Re: Inflammation and heart disease

[Guest guest]

> Hi everyone, It has been almost a yr since I have logged on to this

> site due to the blessing of my PA being under control :-)

> ...

> My question is I think I have been reading the news to much

> because I have been in a bit of a panic over this

> inflammation and heart disease. I hace constochondritas and

> have had the proper heart tests to eliminate the possible

> heart conditions but I still panic when I get these pains.

> The tests I had done where more sonigrams and echos and

> monitors not anything that looked at the actual arteries. Now

> I am concerened that because I have this arthritic condition

> that we are all doomed to have heart disease. I am not sure I

> really understand the correlation and if it is something that

> affects all PA or all arthritic conditions. I am new to an

> area and so I have not gotten a new doctor yet, I know I need

> to do this, but was curious how everyone's else thoughts were

> feeling on this topic.

>

> Sorry this was SO LONG.

>

> Bless you all,

> Judy

>

>

>

>

> [Ed. Note: DOOOMMM, we are all DOOMED I say! ;-) Just teasing. My

own personal opinion is that the news media tend to blow things all

out of proportion - especially if it's a slow news day. The lawyers

also " help " in this respect. Virtually all drugs we take for Ps and

PA have some detrimental side effect(s). It's a question of risk vs

benefit. I figure that if enough people start having a problem with a

drug, then my doctor will stop recommending it and/or the drug

companies will withdraw the drug voluntarily in order to avoid huge

lawsuits. As for PA itself causing us problems, it does that well

enough already. Since it's something we can't do anything about

beyond what we are already doing, there is no point in dwelling upon

it or worrying about it unnecessarily. To put things into

perspective, I ran across an article awhile back that said a persons

*attitude* has more to do with their longevity than the affect of

smoking, drinking, and overeating COMBINED! Think about that. Be

happy, Don't worry! :-) The article is at http://snurl.com/lck --Ron]

P.S.

Hi Judy. While I was off looking for the link to a song to add to my

note to you, one of the other moderators came along and Ok'd the

message out from underneath me. ;-) Anyhow, I finally found the

link. It's a rather large MP3 file, but I think you'll like it. It's

a little song I wrote for you... http://snurl.com/Be_Happy :-)

-- Ron

[Guest guest]

> Antibiotics don't help prevent heart attacks, show two large new

studies

> in The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings deal a blow

to a

> popular theory that bacteria found lurking in heart tissue could

spark

> inflammation and disease. <snip>

TK:

While it is true that antibiotics did not prevent heart attacks,

antibiotics only attack bacteria. Viruses, such as HCMV, are also

thought to be involved in the inflammatory response that can lead to

MI.

PMID: 11034939 : Muhlestein JB, et al. Circulation. 2000 Oct 17;102

(16):1917-23. " CMV seropositivity and elevated CRP, especially when

in combination, are strong, independent predictors of mortality in

patients with CAD. This suggests an interesting hypothesis that a

chronic, smoldering infection (CMV) might have the capacity to

accelerate the atherothrombotic process. "

TK

[Guest guest]

Hi TK:

Could you please tell us what HCMV is the abbreviation for? ty.

Rodney.

> > Antibiotics don't help prevent heart attacks, show two large

new

> studies

> > in The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings deal a blow

> to a

> > popular theory that bacteria found lurking in heart tissue could

> spark

> > inflammation and disease. <snip>

>

> TK:

>

> While it is true that antibiotics did not prevent heart attacks,

> antibiotics only attack bacteria. Viruses, such as HCMV, are also

> thought to be involved in the inflammatory response that can lead

to

> MI.

>

> PMID: 11034939 : Muhlestein JB, et al. Circulation. 2000 Oct 17;102

> (16):1917-23. " CMV seropositivity and elevated CRP, especially when

> in combination, are strong, independent predictors of mortality in

> patients with CAD. This suggests an interesting hypothesis that a

> chronic, smoldering infection (CMV) might have the capacity to

> accelerate the atherothrombotic process. "

>

> TK

[Guest guest]

I am wondering if HCMV stands for 'human cytomegalovirus'. If it is,

as an additional query, is there anything else that we would have

heard of that it is known to cause?

Rodney.

> > > Antibiotics don't help prevent heart attacks, show two large

> new

> > studies

> > > in The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings deal a

blow

> > to a

> > > popular theory that bacteria found lurking in heart tissue

could

> > spark

> > > inflammation and disease. <snip>

> >

> > TK:

> >

> > While it is true that antibiotics did not prevent heart attacks,

> > antibiotics only attack bacteria. Viruses, such as HCMV, are also

> > thought to be involved in the inflammatory response that can lead

> to

> > MI.

> >

> > PMID: 11034939 : Muhlestein JB, et al. Circulation. 2000 Oct

17;102

> > (16):1917-23. " CMV seropositivity and elevated CRP, especially

when

> > in combination, are strong, independent predictors of mortality

in

> > patients with CAD. This suggests an interesting hypothesis that a

> > chronic, smoldering infection (CMV) might have the capacity to

> > accelerate the atherothrombotic process. "

> >

> > TK

[Guest guest]

--- In , " Rodney " <perspect1111@y...>

wrote:> I am wondering if HCMV stands for 'human cytomegalovirus'.

> If it is,

> as an additional query, is there anything else that we would have

> heard of that it is known to cause?

> Rodney.

Hi All,

Yes, HCMV stands for Human Cytomegalovirus, a common human

herpesvirus. As a herpesvirus, it produces an initial viremia and

then enters a latent phase from which it can reemerge during periods

of low immunoactivity or other stresses.

When HCMV is acquired after birth, it causes a mild disease like

mononucleosis with fever. If a pregnant woman is infected, HCMV

causes birth defects (including mental retardation) at about the

same rate as Down's Syndrome (at the rates before genetic testing

made this quite rare). HCMV also reemerges in people with repressed

immune systems, due to AIDS or organ transplant, and can cause

severe infections, particularly of the eye.

More info: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cmv.htm.

Sorry. My PhD is in virology, particularly in herpesvirology. I've

even been to several International Herpesvirus Workshops, where the

herpes geeks hang out. There's a place where you don't want to buy

the tee shirt. There was only one tee shirt that I bought. On the

back, it read, " I don't have herpes, but I'm working on it! "

TK

[Guest guest]

> TK: Your study " suggests a hypothesis " only . While it may be

true about

> viruses (<snip>

Yeah, but " suggests a hypothesis " usually means that they have data

that they don't want to publish yet, so when they publish it later it

looks like they were smart. The CMV-inflammation-heart disease

connection is pretty tight. The problem is that most (>90%) of people

have had CMV by the time they reach late maturity, and most people

have at least some CAD. It is probable that any slow, smoldering

infection will increase inflammation, especially one like CMV,

because CMV produces viral homologs of inflammatory cytokines like

TNF-a, IL-1b, and other cytokines (PMID: 15140794, PMID: 15009188,

PMID: 9921810, PMID: 10762222, PMID: 12533701, PMID: 10756032, PMID:

1328493, PMID: 2161430, PMID: 9201363, PMID: 12354726).

And herpesvirus research is generally solid. Peer-review is rigorous

and competitive. Even if something was published a couple decades

ago, it's probably accurate. In my Ph.D. thesis, I have one reference

from the late 1800s. It's still relevant.

TK