One thing that I want to talk about is edema. Edema is the accumulation of fluid in a certain part of the body. Congestive heart failure keeps the heart from properly pumping fluids throughout the body and thus these fluids build up in places such as the legs and arms. This can be very dangerous. Usually doctors will prescribe a diuretic such as Lasix to eliminate the fluids from the body. However, these medications can also lead to other complications such as kidney failure. People with heart failure may wake up one day to notice that they have gained 20 pounds. This is because of the accumulation of these fluids. In severe cases of pulmonary edema in which fluids accumulate in the lungs, some people can even drown to death if they are not treated immediately. If anyone ever experiences swelling in the legs and arms, you should immediately seek a health care professional.
Hello everyone, I thought it would be interesting to start podcasting and doing interviews with some of the leading professional physicians involved in the world of heart failure to bring some helpful information to the viewers of this site. Starting in the next month or so, I will try to start a system where podcasts can be available on itunes to be downloaded for free. However, first I need to find some doctors who are willing to be interviewed. If anyone is willing to be interviewed, all you need is a computer and a microphone and you can contact me at alexhakimi@gmail.com. I hope to hear from you if you are interested.
This website was created to educate people about heart failure. The first step to helping treat heart failure is to educate people about it. Many small symptoms such as being short of breath when doing small activities can sometimes prove to be big signs of heart failure. By educating others, the symptoms will not go unnoticed. Watch this video to learn how important education can be.
Sometimes, the medication needed to treat adult heart failure is not good for children who have heart failure. Medications in the class of “Beta-Blockers” are very expensive and do not have the same effects on children as adults. What is significant in the trial that was done was that 50% of the children ended up getting better on their own. Watch the video to learn more.
In order to be able to understand CHF to the fullest extent, one must comprehend the parts of the heart and the way they work together. I have read many articles on congestive heart failure and one skill that I have developed is to understand the medical terminology. When you read a new report on the drugs that are being developed to treat CHF, you can not really learn from the article unless you understand some of the jargon. This video allows you to understand the heart and all the big words that are associated with it. You will understand how the heart pumps blood, which is vital to comprehend ing heart failure. Enjoy!
There was a post in the past about the function of ICDs and their importance to heart failure patients. Just to recap, ICDs are miniature versions of those huge emergency defibrillators. Many people that suffer from heart failure develop arrhythmias which can be potentially dangerous. ICDs are responsible to correct these problems and to record the heart’s activities in the device memory to be studied by doctors’ who can better treat the patient. These devices are truly heart savers. The following link shows the process in which these devices are installed and their importance in the medical world. This truly is an interesting video and there is a doctor present to describe everything that is going on. Enjoy the following link thanks to Or-live.com. LINK
Well I got a lot of response for the last post about the way a heart attack damages heart muscle. Here is a video that describes the symptoms of a heart attack. This one is probably more important, because if you ever feel many of the symptoms given, you should immediately go the emergency room to get checked out.
One of the biggest causes of heart failure is a major heart attack. A heart attack keeps oxygen from reaching the myocardial cells in the heart, which leads to heart failure. This is because the damaged tissue is unable to contract anymore. A heart attack can vary in the amount of damage it causes to the heart due to the size of the artheroma and the location in the coronary artery. Learn more by watching this video.
This is an excellent video brought to you by UCSF’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The video explores different types of treatments and how to manage Cardiovascular disease. “Join William Grossman, MD., Chief, Division of Cardiology, UCSF for a look at the use of drug therapy in the treatment of Atherosclerotic Heart and Vascular Disease. Series: Osher Lifelong Learning Presents [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 11317]” I hope you all enjoy this video as it is very interesting. Thanks to UCSF for putting it on the internet.
“Hawthorn extract has ‘significant benefit’ for patients with chronic heart failure, and seems to be safe, researchers conclude based on a literature review they conducted. ” (Daily Times). There is supposedly a new herbal remedy to help heart failure patients. This new treatment was tested on heart failure patients and it actually seemed to decrease the number of people experiencing shortness of breath and or fatigue. This testing was done on an exercise bike. Researchers have concluded that the herbal remedy may help a few patients but that they must still ask their doctors before trying them out. The secret of the herbal remedy seems to be that it improves blood flow and increases the power of the heart’s contractions. Read more HERE.
I am currently working with a directx 10 engine from Microsoft to create an interactive application to teach users more about heart failure. Although the videos on this site may be interactive enough to some people, I want the users to choose what they want to learn about. This interactive application will allow the user to walk around in a graphic environment and to look at pictures and read information about what they see. Even though this is a very long and hard process to get it working, I think it will be able to help many people out. The program will be available for free to all users on this site. Keep in mind that it will only work with Windows Vista and directx 10 compatible video cards. Currently, the best video card that will work is from Nvidia and is the 8800 model. However, all Nvidia 8 series cards will work. If you meet these system requirements and would like to beta test the program, please drop me an email at alexhakimi@gmail.com. I look forward to meeting a few beta testers. I will also be posting screen shots and work in progress videos soon.
I remember I posted a site recommendation for the site or-live.com. Well on the 12th, they will have a live streaming video of a Surgical Ventricular Reconstruction. You can send messages to the surgeons and ask them any questions, that will be answered live. People that have enlarged hearts, develop systolic heart failure. This surgical procedure fixes these problems such as valve defects and problems with the ventricles. It is a very serious surgery, but in the long run it allows the heart to pump much more effectively than before. I hope you all watch the presentation. Here is a short video that explains everything.
Well, I opened up firefox today to find my normal yahoo homepage running full screen. However, something that caught my attention was the main news section. It read, “Growing an organ in a jar.” Curious, I watched the video and read the article. The organ turned out to be a heart, specifically a rat’s. These scientists have found a way to take all the muscle cells out of a damaged heart, leaving behind only the matrix structure. They then injected stem cells back in, resulting in a “renovated” heart. The hearts have seemed to recuperate well and beat normally after 7-8 days. These scientists have also been successful in doing the same procedure with pig hearts. This means that we may be able to do the same, with the thousands of patients that need new hearts in our own nation. Even though the researchers have agreed that they have a long way to go, this may be a start of something great in the medical field. Heart Failure patients might even have something to look forward to. Here is a link to the article with the video.
Hey everyone, I have some excellent news. You might have remembered that I was on the news a few months past. Well, I will be going in February to pick the award up at the ABC News Studio in Glendale. I have also had talks with a few other news companies and I am trying to get this site more in the public eye. Stay tuned, because ANet United is going to go big. I will post some pictures when I get back.
“According to the latest research, patients with atherosclerotic arterial disease—hardening of the arteries–have relatively high rates of experiencing a cardiovascular event like a heart attack, stroke or death within one year.”
You should watch this interesting video to find out more. Atherosclerosis is very serious and you should be checked often for other cardiovascular diseases.
Hello everyone. Sorry for the post delay, but I had a very hard week of work for colleges. Anyway, today, I have a new site recommendation for heart failure education. AboutHF.Org is an excellent site that combines videos with information to bring new news about heart failure. There are many great parts of the site for treatments, plans and other helpful links to teach patients about the condition. You can receive e-mails for future updates as well. Overall, this is a great clean site with many nice tools to utilize. Happy reading!
I saw a very interesting video today from the Stein Institute. Dr. Kirk Hammond from UCSD, talks about the whole background of heart failure and how gene therapy can help patients. He goes into detail about the specifics of CHF and talks about the symptoms and signs. There are many interesting slides that are brought up during the presentation. I highly recommend that you should watch this video. Unfortunately however, I not have the rights to post it on this site. You can learn more by clicking HERE.
“Like tens of millions of Americans Vice President Dick Cheney is plagued with heart problems.” -CBNNews.com
This article discusses how obesity can lead to heart failure in the future for many teens in America. Cheney recently had atrial fib and was quickly taken to the hospital to be treated with electrical impulses. He seems to also be on the path of heart failure. We must all watch our health and make important lifestyle choices. Eating healthy can save you from many possible years in the hospital.
Read the full article and watch the full video HERE
High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of congestive heart failure and can lead to many other serious complications. You should check your blood pressure often. Anything over 130/80 should be checked by your doctor. The older you are, the higher your blood pressure may be. Nevertheless, if you feel that it is too high, you probably need to be prescribed medications. Here is a video that can teach you more:
Today, instead of posting the latest news, I decided that it might be more helpful if I suggested a site for medical geeks. In other words, this post is more directed to the people that are interested in the world of medicine and what the future holds in procedural treatments. The site is OR-LIVE and they have some of the latest surgical videos showing off the newest procedures in today’s world. One of the coolest things I have noticed is that there are also live telecasts of surgeries and the audience can ask questions about the surgery to the surgeons live. The surgeons take the time to answer these questions by showing the audience on the screen. During each telecast, there are also two doctors that give background information using slides, and animations. I highly recommend this site and I must say it is one of my favorite medical resources. All telecasts are archived and you can choose what field of medicine to view the videos by. I hope you enjoy this site as much as I do.
While working at a hospital, I have learned an extremely important thing that everybody should be aware of. Know your ejection fraction. This number helps out nurses and doctors alike when there is an emergency. Take time out of your day and get an Echo done to find out your EF. It can help get you treated faster. All it is is a simple procedure using an ultrasound machine that takes less than half an hour. Watch this video to learn more.
“Research by University of Louisville professors at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute shows that it may be possible to one day repair a person’s heart after a heart attack by using a “patch” grown from his or her own cells.”
I have heard this on the news as well. It seems as if professors from different universities are developing “patches” from cells in order to treat CHF. These new engineered cells are being tested in clinical trials.
Hopefully, the study will be a success and one day, and human cells may hold the key of treating CHF in the future.
April 27th, 2008 