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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAs a cardiologist, I frequently meet patients who have stopped taking medicines that could keep them alive. Often it\u2019s because they\u2019ve seen a dramatic headline or a worrying TV report about a drug they rely on. But sometimes, patients are right to pay attention: new studies really can overturn decades of medical practice.<\/p>\n
Few drugs illustrate this tension better than beta blockers. Long prescribed after heart attacks, these medicines can be life-saving for some people, helpful for others and useless \u2013 or even harmful \u2013 for the rest.<\/p>\n
Beta blockers have been used for more than 40 years in almost all patients with heart attacks. <\/p>\n
But this practice was based on studies done before modern treatments were available, and before we could detect very small heart attacks that do not affect the overall function of the heart.<\/p>\n
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Beta blockers have been used for more than 40 years in almost all patients with heart attacks (PA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nRecently, two studies on beta blockers in patients with heart attacks were reported in the news. The Spanish-Italian study received the most attention. Media reports suggested that most heart attack patients did not benefit from beta blockers, and that in women, the drug might even increase the risk of hospitalisation and death.<\/p>\n
Reports like this can make people stop taking their medication.<\/p>\n
At the same symposium in Madrid, the second study \u2013 which got less attention \u2013 showed almost the opposite. Patients with heart attacks did benefit from beta blockers. And if there were differences between the sexes, women might actually have had more benefits than men.<\/p>\n
The heart of the matter: ejection fraction<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n A key to understanding the different results is something called the left ventricular ejection fraction. <\/p>\n
This is the percentage of blood in the left chamber of the heart \u2013 its main pumping chamber \u2013 that is pushed out into the body with each heartbeat. Normally, ejection fraction should be at least 50%.<\/p>\n
If we look at all the studies together, including one I led and presented last year, the picture becomes clearer. Patients with an ejection fraction of 50% or higher after a heart attack do not benefit from beta blockers. But patients with an ejection fraction below 50% do benefit. And this is true for both men and women.<\/p>\n\nAbout the author<\/h2>\nTomas Jernberg is a Professor in Clinical Sciences at the Karolinska Institutet.<\/p>\n
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The European guidelines from 2023, as well as the recently published American guidelines, still recommend beta blockers after most heart attacks. Many doctors are therefore reluctant to change a therapy tradition that has been in place for 40 years.<\/p>\n
My colleagues and I are now planning to pool data from the recent large studies on patients with heart attacks and an ejection fraction of 50% or more. The results, expected later this year, will probably give definite answers about beta blockers in this population and change future guidelines.<\/p>\n\nSymptoms of a heart attack<\/h2>\nNHS<\/h3>\nSymptoms of a heart attack can include:<\/p>\n
\nchest pain \u2013 a feeling of pressure, heaviness, tightness or squeezing across your chest <\/li>\n pain in other parts of the body \u2013 it can feel as if the pain is spreading from your chest to your arms (usually the left arm, but it can affect both arms), jaw, neck, back and tummy <\/li>\n feeling lightheaded or dizzy <\/li>\n sweating <\/li>\n shortness of breath <\/li>\n feeling sick (nausea) or being sick (vomiting) <\/li>\n an overwhelming feeling of anxiety (similar to a panic attack) <\/li>\n coughing or wheezing <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut many patients clearly benefit from beta blockers, including those with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (with or without a prior heart attack), angina pectoris (chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart), or various heart rhythm disturbances.<\/p>\n
Beta blockers can also be prescribed for other reasons, such as high blood pressure, migraine prevention, tremors, as well as off-label use for stress and anxiety. <\/p>\n
For patients, it\u2019s not easy to know all the reasons why beta blockers are prescribed, and in some cases, they may not be suitable at all. So I\u2019ll end with a good, if not very novel, piece of advice: always consult your doctor before making any changes to your medication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more As a cardiologist, I frequently meet patients who have stopped taking medicines that could keep them alive. Often it\u2019s because they\u2019ve seen a dramatic headline or a worrying TV report about a drug they rely on. But sometimes, patients are right to pay attention: new studies really can overturn decades of medical practice. Few drugs illustrate this tension better than beta blockers. Long prescribed after heart attacks, these medicines can be life-saving for some people, helpful for others and useless \u2013 or even harmful \u2013 for the rest. Beta blockers have been used for more than 40 years in almost all patients with heart attacks. But this practice was based on studies done before modern treatments were available, and before we could detect very small heart attacks that do not affect the overall function of the heart. Beta blockers have been used for more than 40 years in almost all patients with heart attacks (PA) Recently, two studies on beta blockers in patients with heart attacks were reported in the news. The Spanish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}