Posted in Nosology, Taxonomy, and Nomenclature on Nov 29th, 2011
“The artifactual disease” is the phrase George Pickering coined to describe hypertension in the 1950′s and 60′s. In those days, he dominated the debate about the nature of hypertension, arguing against those who thought hypertensive patients who developed complications comprised a distinct entity of subjects. “The higher the pressure, the worse the prognosis,” he would [...]
Posted in Nosology, Taxonomy, and Nomenclature on Sep 1st, 2011
A “reader’s comment” on an opinion piece by William C. Roberts in the American Journal of Cardiology, kindly published by the editor. Roberts’ editorial focuses on the large body of evidence favoring the cholesterol hypothesis and laments what he considers the distracting effect of complementary hypotheses (eg. inflammation, “multifactorial” nature of atherosclerosis, etc.). I offer [...]
Posted in Nosology, Taxonomy, and Nomenclature, War on fat on Jul 2nd, 2011
In the June 21 issue of JACC, Dr. Harold E. Bays argues for establishing “adiposopathy” as a full-fledged disease to provide a coherent understanding of the role of fat tissue in cardiovascular disease, dispel the confusion related to the many-named “metabolic syndrome,” and resolve the obesity paradox. Does he succeed in this task? What would [...]
Posted in Guideline medicine, Nosology, Taxonomy, and Nomenclature on Jun 3rd, 2010
An elevated blood pressure can be a normal physiologic reaction, an abnormality of uncertain significance, a marker of cardiovascular risk, or the cardinal sign of a disease with potentially serious immediate or long-term complications. Depending on the clinical circumstances, therefore, the physician can ignore the finding, extend the scope of observation, engage the patient in [...]
Posted in Nosology, Taxonomy, and Nomenclature, Prevention, War on fat on Dec 3rd, 2008
Cardiology News recently announced with great enthusiasm the discovery of a “novel risk factor (1).” Reporting on a talk given at an American Heart Association conference on nutrition and metabolism by Mayo Clinic investigators, the article describes the features of a new condition earnestly named normal-weight obesity (NWO). I believe we are witnessing the early [...]
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