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Ali Haider, MD

@yourheartdoc

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💖Interventional & Structural Cardiology
📚Evidence Based Educator, Girl Dad
📍NYC
🚫 No medical advice
🙋🏻‍♂️Posts are my opinions alone

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🫀 The 2026 cholesterol guidelines just dropped — biggest update in 8 years. Here’s what changed:

🔬 Kids should be screened at ages 9–11. As early as age 2 if family history of familial HL.

📊 New risk calculator (PREVENT™) replaces the old one — now starts at age 30. Your doctor should use the new “CPR” method: Calculate your risk → Personalize it with risk enhancers → Reclassify with a calcium score.

⚠️ Risk enhancers now include early menopause (< 45), preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, elevated Lp(a), hsCRP ≥ 2, South Asian ancestry, and more.

🏃‍♀️Early emphasis on diet, exercise, lifestyle *NON-NEGOTIABLE*

🎯 Specific LDL targets are BACK:
→ Very high risk: LDL goal < 55
→ High risk: LDL goal < 70

🧬 Lp(a) testing now recommended for EVERY adult — at least once. 1 in 5 people are walking around with high levels and have no idea.

🫀 Calcium scores now directly drive your treatment:
→ Score of 0 → may safely skip meds
→ Score ≥ 1000 → treated like a heart attack patient

❌ Fish oil, turmeric, garlic, red yeast rice — officially NOT recommended for cholesterol.

💊 Statins first line, ezetimibe/PCSK9i next, New drugs in the algorithm: olezarsen, inclisiran, bempedoic acid.

📈 The bottom line: cholesterol damage is cumulative. The earlier you act, the more years of protection you gain.

💾 Save this. Share with someone who needs it.

#Cardiology #HeartHealth #Cholesterol #PreventiveCardiology by @yourheartdoc

Put politics aside for a minute. Whether you are a fan of AOC or not, this conversation matters. We all should be paying attention to who really controls healthcare in America, and who benefits when one company owns so many aspects of the healthcare experience.

#healthcare #cvs #pbm #medicine by @yourheartdoc

Do you guys feel the same way? And listen, I see plenty of sons deeply involved in their parents care and always at the bedside, but I think broadly speaking daughters take it to another level!

My conflict of interest here is also that I'm a three-time girl dad 🙂 by @yourheartdoc

As a doctor and a father of three I am thrilled at our country stepping up on election night to cast their votes. Abdul is just one of them but huge victories throughout. And if you’re on the right, i can understand you may be upset at it, but this is why America has checks and balances. This is what our constitution intended. 👍🏻

Now it’s time for SHWARMA LAW!! 🤣 by @yourheartdoc

You can’t talk about healthcare and Medicine and ignore politics. Like it or not they are intertwined.

As a cardiologist and a father of three, I care about what these policies do to my patients today, and to my kids’ future.

Don’t sit this out. Go v0te.

#politics #midterms #Healthcare #Cardiology #PublicHealth by @yourheartdoc

Spooky Halloween Cathlab clip.

Cardiac perforation from poor technique by end hole catheter power injection.

IYKYK

Don’t do stupid shit people. Some Cardiologists are sloppy.

#cathlab #cardiology #interventionalcardiology #cardiacnurse by @yourheartdoc

Five things everyone can do to lower their heart attack risk. And you are never too young to start…

#heartattack #hearthealth #cardiology #prevention by @yourheartdoc

This isn’t politics as usual. This is blatant anti-Muslim bigotry.
As a Muslim American, I’m disgusted by the willingness of elected leaders to exploit religious prejudice for political gain.

And this is just one guy. I can post clips of Trump, congressmen, media who suckuo to a Trump, and others with the same hateful nonsense.

Disagree with Abdul El-Sayed’s policies all you want. That’s fair game. But insinuating that his Muslim identity makes him dangerous or un-American is indefensible.

We should expect better from our elected leaders, especially those holding the highest offices in this country.

Religious freedom isn’t reserved for people who share your faith.

Read the constitution.

#muslim #elsayed #rfk #bigotry #politics by @yourheartdoc

Breakthrough cancer therapeutic. A vaccine built for exactly ONE patient just beat the best drug we have for the deadliest skin cancer. This is the phase 3 data. 👇

Intismeran autogene is a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine from Moderna and Merck. After a patient’s melanoma is surgically removed, the tumor is sequenced, up to 34 mutations found only in that cancer are selected, and a bespoke vaccine is manufactured for that single patient — then given with Keytruda (pembrolizumab), which takes the brakes off the T cells the vaccine trains.

**THE PHASE 3 NUMBERS — INTerpath-001** (n=1,137; resected stage IIB–IV melanoma; randomized 2:1, double-blind; median follow-up 24.6 months):
• Risk of recurrence or death: **42% lower** with vaccine + Keytruda vs Keytruda alone (HR 0.58)
• Cancer-free at 2 years: **82.2% vs 70.0%**
• Risk of distant metastasis or death: **38% lower** (88.5% vs 80.2% free of distant metastasis at 2 years)
• Overall survival: not yet mature — early trend favorable, not proven
• Safety: no new signals; mostly fatigue and fever for a few days

And it builds on the phase 2b KEYNOTE-942 trial, where the same combination cut recurrence or death by 49% — a benefit still holding at 5 years.

This vaccine does NOT prevent melanoma — it treats patients after surgery. It is NOT FDA-approved yet. And every dose is manufactured for one patient, which takes weeks.

Still: the first personalized cancer vaccine in history to succeed in a phase 3 trial. Trials in lung, bladder, and kidney cancer are already running.

Follow the data.

References:
1. INTerpath-001 (NCT05933577), phase 3 results released Oct 22, 2026; presented at ESMO 2026, Presidential Symposium LBA1 (Long GV et al.); accepted for publication, New England Journal of Medicine.
2. Weber JS et al. KEYNOTE-942 5-year follow-up. Journal of Clinical Oncology, June 1, 2026 (recurrence/death HR 0.510).
3. Weber JS et al. KEYNOTE-942 primary analysis. The Lancet, 2024.
4. Washington Post, Oct 22, 2026; National Geographic, Aug 21, 2026.

#melanoma #skincancer #cancerresearch #mrna by @yourheartdoc

Today is a great day to start your longevity journey. Because You can be 25, feel completely healthy, and already have plaque building inside your arteries.🫀❌

A heart attack may happen suddenly later in life. The disease behind it can develop silently for decades.

REACT - A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at nearly 17,000 adults with no known cardiovascular disease.

Researchers used imaging to look for plaque in arteries supplying the heart, neck, and legs.

Among people aged 18 to 29, roughly one in thirteen already had atherosclerosis.

Across the entire study, more than half had detectable disease. Older adults had much more plaque, involving more parts of the circulation.

Now, finding plaque doesn’t mean someone is going to have a heart attack.

But it reinforces something we’ve learned from other research: lifetime exposure matters.

With LDL/ApoB cholesterol, it’s both how high it is AND how many years your arteries are exposed to it. Lifetime exposure - similar to when we discuss pack years of smoking. Your cholesterol value only today doesn’t tell the whole story.

That’s why “you’re young, don’t worry about it” can miss an important opportunity.

Know your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and family history. Avoid smoking, stay active, and address elevated risk factors early— never too early to initiate lifestyle and dietary modification, and with medication when appropriate.

Now this study doesn’t establish that every healthy young adult needs a scan. But in the future, we may start shifting to broader screening studies at younger ages in appropriate patients. We will let the evidence do the talking.

But it’s a powerful reminder: feeling healthy is an opportunity to prevent disease. Start today!

Bundgaard H, García-Lunar I, Kofoed KF, et al. Prevalence of Silent Atherosclerosis across Adult Life. N Engl J Med. Published online August 29, 2026. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2609059

#hearthealth #preventativehealth #cardiology #prevention #cholesterol by @yourheartdoc

A heart valve that grows with your child? ❤️🫀

The FDA just approved the AUTUS Size-Adjustable Valve, a major innovation for children born with congenital heart defects.

Unlike traditional valves, this surgically implanted pulmonary valve can be expanded through a catheter-based procedure as a child grows, potentially reducing the need for repeated open-heart surgeries.

It also features synthetic polymer leaflets rather than animal tissue.

Long-term durability remains to be seen, but this is an exciting step forward in pediatric cardiac care! 👏

#Cardiology #CongenitalHeartDisease #HeartSurgery #MedicalInnovation by @yourheartdoc

A therapeutic that can dissolve visceral fat cells?! This caught my attention…

Visceral fat is the fat that sits around your organs in the abdomen, which is linked to insulin resistance, fatty liver, and cardiovascular disease.

For me this may be especially interesting for South Asians, who can develop significant metabolic problems even at a relatively low BMI due a disproportional amount of visceral fat. The number on the scale doesn’t tell the whole story.

The drug is called CBL-514, and it’s given through multiple injections into abdominal fat.

In a small analysis from two phase-two trials, MRI-measured visceral fat fell about 12% four weeks after the final treatment—and remained about 10% lower eight to twelve weeks later. Meanwhile, placebo recipients gained visceral fat.

But this is a bit early to get too escorted : this involved only about 40 people, with short follow-up.

It also hasn’t yet shown better blood sugar, improved cholesterol, or fewer heart attacks.

But as a cardiologist, especially once ther treats populations with excess visceral fat and metabolic derangements - I’m interested. A treatment that safely reduces visceral fat could have real value for at risk people.

Now we need larger, longer trials showing that those changes are legit and can translate into better health.

Let’s keep an eye on this one..

#hearthealth #metabolichealth #obesity #insulinresistance by @yourheartdoc