Defy premature death while helping others

Heart disease and stroke take 1 in 3 Canadians every year. Thousands of lives are cut short, moments lost forever, dreams left unfulfilled. But we, together with the Heart & Stroke Foundation (HSF) can change this: each of us can make a commitment to defy premature death, and together we can give Canadians more time, more life.

In January 2011, the Libin team won the provincial HSF Spirit Award. For January 2012, join us in making a difference while retaining the prestigious Spirit Cup!

The mission of the HSF is the elimination heart disease and stroke and reducing their impact through:

• the advancement of research and its application.
• the promotion of healthy living.
• advocacy.

In support of this noble mission, the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta is participating in the Foundation’s Death Defying Challenge, and we invite all of our Members, Staff and trainees to join the Institute’s team!

What is the Death Defying Challenge?

A fresh manifestation of what was previously known as Ski-for-heart, the Death Defying Challenge is about making a commitment to your own health, engaging your family in lifestyle choices that lead to longer, fuller lives, and raising much-needed funds to support life-giving research and vital health education programs. Participating in the challenge means you will commit to achieving at least 10 individual hours of physical activity from January 1 to 29, 2012. Physical activity can be a life-saver literally; accumulating 2.5 hours of physical activity per week can lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.  Participants will also be able to make an impact on others by securing donations for the HSF.  The challenge will culminate in a (optional) victory weekend at Lake Louise!

Join or sponsor the Libin Death Defying Challenge Team!

Learn more about the Death Defying Challenge, including donations at work, fund raising and incentives (including reduced victory weekend rates at Chateau Lake Louise if a fund raising threshold is achieved).

Read about the Libin Team winning the 2011 Spirit Award (top-left of newsletter page 8).

If you have questions about the Libin DDF team, or about the Challenge itself, please e-mail libin@ucalgary.ca – every effort counts, and we want to demonstrate our spirit by recruiting as many participants as possible!

PAHO news release features HSF/CIHR Hypertension Chair

Libin Institute Member Dr. Norm Campbell, the HSF/CIHR Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control, was recently quoted in a Pan American Health Organization news release.  Campbell is Chair of the PAHO expert group on salt, and in 2010 co-Chaired a World Health Organization technical meeting on the topic.

From the news release:

“Salt reduction is one of the most cost-effective public health measures available,” said Dr. Norm Campbell, professor of medicine at the University of Calgary (Canada) and chair of a PAHO-convened expert group on salt and health. “If other countries join these efforts, we can save tens of thousands of lives over the next 10 years.”

Researchers in Canada have estimated that reducing sodium intake by 10 percent each year in 18 Latin American countries could prevent 593,000 cardiovascular events and save some 54,000 lives. Cost-effectiveness studies have shown that reducing salt consumption at the population level can cut the prevalence of related chronic diseases at a cost of between 4 and 32 US cents per person per year.

Full news release.

PAHO/WHO Regional Expert Group on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention through Dietary Salt Reduction policy statement.

You can read other stories featuring Dr. Norm Campbell here.

Arrhythmia cured in expectant mom via first in Canada procedure

The J.L. “Sam” and Beverley Mozell Heart Rhythm Treatment Research and Education Laboratory at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute has been the centre of many Canadian or Western Canadian firsts over the last number of months.  One of the most recent of these was featured in the October 31st Calgary Herald.  An expectant mother presented with electrical issues in the heart resulting in dangerous misfiring of the body’s pump that in turn presented major risks for baby and mom.  Dr. George (Yorgo) Veenhuyzen then performed what is believed to be a first in Canada procedure (certainly a first in Western Canada) – an ablation on the expectant mom without the use of x-ray.  Normally, the ablation (heating of tissue in the heart that causes irregular heartbeats) requires x-ray such that catheters can be fed into the correct spots in the heart/vasculature.  In this case, the latest 3D navigation tools were used and the patient received no radiation from the procedure.  The results?  A healthy mom, and a few months later, a bouncing baby as happy as can be!

Watch a video about this story:

You may also want to read the Alberta Health Services News Release on some of the fantastic recent advances in cardiac electrophysiology care delivery in Calgary.

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta’s Cardiac Electrophysiology team has been a leader in the field for thirty years, but they have not rested on their laurels.  Building on pillars of the field such as Emeritus Professor D. George Wyse, Professor L. Brent Mitchell, Professor Robert Sheldon, Professor Henry J. Duff, and Professor Anne Gillis, the team has expanded and worked hard on numerous threads of research, while training new scientists and clinicians along the way and providing leading edge treatment to Canadians.  In addition to some of the leading clinical achievements mentioned above, recently we also learned of Professor Derek Exner‘s international clinical trial studying sudden cardiac death, and on the basic research front Professor S.R. Wayne Chen published a ground breaking study on new understandings of the mechanisms of certain arrhythmias.  Read the Institute’s latest newsletter to learn more the Cardiac Energy in Calgary!