From The Editor

Cardiology's hour
upon the stage
T
he best and perhaps first role of a cardiologist occurred
on stage in the year 1606 at the Globe Theater in
London. A murder mystery had just opened, and our
hero-actor-doctor delivered an epic, though brief, performance.
Concerned about his insomniac, neurotic, obsessive-
compulsive female patient, and the ranting about damned
spots, the perfumes of Arabia, and her incessant washing of
hands, he rendered a historically significant diagnosis.
“What a sigh is there!” he said, “The heart is sorely charg’d”
Thus the first identification of stress as a causative factor of
cardiovascular disease.
“Sorely charg’d” hearts have continued to oppress humankind
since Lady Macbeth’s time. And even more so today, in terms
of the incidence and lethality of cardiovascular disease. Yet the
struggle against this killer continues. And today, we honor that
struggle by placing Cardiology at the heart of this issue of the
Turkish Pharmaceutical Business Review.
The word “heart” appears more times (1047) in the works
of Shakespeare than words like life (890), death (918),
murder (101), blood (673), disease (30), sick (169), cure
(61), health (104), doctor (95), heal (13), medicine (25),
peace (547), war (261), and hate (184), but still many times
fewer than love (2191).
Readers will note quickly the love and dedication of the
medical practitioners featured in this issue. Truly, they are
about a love’s labor, and one that is being won, not lost.
Consider the advances in knowledge, technique, and
technology. Imagine the possible effects of new discoveries,
like stem cell therapy. Consider that glorious day when our
suicidal addiction to smoking is kicked, once and for all time. But
as you will read, there is much public education to be done, about
the importance of healthier diets, the benefits of regular exercise,
and not smoking. With cardiovascular disease, prevention is
indeed the best cure.
It may seem strange to invoke the words of a murderer as an
exhortation to the medical profession. But Macbeth, like all
Shakespeare’s creations, was a complex individual. Now, his wife is
dying. According to her doctor, she is “troubled with thick-coming
fantasies that keep her from her rest.” Of course, she too is a
monster. Still, Macbeth loves her, and tender-heartedly appeals
to her physician:
Cure her of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
Macbeth’s words speak to all those in the field of cardiology in
their quest to cleanse the bosoms of their patients of the perilous
stuff of cardiovascular disease. For it is a disease of enormous
complexity, one which indeed weighs upon the sorely charged
hearts of far too many. 

James Ryan

Turkish Pharmaceutical Business Review • JANUARY - MARCH 2006 • Volume 1 - Issue 2 ISSN: 1306 - 2018

Editor in Chief: ‹brahim Erdo¤an, MD • Editor: James Ryan • Art Director: Ça¤dafl Gündo¤an • Illustrator: Tansel Körükçü • Photographer: Tezcan K›ld›ran

Contributors: Mark Stinson • Memet Yaz›c› • Ardan Zentürk • Gökhan Altay, MD • Burak Ravano¤lu • Sinem Soykan • Neslihan Alt›nkaya • Be¤enç Taflçanov, MD • Cavid Hamifleyev, MD

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