What’s your heart doing at the moment? Do you know? Well, presumably it’s still beating or you wouldn’t be able to sit there reading, but what’s your current heart rate? It can change depending on a whole host of factors, from whether you’ve just finished some intense exercise to if you have a health problem. […]
We talk a lot about the many things that can go wrong with the heart. This is important because cardiovascular problems are a leading cause of death for Americans. Sometimes we talk about the things that keep the heart working properly, but perhaps it’s now time to talk about what a healthy heart looks like.
You probably know many of the risk factors that damage your heart health. Smoking, poor diet and not exercising enough are all things we’re told about regularly. One potential danger that isn’t as obvious but has been the subject of quite a bit of research is the harm that loneliness can cause. Some scientists have
We all know that smoking is bad. That has been one of the most pervasive health messages of recent years, and it seems to be sinking in. The number of people who smoke has gone down dramatically, but it’s still one of the main preventable causes of death across the globe. Therefore, it can’t hurt
It seems to be a generally accepted fact that the older we become, the worse our health gets. That’s true for the heart as much as it is anything. People over 65 in particular are at much higher risk of strokes, heart attacks and heart disease. But why exactly is that? And if you can’t
It’s a worrying thought that despite all we know about heart health, heart disease remains one of the biggest killers in the U.S. That’s true for men and for women. Does it include you? When we talk about heart healthy living, we mean both understanding your own specific risk factors and doing whatever you can
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You probably know by now that eating a balanced, healthy diet is one of the best ways to look after your heart. When it comes to dietary recommendations, however, they often focus on mainstream American food habits. What if your preferred diet is Asian, Caribbean, or from elsewhere in the world? How can you modify
Few muscles and organs are as important as the heart. If it didn’t pump blood around the body, nutrients, hormones, and even oxygen wouldn’t be able to reach where they’re needed. Nothing else would work properly. That means that you need to take very good care of it. It’s never too late to get into
Blood pressure is given in two numbers, right? 120/80 is a typical example, which means that high blood pressure looks something like 130/90. But what if only the first number is elevated? Does that still count as hypertension, and should you be worried? Well, yes, it’s still hypertension. It’s isolated systolic hypertension, to be precise.
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No one likes being lectured, yet that’s what it can feel like when your doctor starts telling you that you need to fundamentally change your lifestyle. If you’re living relatively happily, who are they to tell you that you’re wrong? It’s not like cholesterol has any obvious symptoms. That’s part of the problem. The threat
