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Source: Harvard Health Blog
Condition: Bleeding
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Total 11 results found since Jan 2013.
What to do when blood test results are not quite “normal”
Picture this: you’re reading the results of your recent bloodwork, and you notice some numbers are teetering on the edge of the normal range. Should you be concerned? “It’s tricky, because in some tests, a borderline result makes no difference. In others, it might indicate an important change in health that we need to follow or act on,” says geriatrician Dr. Suzanne Salamon, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
About normal ranges and interpreting the numbers
When you look at a printout of your lab results, you’ll find the normal ranges for each blood test next to your personal results. For example, if ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - June 2, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Heidi Godman Tags: Tests and procedures blood test Source Type: news
What to do when blood test results not quite “normal”
Picture this: you’re reading the results of your recent bloodwork, and you notice some numbers are teetering on the edge of the normal range. Should you be concerned? “It’s tricky, because in some tests, a borderline result makes no difference. In others, it might indicate an important change in health that we need to follow or act on,” says geriatrician Dr. Suzanne Salamon, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
About normal ranges and interpreting the numbers
When you look at a printout of your lab results, you’ll find the normal ranges for each blood test next to your personal results. For example, if ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - June 2, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Heidi Godman Tags: Tests and procedures blood test Source Type: news
Can aspirin protect against cancer?
The other day, a fit 50-year-old man came to me for a visit to review his health. As we discussed his (generally good) efforts to take care of himself, he said, “I’ve been wondering if I should take an aspirin every day. I read somewhere that it can prevent cancer.”
As a clinician, I really love it when people come in with questions that stretch my thinking. I have a stock set of answers to the “does aspirin prevent heart disease” question, but I didn’t have an easy answer to the cancer prevention question. What were the data? What should I be recommending? Is it true for everyone? Or maybe just for some people...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - May 20, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Lori Wiviott Tishler, MD, MPH Tags: Cancer Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Prevention Source Type: news
Reversing the effects of the new anti-clotting drugs
The oral anticoagulant warfarin (Coumadin) became available for prescription in 1954. This anti-clotting drug commanded national attention when President Dwight Eisenhower received the drug as part of his treatment following a heart attack. No other oral anticoagulant was successfully developed and marketed in the United States until 2010.
Warfarin is a dangerous drug. Along with insulin, it is responsible for the most emergency hospitalizations due to adverse drug reactions. Whereas insulin causes low blood sugar, warfarin is notorious for the complication of major bleeding. Warfarin is plagued by hundreds of drug-drug an...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - December 9, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Samuel Z. Goldhaber, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke anti-clotting coumadin deep-vein-thrombosis DVT Source Type: news
Hidden cancer rarely causes out-of-the-blue clots in the bloodstream
Blood clots can be lifesavers when they form outside the bloodstream to stop bleeding from an injury. But they can wreak havoc when they form inside the bloodstream. A blood clot in a coronary artery can cause a heart attack. One in the brain can cause a stroke.
Blood clots that form in a leg vein cause a problem known as venous thromboembolism, or VTE. If the clot stays in the leg, it can cause swelling or pain. If it breaks away and travels to the lungs, it can cause a potentially deadly pulmonary embolism.
In about half of people who develop a VTE, doctors can identify what caused it. Common causes include an injury; su...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - June 29, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Howard LeWine, M.D. Tags: Cancer blood clot venous thromboembolism VTE Source Type: news
Special MRI scan could identify stroke risk in people with atrial fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation is a heart rhythm disorder that affects millions of people. It can make you feel lousy. Even worse, it can cause potentially disabling or deadly strokes. A special MRI scan may — I stress the “may” — help identify people with atrial fibrillation who are at high risk of having a stroke. This could help many people with this condition to avoid taking warfarin or other clot-preventing medications for life.
A normal heartbeat starts in a cluster of cells called the pacemaker. It sits in the heart’s upper right chamber (the right atrium). These cells generate a pulse of electricity that...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - April 28, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Howard LeWine, M.D. Tags: Heart Health atrial fibrillation MRI prevention special MRI scan Stroke Stroke Risk Source Type: news
Hospitalization after fainting can do more harm than good
One morning not long ago, my teenage daughter started to black out. After an ambulance ride to our local hospital’s emergency department, an electrocardiogram, and some bloodwork, she was sent home with a follow-up doctor appointment. We got the good news that Alexa is perfectly healthy, but should avoid getting too hungry or thirsty so she doesn’t faint again. And I’m feeling lucky that she didn’t need to be hospitalized, because a research letter in this week’s JAMA Internal Medicine points out that hospitalization for low-risk fainting can do more harm than good.
Doctors use something called th...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - April 22, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Heidi Godman Tags: Health fainting San Francisco Syncope Rule Source Type: news
Daily aspirin is good for some men, not others
For men who have had a heart attack, stroke, or other
problem related to clogged arteries, the benefits of taking aspirin outweigh
the risks. In this group, the benefits include preventing a first or repeat
heart attack or stroke or dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease. But in
otherwise healthy men, the balance of benefits and risks shifts, according to
the October 2014 Harvard
Men's Health Watch.
The best research to date shows that men who have not been
diagnosed with cardiovascular disease glean no overall benefit to taking
aspirin every day—including men at higher risk, like those with diabetes.
In other...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - September 30, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Treat a mini-stroke as seriously as a big one
The term mini-stroke is often used to describe transient ischemic attack (TIA), a type of stroke. The "mini" has led to a lot of confusion about the true severity of this condition, according to the March 2014 Harvard Women's Health Watch.
"Because of what the term implies, everybody thinks it's just a tiny stroke. The truth is, the symptoms can be pretty severe," says Dr. Natalia Rost, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Acute Stroke Service at Massachusetts General Hospital.
A TIA and a stroke are essentially the same thing—an interruption in blood flow to part of the brai...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - February 27, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Daily low-dose aspirin can prevent heart attack and stroke but is often misused
Aspirin is often hailed as a wonder drug, thanks to its ability to help stave off heart attacks and clot-caused strokes. But fewer than half of people who could benefit from a daily low-dose aspirin take it, while many others take it when they shouldn't, reports the January 2014 Harvard Heart Letter.
If you don't have heart disease, but do have high blood pressure, diabetes, or other risk factors for heart disease, don't automatically assume that taking aspirin every day is a good idea. "A lot of people take aspirin who really shouldn't," says Dr. Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and profe...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - December 20, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Taking over the counter pain relievers safely
For aching joints or a throbbing head, millions of Americans turn to aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) every day. They are generally safe, but if not used carefully NSAIDs can have a dark side, according to the September 2013 Harvard Women's Health Watch.
NSAIDs are widely used because they perform double duty. “They not only relieve pain, but they reduce inflammation too,” says Dr. Lucy Chen, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and attending physician in the anesthesia, critical care, and pain medicine department at Massachusetts General Hos...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - August 23, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
