“It’s a battle that has been raging throughout the modern history of cardiology. Which is the best way to clear clogged arteries to the heart: bypass surgery or angioplasty with stents? Last week the latest study found that surgery still holds a slight advantage. But wait! There’s another option we hear little about: simply taking medication, changing lifestyle and not having either invasive procedure. Some very smart doctors believe that the vast majority of the 1.6 million Americans who get these procedures in any year may never need the expensive and potentially dangerous interventions, or at the very least, they don’t need them yet. But we don’t hear much about option No. 3 because it is drowned in the tsunami of profits made with the procedures, especially angioplasty with stents.” (01/29/08)