The CANTOS Trial – Is Targeting Inflammation the Solution to Heart Disease?

The recently published results of the long awaited CANTOS trial may forever change our approach to the prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease (1). Inescapably, there is now proof that targeting inflammation, in this case by a drug, significantly improves outcome for certain very high-risk patients. But, as so often in clinical research, things … Read more

Can Low-Fat Be Salvaged? – Updated WHI Dietary Modification Trial Results

A recent paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition provides updated results from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Dietary Modification Trial (1). One of the questions raised is whether there is still hope for a low-fat dietary approach for the prevention of heart disease. The primary aim of the WHI Dietary Modification Trial was to … Read more

From Low-Fat, High-Carb to Insulin Resistance, Fatty Liver, and Heart Disease

I recently gave a talk at a meeting with colleagues, most of them cardiologists and endocrinologists, where I, among other things, discussed the current status of diet-heart hypothesis and the possible relationship between our fear of dietary fats and the obesity epidemic. After the meeting, a senior colleague of mine, an old friend, and a … Read more

17 Important Causes of Chest Pain

Chest pain

Chest pain is a common symptom associated with a variety of underlying causes. More than six million people visit hospital emergency departments in the United States each year because of chest pain (1). The cause of chest pain may vary from life-threatening conditions to those that are relatively harmless. Chest pain is most commonly caused by … Read more

Evolocumab (Repatha) for Heart Disease – The FOURIER Trial – Success or Failure?

The eagerly awaited results of the FOURIER trial were recently presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in Washington DC and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1). The goal of FOURIER was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of evolocumab (Repatha), a PCSK9 inhibitor, among subjects with elevated risk … Read more