Here is a chronologial list of Sanjay’s videos on youtube.
I think there are only two reasons people come to see a doctor. The first is discomfort. The second is uncertainty. Everything else is a variation on these two themes. We don’t usually articulate it this way, but if you listen carefully in a consultation — beneath the symptoms, the timelines, the test results — you will almost always find one or both of these at work. Understanding this distinctio [...]
If there is one medical term guaranteed to trigger anxiety, it’s high blood pressure. A familiar scenario plays out every day. A patient visits their GP for something entirely unrelated. The blood pressure cuff comes out. The reading is a little high. The doctor frowns, suggests a repeat reading next week, and mentions tablets “if it’s still raised.” And just like that, anxiety takes over. The pat [...]
Today I want to talk about ectopic heartbeats — something that causes a great deal of anxiety, despite being very common and, in the vast majority of cases, completely harmless. What are ectopic heartbeats? Ectopic heartbeats are extra beats that interrupt the heart’s normal rhythm. Patients describe them in many ways: a missed beat a flutter a skipped beat or a sudden, forceful “thud” in the ches [...]
Have you ever felt like your trip to the doctor was more like standing on a conveyor belt than being truly cared for? In and out, numbers checked, boxes ticked, a prescription handed over — and that’s it. This is what I call conveyor belt medicine. And it’s a growing problem. What is conveyor belt medicine? Conveyor belt medicine happens when the system is so focused on speed, efficiency, [...]
Introduction: Every so often, a clinical trial comes along that changes the way we think about treatment. In atrial fibrillation, one of those trials was called AVERROES. And it answered a very important question: if a patient with AF can’t take warfarin, is aspirin good enough — or is there something better? The problem before AVERROES "We’ve known for decades that atrial fibrillation increases t [...]
What is vitamin D? A fat-soluble vitamin made in the skin when exposed to sunlight. Important for bone health, calcium balance, and immune function. Also thought to have effects on the cardiovascular system because vitamin D receptors are found in blood vessels, heart muscle, and immune cells. Why the interest in heart health? Low vitamin D levels have been linked in observational studies to: High [...]
We often talk about stress as though it’s all in the mind. But the truth is — the body listens. And nowhere is this more true than in the heart. When we’re stressed, the body goes into survival mode. Your brain signals the release of adrenaline and cortisol — hormones designed to help you fight or flee. Your heart starts to race. Your blood pressure rises. Your blood vessels constrict. Your breath [...]
The Heart is a muscle and any muscle requires a blood supply to function. The heart is supplied by 2 main blood vessels. The left coronary artery and the right coronary artery. The left further divides into 2 large branches: The left anterior descending artery (LAD) and the left circumflex artery. Each of these vessels supply a part of the heart and in combination, these 3 vessels supply the whole [...]
Several years ago, I was invited to join a fellowship program at one of the most prestigious cardiac institutions in the USA. I recall that time as one filled with great joy (because I thought it would greatly help my career) but also in part tainted with some trepidation (because this place only attracted the best of best and I didnt think I was bright enough to be mingling with such people). I [...]
The modern age of clinical guidelines began with a 1992 institute of medicine report which defined guidelines as systematically developed statements meant to assist practitioner and patient decisions about healthcare for specific clinical circumstances. The key words there were ‘assist practitioner AND patient decisions’. However over the course of the last 30 years, this seemingly innocuous and p [...]
Most chronic disease is caused by underlying low grade chronic inflammation. In cardiology, one of our biggest challenges in atherosclerosis (which refers to wear and tear of the blood vessels which supply our vital organs) and these blood vessels are also prone to increased wear and tear which results in progressive damage to the vessel walls and the devlopment of plaque within the vessels. This [...]
In this video, Dr Sanjay Gupta discuses diastolic dysfunction. The heart is a pump. It has to relax and fill with blood and then contract to push that blood out. The time interval during which the heart contracts is called systole and the period during which it relaxes to fill with blood is called diastole. For many years, the ability of the heart is measured by its ability to contract and this is [...]
In this video, Dr Sanjay Gupta explains what is meant by the ejection fraction of the heart. [...]
AFib and its silent but deadly parent Afib is one of the commonest heart rhythm disturbances which is associated with an increased risk of stroke. Whilst we know of many risk factors which increase the likelihood of Afib such as high blood pressure, diabetes or precasting heart disease. However, there is one risk factor which is extremely common yet rarely ever diagnosed. This risk factor is a con [...]
I wanted to do a series on the 'ABCs of CARDIOLOGY' which would consist of short snappy videos on different topics. This first one is on Arrhythmia. Many people come and see me and tell me that they have been diagnosed with arrhythmia but don't know what it means. In this video, I talk about 5 facts that will help to understand arrhythmia. Please visit www.drsanjayguptacardiologist.com for more in [...]
One of the commonest cardiac conditions I come across in my job is Angina. Angina can be a precursor to a heart attack and therefore it is really important that everyone knows how to recognise it at an early stage and therefore seek medical help as early as possible. In this video, I discuss angina, why it happens and how we treat it. Please visit www.drsanjayguptacardiologist.com to find out more [...]
In this video, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Cardiologist discusses sinus arrhythmia and its significance. A full transcript is available on www.drsanjayguptacardiologist.com Sinus rhythm means that the electrical impulses which regulate the heart rhythm are being produced in the pacemaker that God gives us all when we are born. This ‘pacemaker’ is otherwise called the Sino-atrial node and this is why this rh [...]
In this video, Dr Sanjay Gupta, consultant cardiologist, discusses how cocaine use can affect the heart. Cocaine’s main effect is that it increases our sympathetic activity (flight or fight system) by increasing the amount of adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin in the blood and therefore causing an exaggerated and prolonged activation of our sympathetic system. With regard to the he [...]
