Prevention Specialists, Ltd.

Preventive Cardiology

Thought Leadership

This section contains the views and methods practiced by Dr. Weisberg, who is renowned for his comprehensive approach to disease prevention. He has lectured widely on preventive medicine as well as PCCP topics in the primary care setting. This information is posted to help you gain a better understanding of these conditions. As always, please consult with your physician to clarify or initiate any ideas discussed.

Heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. Nearly one half of the two million deaths that occur every year in this country are related to aging arteries in the form of heart attack and stroke. It's important to know that heart disease presents itself in two phases:

1. Pre-clinical, when plaque forms on the lining of the arteries, sometimes for decades, but no symptoms are present.
2. Clinical, when the disease appears as follows:
   • 1/3 present as sudden death
   • 1/3 present as a heart attack
   • 1/3 present with warning symptoms such as chest pain (angina), sweats or shortness of breath

During the pre-clinical phase, all of the risk factors (hypertension, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, inactivity and smoking) are like the ingredients of a cake coming together to form plaque on the lining of the arteries. The clinical phase – sudden death, heart attack or angina – occurs when this plaque ruptures, causing clot formation and sudden blockage of the flow of blood to a part of the heart.

The focus, then, of Preventive Cardiology is to detect heart disease in its pre-clinical phase by identifying those individuals at high risk and intervening prior to its progression to clinical disease. The absence of symptoms is no way to judge whether one has heart disease, since two out of three individuals with heart disease either die or have a heart attack as their first symptom!

Preventing a patient’s arteries from aging is our key goal at PSL, with a three-fold approach:

1. A Comprehensive Physical Examination including a risk factor assessment.
2. Coronary artery scanning utilizing electron beam tomography for patients at risk who do not have symptoms.
3. Thallium stress testing for patients who do have symptoms. It can also be used for patients who do not have symptoms, but who have an abnormal coronary scan.

These initial steps are taken to assess an individual’s risk for having a heart attack. The process provides the information necessary to begin a program of risk reduction through appropriate lifestyle modification and, when indicated, the use of medications for risk factor modification.

To schedule a free informational consultation with Dr. Weisberg, email us at appointments@PreventionSpecialists.com.

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