Listening to Heart is Bogus
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Dr. Keith Hopcroft in The Times (UK) rates the bullshit factor of doctors listening to our hearts as HIGH.
Listening to your heart provides information about the state of your valves, but virtually nothing else. And these valves are only rarely implicated in most heart problems. For example, heart attacks and angina are caused by blocked and narrowed coronary arteries respectively, neither of which provides any clues through the stethoscope.
Stethoscopes? So last century.
Tags: cardiovascular-disease, disease, health, heart, heart-disease, stethoscopesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Hearty Healthcare
5 opinions for Listening to Heart is Bogus
Amélie
Mar 25, 2006 at 12:20 pm
That’s very interesting. French doctors have always listened to my heart every time I went, but no British or Canadian doctor has ever done so. I thought the French ones were being more thorough, but maybe not after all! (although my valves do make a lot of noise apparently)
Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
Mar 25, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Amélie: According to Dr. Hopcroft, doctors use their stethoscopes mostly to make patients feel like their doctors are doing something and everything. It obviously works! ;)
Lorelai
Mar 27, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Don’t be too quick to dismiss the value of of stethoscope. I went to see my doctor this past week and thankfully she used a stethoscope, just like she always does. I found out that I have a heart murmur. You never know. And it only takes a few seconds out of your life. What’s the big deal?
lorelaiandroryg@verizon.net
Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
Mar 27, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Lorelai: Thanks for the comment! It’s not a big deal at all unless your doctor thinks it’s enough to use a stethoscope and nothing else. Most cases of heart disease involve the entire cardiovascular system. And, of course, stethoscopes have other uses as well.
Hope your heart murmur was an innocent one. For anyone interested, the American Heart Association’s info on Innocent Heart Murmurs.
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