Chacham's Journal: News: In a specific case, alcohol is good for the heart

This seems pretty interesting.

Can Alcohol Soothe a Broken Heart?.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is an excessive thickening of the heart muscle, which blocks the flow of blood out of the heart and to the rest of the body. It is thought to be a major cause of sudden heart failure deaths among athletes and young people. The alcohol treatment, developed and put into practice at the Bikur Holim hospital in Jerusalem, involves the injection of alcohol (97%) directly into the blood vessels supplying the engorged area of the muscle. This injection cuts off supply of blood to the specific area affected, thus lessening the blockage of the exit valve of the heart's left ventricle. The alcohol injection has thus far led to improved cardiac performance in 90% of the heart patients so treated, eliminating the need for dangerous surgical alternatives.

UPDATE:

Bikur Holim Hospital did not pioneer the new treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, as stated in yesterday's report. The treatment was in fact developed in England in 1994.

That seems like quite a mistake!

Well

[sebi]

Since I already set my heart (what a horrible, horrible pun. I deserve to be shot for that) on dying of lung cancer, this news probably won't convince me to start drinking again. Red wine, in moderation, is supposed to have a positive effect on your health, which goes to show that just about every issue is more complex than I would like it to be. Cigarettes might be pure poison, but there rarely is a bigger pleasure than lighting one up. Maybe the peace of mind I get from smoking might make my (considerably