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Pacemakers & Cellphones: Keep Your Distance
It seems like everyone and their brother has a smart phone of some sort these days or at least is exposed to someone who has one. And for patients with pacemakers, this could be a dangerous combination. I look at the medical news on my favorite science-oriented website regularly and a new study from the European Society of Cardiology found that those who have pacemakers should keep their distance from cell phones to avoid unwanted painful shocks or frightening pauses in the function of their device. The study was presented in June to the joint meeting of the European Heart Rhythm Association and the European Society of Cardiology by one of the main authors, Dr. Carsten Lennerz, a cardiology resident in Germany.
Although it does not happen all the time, pacemakers can sometimes mistakenly pick up electromagnetic interference from smartphones and treat them like a cardiac signal, which can cause them to stop working for a brief period of time, according to Lennerz. He recommends that patients should hold their phone on the ear opposite to their pacemaker when talking and not place the phone in a pocket directly above the pacemaker just to be safe.
The authors added that another area of concern for patients with pacemakers is when they are under high voltage power lines. Although is ok for them to walk under power lines, the authors recommend that they do not spend extra time under the power lines, as high electric fields can also tamper with the pacemaker’s normal functioning.
I found it interesting and worrisome that the authors noted that pacemakers themselves do not come with any warnings about these possible problems. My uncle has a pacemaker that has saved his life and next time I see him walking around with his cell phone in his pocket as he often does, I will be sure to warn him about the possible dangers of doing so. In this smartphone inundated world, I wonder how many people with pacemakers have been affected by this problem. This would be an interesting and timely topic to pursue in further research studies.
I would also like to know how long medical experts have known about the interference cell phones and power lines play in the role of the pacemaker. It seems like something that every patient should be warned about but this is the first I have ever heard of the topic. I plan to do more research on this issue since I have a vested interest in it with my uncle’s health at stake.
Here is the link to the article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150622071207.htm
Cardiac Treatment Evolves
Find a webpage, article, or resource focused on newest technology, trends, or procedures related to cardiovascular health. Blog your opinions and thoughts about what you find on your CI Keys page! Be sure to categorize your blog “Goleta420” so it appears in our course Student Blogs page.
Texting Away Cholesterol
When it comes to chronic disease, quite often we find the most difficulty not in correcting the pathophysiology of the condition, but in motivating the patient to make real lifestyle changes. Many different forms of education have been tried, some with more success than others, but from what I’ve seen I think that there is a lot to be said for consistency and reaching patients in their daily lives. The article I chose, Text Reminders Help People Lower Blood Pressure, Cholesterol (Shallcross, 2015) demonstrates the power that even simple consistency can have. Today there are hundreds if not thousands of health oriented apps, but most of them require a smartphone and some degree of tech saviness. This article discusses a study recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. In this single-blind randomized clinical trial, 710 patients with coronary heart disease were divided into a control (n=358) and intervention group (n=352) (Chow et al., 2015). Each group received the same medical care, but the intervention group also received 4 non-interactive text messages a week focused on education, advice, support, and motivation (Chow et al., 2015). After six months, the intervention group had significant decreases in LDL, SBP, BMI, smoking, and significant increases in activity (Chow et al., 2015).
I find this impressive and exciting. These results are an important reminder that when is comes to patient education, sometimes keeping technology simpler is better. Another important aspect of this model is that text messages are accessible to many people, including those without smartphones. Even in developing countries many people have cell phones that can receive text messages, so this technology could conceivably be applied in such regions. I also appreciate the empowerment aspect of this work. No one was calling these patients to pressure them into changes, they received the messages and independently decided to ignore or take in and apply the content. All in all, I think this study is an important contribution to medicine and hope to see its implications acknowledged.
References
Shallcross, L. (2025). Text Reminders Help People Lower Blood Pressure. National Public Radio.
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/22/442518139/text-
reminders-help-people-lower-their-heart-disease-risk
Cardiac Website: Cottage Health Heart and Vascular Center
This is the website of the Cottage Heart and Vascular Center. I found it interesting because it explains (in lay terms) all of the procedures (CABG, PCI, Ablation, etc) performed at our local hospital and what patients should expect. The interactive symptom checker, local cottage heart-hotline, and list of heart attack warning signs are all easy to navigate and seem helpful (also for those of us studying for a test!). While in a clinical rotation I once witnessed a PCI in the cardiac cath lab, and beforehand saw the pt give informed consent after the doctor explained the procedure extremely rapidly. The information on this website would have been extremely helpful to the pt before the emergency procedure– but how many people read up on cottage’s heart services when they’re feeling fine? The website also talks about how the hospital goal for all cardiac events is a 90 min or less timeline from door-to-“definitive treatment” since becoming a Cardiac Receiving Center and Level II Trauma Center for Santa Barbara County.
http://www.cottagehealth.org/services/heart-vascular/services-treatments/
Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease- Exercise, a Heart Healthy Diet, and the Right Amount of SLEEP
Article: Too Much, Too Little Sleep May Harm the Heart
We’ve all heard that proper diet and exercise is crucial to lowering our risk for heart disease. This study focused on another major factor that often doesn’t receive as much attention, sleep. With the American mentality of work hard, play hard it often seems that there isn’t much time left for sleep. In fact, it almost seems that individuals pride themselves on their ability to keep up despite minimal amounts of sleep. While these individuals may feel like they’re living life to its fullest, they are missing out on the major benefits of getting a good nights sleep.
With attempting to balance work, school, and some form of a social and healthy lifestyle I often find that sleep gets thrown by the wayside. Recently it’s become a personal goal of mine to try to get better quality sleep and more of it.
I found this article interesting because it discusses not only the importance of sleep as it relates to cardiovascular health, but the importance of the right amount of sleep.
According to the article, a study of 47,000 participants showed individuals who:
- got five or fewer hours of sleep a day had 50 percent more calcium in their arteries than those who slept seven hours a day.
- slept nine or more hours a day had at least 70 percent more calcium compared to those who slept seven hours.
- reported poor sleep quality had more than 20 percent more calcium than those who reported good sleep quality.
So, as with most things in life, sleep is good in moderation. It looks as though oversleeping may actually be more harmful to your heart than not getting enough sleep!
Heart Healthy Advice to your mobile device
We do everything on our phones, expect what they were originally meant for, talk. Texting is quick and easy but could improve your health. A study, posted in Journal of American Medical Association, looked to see if semi-personal text messages could reduce LDL, BMI, blood pressure and even smoking status. The participants in the intervention group received 4 texts a week from an automated service and the other group received regular care. In the end, the intervention group, saw a reduction in BMI, blood pressure, LDL and even smoking status. Although this was a fairly small study of 700 participants for only 6 months, I think there is some reliability.
Text messages are seen as personal and a useful form of communication. Texts also allow an automated service to send out messages to a large number of people. It shows increased interest in the patient’s health and can hold them more accountable. I think an additional benefit would be an option to respond to the text messages and get feed back about food choices, exercise ideas and possible list of resources in the community for additional resources.
Healthcare will be forced to keep up with digital communication age and I think texting can make health care information more accessible and convenient for everyone with a cell phone.
Smith, S. (2015, September 22). How Weekly Motivational Texts Could Help Improve Heart Health. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
Chow, C, et al. Effect of Lifestyle-Focused Text Messaging on Risk Factor Modification in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease. JAMA. 2015.
