse is being monitored in association with surgery or other medical procedure.
Atrial Fibrillation, commonly known as AF, kills three times as many people as car accidents each year in the western world.
New data reveals Tasmanians are not doing enough to get their cholesterol levels in check, with Cardiologist Dr Warrick Bishop warning people about the increased risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Well-known Australian cardiologist Dr. Warrick Bishop has crossed the globe to deliver a powerful TED Talk about the perfect storm that is costing lives and how it can be stopped.
In this article, Dr Bishop discusses how this is a good time to start talking about Atrial Fibrillation.