Cardiologist Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro discusses three health-tech stories: NSAIDs like ibuprofen raise heart attack risk, especially at higher doses; the Apple Watch can detect atrial fibrillation; and a Microsoft wearable helped a Parkinson's patient regain the ability to write by using timed vibrations to interrupt tremors.
Well, big news, check your medicine cabinet. A new study out this week is linking the use of over-the-counter and prescription painkillers, like an Advil, to the increased chance of heart attack. A team of researchers concluding the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, commonly known as NSAIDs, could greatly increase your chances of cardiac troubles, and that includes ibuprofen. I want to bring in cardiologist Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro right now. Dr. Di Pietro, it's always a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
You know, I mentioned Advil, but there are a ton of them out there. Ibuprofen. Are these anti-inflammatories causing cardiac trouble?
They increase cardiovascular risk and increase heart attack risk. So the most important thing with this study is there was not a direct correlation. So they, they took over 400,000 people, then they looked at how many of those people had a heart attack, and they kind of tried to correlate what was happening with those people. And what they realized is that— what the study showed is that a lot of these patients had had ibuprofen for at least 1 week, or I should say ibuprofen, but some sort of NSAID for at least 1 week leading up to that heart attack. And the longer they were on it and the higher the dosage, the more likelihood they were having of having a cardiovascular event.
Now obviously people who are at risk for cardiovascular events have a higher risk. Correct. If you don't have that risk, should you be afraid to take things like Advil or Aleve?
No, I mean, you can't live your whole life like that. You know, if you have a headache, you have to take your ibuprofen. But it's like we were discussing before, when your risk is very low to begin with and you don't have high blood pressure and you don't have high cholesterol and you don't have a significant family history, you've never had a heart attack already, 75% increased risk is really still statistically insignificant. But when you have a lot of comorbid medical problems, you have to kind of think twice about taking a handful of ibuprofen when you have that headache.
Especially every day.
Every day.
Yeah, okay, so there's another study that says the Apple Watch can identify irregular heartbeats, which is really interesting. That can be a serious medical condition. What do you make of these results?
So this is interesting. This was talking about a heart arrhythmia known as atrial fibrillation, and that's the most common heart arrhythmia in our country. And what it is, is I think when people have atrial fibrillation, they have an irregular heartbeat. So you and I have a very normal kind of beat, beat, and people in atrial fibrillation, it's very erratic, and it's typically much faster than a normal heartbeat. So these watches are able to pick up the fast heart rate and that it's an irregular rate, cluing the patient in that they might be in atrial fibrillation.
Wow, that's pretty incredible. I mean, technology has just changed the game in terms of medicine. There's another wonderful story about Microsoft using its— it's developing a watch that helps minimize the effect of Parkinson's.
Very cool. So if you actually Google and read the study, it'll show the video and how A young woman that has Parkinson's is actually able to finally write her name after years. The watch, it inhibits a feedback mechanism between the brain and the muscles, and the watch vibrates at very specific intervals, helping to cut off this feedback mechanism with the body and the muscles.
I love learning more about sensors and what they're doing in terms of healthcare. Dr. Sizemore, always a pleasure to see you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Tiffany Di Pietro there. Take a break. When we come back,
