Monzur Morshed is a cardiologist. Kaysan Morshed is a medical student.
Every week in clinic, I meet patients who carry lab results like heavy burdens. Their cholesterol is “slightly high,” their thyroid level is “borderline,” or their blood sugar is “just above normal.” They arrive anxious, wanting certainty: Do I need treatment? Am I sick?
The truth is, much of medicine exists in the gray zone (values that are not clearly normal, but not clearly dangerous either).
What the research tells us
Borderline numbers …
At the end of a clinic visit, the conversation often turns to lifestyle: eat healthier, exercise more, cut back on alcohol, sleep better. Patients nod, agree, and walk out the door.
And too often, little changes.
Why does advice that seems so straightforward rarely stick? The answer lies in the gap between medical instruction and human behavior.
The limits of good intentions
Research has shown that simply giving advice is rarely enough. A 2019 …
Every cardiology clinic has them: patients with swollen, aching legs and bulging varicose veins. We talk about conservative management: exercise, leg elevation, and, of course, compression stockings. And almost without fail, patients smile politely, nod, and then admit at the next visit: “I couldn’t wear them. They’re too tight, too hot, too uncomfortable.”
The paradox of a simple solution
Compression stockings are one of the most effective noninvasive treatments for varicose veins …
It happens almost every clinic day. A patient walks in, sits down for their vital signs, and their blood pressure reads higher than expected. Sometimes much higher. Moments later, when I retake it myself after we’ve talked for a few minutes, it’s 20 or 30 points lower.
“But, doctor, I check it at home and it’s never this high!”
They are right. This is the phenomenon of white coat hypertension, blood pressure …
He came to my office holding the results of his coronary CT scan. His eyes went immediately to the numbers, his voice tense: “Doctor, my FFR is 0.86. Do I need a stent?”
This is not an unusual question anymore. Coronary CT angiography with fractional flow reserve (FFR-CT) is rapidly becoming a common tool in cardiology. It gives us noninvasive insight into whether a coronary lesion is functionally significant. In plain …
For decades, cholesterol (LDL, HDL, triglycerides) has been the central focus of cardiovascular prevention. But in recent years, another player has emerged: lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a).
Many patients have never heard of it, yet research shows it may be one of the most important genetic risk factors for heart disease.
What is lipoprotein(a)?
Lipoprotein(a) is a particle in the blood similar to LDL cholesterol, but with an added protein called apolipoprotein(a). This structure makes …
A glass of wine with dinner. A cocktail on a Friday evening. A few beers over the weekend. For many of my patients, alcohol is woven seamlessly into daily life: a social lubricant, a way to unwind, even something they’ve been told might be “heart-healthy.”
Yet, in my clinic, I see the other side. A patient who comes in with fluctuating blood pressure, convinced their readings must be wrong. Another who …
Not long ago, a patient came to my busy clinic holding her phone. She had recently watched one of my short educational videos on heart attack warning signs, in Bengali. She told me, “Doctor, I did not know women can have different symptoms than men. That is why I came in today.”
That heartfelt conversation might have truly saved her life. And it was made possible not inside a hospital, but …
She clutched her chest, gasping for words that would not come in English. The nurse leaned in, trying to decipher. Her son was not there to translate, and the phone interpreter line was not connected yet. I could see her distress worsening. Precious minutes slipped away before we finally realized she was describing classic heart attack symptoms. That patient survived, but the outcome could easily have been different. And in …
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I cared for a patient in the intensive care unit whose condition was critical. When I asked how he was feeling, he said, “Doctor, I am not afraid. My family is praying for me, and I believe God will give me strength.” Despite receiving the best medical interventions available, it was clear that his faith, cultural practices, and the support of his family played an undeniable …
Not long ago, a 36-year-old man came to the emergency room with crushing chest pain. He had no significant medical history, exercised occasionally, and thought heart disease was something he would only need to worry about decades from now. To his disbelief, he was having a heart attack.
Stories like his are no longer rare. Cardiologists and emergency physicians are increasingly seeing patients in their thirties and forties presenting with acute …
As a cardiologist in New York City who treats a sizable Bangladeshi‑American community, I have witnessed otherwise healthy individuals exhibit concerning cardiovascular events, frequently in the absence of conventional risk markers. What unites them? Severe, protracted psychological stress brought on by prejudice, family court disputes, immigration problems, or financial instability.
The mechanisms of prolonged stress
Prolonged stress raises cortisol, adrenaline, and inflammatory cytokines via activating the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic‑pituitary‑adrenal (HPA) …
Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world’s largest cause of mortality, its burden varies by ethnicity. People from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, and Pakistan, are among the groups most at risk for developing coronary artery disease too soon. However, this population frequently receives standard risk assessments in clinical practice across the U.S. that do not take ethnic-specific risk factors into consideration, which results in underdiagnosis and …
ADVERTISEMENT
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
