The Slowing Progress of Heart Health and the Personal Impacts of Health

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Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by ENCORE Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls in to bring you the latest medical updates and insightful discussions. Medevidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence.

Kevin Geddings: 0:31

Good morning. Dr. Michael Koren, joining me, live now on the studio line and we appreciate him taking time out of his schedule this morning. And, Dr. Koren, how are you?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:41

I'm doing well, Kevin. How are you doing?

Kevin Geddings: 0:42

Doing well and you just got back from the American Heart Association meeting, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:47

I did. Every November, there is a big international meeting this year it was in Chicago and people from all over the world get together and we talk about the latest and greatest clinical trial results and other breakthroughs in medicine, all with the hope of reducing heart disease and stroke.

Kevin Geddings: 1:02

Yeah, I saw some media coverage of that, where the I don't know. The media's takeaway which is sometimes not necessarily accurate was that we haven't made as much progress in reducing deaths from heart disease as we would like. Whatever that means, what's your sense?

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:18

That's true, in fact. It's something that I've been lecturing on actually for a number of years. We had done tremendously well between around 1980 through around 2010, 2015. And actually reduced heart disease and stroke in the United States by over 50% Really remarkable progress. But over the last 10 years we haven't made much progress. We're kind of stuck. So a lot of people are talking about what can we do to get the trend moving down again.

Kevin Geddings: 1:48

And what is your takeaway from that? I guess what was also discussed at the meeting that would help us indicate, or help us learn, what we could be doing.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:56

Yeah, there's a lot of factors, of course. I think one of the factors is the obesity epidemic. There's more diabetes. With obesity comes higher cholesterol levels and higher blood pressure.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:08

So there are secular trends the word we like to use that are working against our medicines and our treatments. I think that's one thing. I think another thing is there's a big problem with access to the best medicines. They're very expensive and unfortunately, I think people get left out and some of the stuff that we have that's remarkably effective, stuff that we develop in clinical trials, doesn't get widespread use in the marketplace because of cost issues. So I think that that's part of it as well. And I also think that there's been a skepticism a little bit about medicine and people maybe are not embracing the facts as well as they should. There's sort of a skeptical approach to a lot of things that come out of established medicine and, you know, not everything is perfect, but by and large it's important information that helps people stay alive, feel better and become more productive. So you have to sort through it and figure out what's right for you, but don't di smiss it.

Kevin Geddings: 3:08

Yeah, absolutely.

Kevin Geddings: 3:10

Speaking of that unfortunately, you lost a lifelong friend and there's some health lessons from that as well. It just happened over the weekend, right.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:18

Yeah, yeah, and thanks for mentioning it. So, as you and I were just discussing, I'm very fortunate. I grew up with a very close-knit group of friends, literally from a very young age. My friend that died over the weekend was my best friend between age 6 and 14. And we were part of a really close-knit group of people and I'm in touch with them all the time now. So I'm fortunate to have all these lifelong friends and unfortunately this particular friend died over the weekend of complications of lung cancer, atrial fibrillation and a stroke.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:54

And what's interesting in the learning here is I grew up with this guy and he was a really straight-laced guy as a child and through some teenage years and then towards later teenage years he decided to rebel and started smoking and drinking and partying, etc. Etc. And unfortunately he got very addicted to cigarettes and ultimately that led to his demise, even though he was very physically active. He was a great athlete. He just had this addiction, unfortunately.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:28

And the lesson there is that the data that we present are real when we talk about the dangers of cigarette smoking. They're real, they're personal for a lot of people and we want to help people with this. So we have run studies to help people stop smoking, and certainly we're running studies on atrial ablation and stroke prevention. So we'd ask everybody to really be proactive in dealing with their health issues on a very personal level. And the other thing to keep in mind is that when we lose somebody like this, when we lose a close friend, we really miss that person. So the lesson there is that people should be taking care of themselves, not just for themselves, but also the people around them, because we want you to be around. Even if we don't express it all the time, we get great joy in you being around. So we hope, through some of the programs that we put forward, we can help people with difficult health problems so you can be around not only for yourself but for others.

Kevin Geddings: 5:27

Yeah, yeah. All the stuff that we talk about each and every week, right, Dr Koren? We talk about it in terms of participating in leading-edge clinical trials and things that you can do to improve your health.

Kevin Geddings: 5:47

But there is the emotional component right, that you should want to do that, because there are people around you that you may not even realize that value your remaining in their lives correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:51

Absolutely, it's a big part of it. The neat thing about clinical trials is that you're really part of a worldwide community and it resonates with people. It really does. They get the sense when they're participating in one of our trials is that you're working together, literally shoulder to shoulder, with healthcare professionals and other patients all around the world, and together we put together the data, we look at it, we analyze it and then we present it at meetings like the American Heart Association in Chicago, where the scientists will analyze it and then put it into practice. So it's a huge part of making health better for individuals, but also globally. So we do appreciate a lot of our volunteers, and you not only make a difference for yourself, but others around you.

Kevin Geddings: 6:31

And we also would encourage you to check out a website where you can actually get health information you can trust. And what's that web address? Again, Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:39

It's medevidence. com. That's right and again thank you for bringing that up. This gets to the point that it's very confusing looking at all these healthcare claims out there and in MedEvidence we have a number of ways of really getting to the true facts and how the true facts may have implications in your life. So we like to tell people that there's things in medicine that we know for sure and you should take advantage of those. There's things in medicine we definitely don't know. So if somebody says that you do know something in that category, you should be very skeptical. But of course there's a process by which we figure things out, and that's largely clinical trials, and you can be part of that process. So clearly, being part of the solution is not only good for the future but also for yourself in the present.

Kevin Geddings: 7:24

Well, I have participated in those trials. Karen on our team has as well. We highly recommend the experience. We know many of our listeners have too, and you can learn more by going ENCOREdocs.com. For questions about anything relating to your health. You know, instead of just going to Dr. Google and, you know, going through all that chaos, go first to medevidence. com. That's MedEvidence.com, Dr. Michael Koren. Thank you, as always, we appreciate it. We'll speak with you next week, okay?

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:50

Have a great week, Kevin.

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