Heart Disease

THE EFFECTS OF DIET AND CHOLESTEROL
were still largely unknown when Dr. Michael DeBakey began operating on human hearts and cleaning out blocked arteries in the 1950's. Now we know much more about cardiovascular health. Yet heart disease remains the number one killer of men and women in America. Read about preventing and treating heart disease in these articles from the TIME archive:

The past 18 months have brought a wave of advances in cardiac imaging, leading many doctors to wonder whether it's time to change the way they diagnose and treat heart disease.
From How New Heart-Scanning Technology Could Save Your Life
By Christine Gorman and Alice Park
Sep. 5, 2005

Over the course of our lives, perhaps 90% us will develop a blood-pressure problem, and at least half of us will die from either heart disease or stroke—hypertension's frequent endgames.
From Blowing a Gasket
By Jeffrey Kluger
Dec. 6, 2004

No one knows yet how low LDL levels should go. Most likely, there is a point of diminishing returns where going any lower isn't worth the effort or the risk of side effects.
From Juggling Statins
By Christine Gorman
Mar. 22, 2004

Hardly a week goes by without the publication of yet another study uncovering a new way that chronic inflammation does harm to the body. It destabilizes cholesterol deposits in the coronary arteries, leading to heart attacks and potentially even strokes.
From The Fires Within
By Christine Gorman and Alice Park
Feb. 23, 2004

Statin drugs, which lower the bad LDL cholesterol that causes plaque in the first place, reduce the risk of dying from heart disease only 30% or so. By targeting HDL as well, the risk might be halved.
From Drano For The Heart
By Michael D. Lemonick
Nov. 17, 2003

Is the ailment [heart disease] fundamentally different in men and women? If not, why do their symptoms seem to differ? And why do treatments such as bypass surgery and angioplasty, which work so well for men, often fail for women?
From The Number One Killer Of Women
By Christine Gorman
Apr. 28, 2003

The softball-size device is charged across the skin, so there's no need for chest tubes. Its batteries are miniaturized, and its pumping chambers are lined with a specialized coating that should cut down on blood clots.
From The Artificial Heart, Revisited
By Christine Gorman
Jul. 16, 2001

Statins work by partly blocking an enzyme found in the liver that turns some of the foods you eat into cholesterol.
From Are Statins Right for You?
By Christine Gorman
Nov. 6, 2000

On the horizon, and closing fast, are experimental techniques—most immediately gene and laser therapies—that have the potential to make yesterday's miracles (bypasses and angioplasties) seem like rudimentary plumbing repairs.
From A Broken Heart
By Lance Morrow
Nov. 23, 1998

Every year experts come up with new insights into how to keep the cardiac system ticking. Sometimes the eurekas are justified, sometimes not. The annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Florida last week was so full of news it was hard to keep the breakthroughs straight.
From Matters of the Heart
By Jeffrey Kluger and Michael D. Lemonick
Nov. 24, 1997

Stress is now known to be a major contributor, either directly or indirectly, to coronary heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidental injuries, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide—six of the leading causes of death in the U.S.
From Stress: Can We Cope?
By Claudia Wallis
Jun. 6, 1983

Now, almost four hours after the first incision, history's first transplanted human heart was in place. . . Would it work?
From The Ultimate Operation
Dec. 15, 1967

DeBakey did his first carotid endarterectomy in 1953. Ever since, he has been disappointed that the idea has been slow to catch on.
From The Texas Tornado
May 28, 1965