
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Heart attack and stroke patients now have access to the 1st detailed clinical guidelines on safely re-igniting their love lives after a cardiac event.
In a joint statement the American Heart Assn. and the European Society of Cardiology published a detailed "how-to" guide for cardiac patients and their doctors, offering recommendations of when and how a patient should resume sex.
"Patients are anxious and often afraid sex will trigger another cardiac event – but the topic sometimes gets passed over because of embarrassment or discomfort," said lead author Tiny Jaarsma in prepared comments.
Suggestions include "recommended positions, how to be intimate without having sexual intercourse and when to resume sexual activity," according to a press release.
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A survey discovered that men stick to their decision to either screen or not screen for prostate cancer, even after given educational material explaining the risks and benefits. Reading the educational material increased their overall knowledge of the process but had no impact on their decision making, measured 1 year later.
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Boston Medical Center’s Dr. Harold Lazar called for his peers to abandon off-pump coronary artery bypass surgeries in favor of more conventional cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Lazar argued in a recent study that cardiopulmonary bypass is a better way to re-establish blood flow to the heart.
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