Do Heart Stent Procedures Work for Angina Chest Pain? | Dr. Michael Greger | Nutritionfacts.org

Sham surgery trials prove that procedures like nonemergency stents offer no benefit for angina pain—only risk to millions of patients.

DOCTOR’S NOTE

At this point, you may be thinking what a shameful, dark period of medical history. Millions of risky procedures were performed, killing people and causing strokes before it was actually put to the test. When it finally was, it was proven to offer to no benefit. Certainly, a cautionary tale for the future. In fact, they’re still being done. It’s still one of the most common invasive procedures performed in the United States. Why Are Stents Still Used if They Don’t Work? That’s the subject of the next video.

This is part of a seven-video series. If you need to catch up, here are the first four:

As I say over and over in this video series, during a heart attack, in an acute setting, angioplasty can be life-saving. As I reiterate, when I’m talking about stable CAD, I’m talking nonemergency situations. In an upcoming series I talk about pros and cons of statin drug therapy. Spoiler: If you have a history of heart disease or stroke, taking a statin is recommended. All of these videos, including the upcoming statin series, are available on a digital download of a webinar I did last year. You can find it here.

If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here.