Every year roughly 610,000 Americans die of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States for both sexes. Yet research shows little shifts in diet and lifestyle can significantly boost your heart health. Big bonus: Several require little or no effort. Here are 12 to...
It would seem obvious that examining the health of the approximate 50,000 miles of arteries in the body would provide key information on vascular and overall aging. As Thomas Sydenham, MD said in the 1600’s in England, “a man is as old as his arteries”. This, of course, is true...
Heart failure (HF) is a syndrome of cardiac dysfunction in which the heart can no longer pump enough blood around the body to support its organs and systems. Identified risk factors for HF include conditions that damage the heart, such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart attack, chronic alcohol abuse,...
Without a doubt it would be easy to answer the question: what was the top medical story of 2020? Obviously, it was the pandemic. However, there were some major advances in research that focused on cardiology, nutrition, and plant diets. Without diminishing the importance of COVID-19, here are some that...
After 31 plus years of cardiology practice, I can conservatively estimate I have consulted on over 5,000 cases of a common heart ailment, atrial fibrillation (AF). The normal heart beat is called normal sinus rhythm (NSR) which starts 60-100 times a minute in the upper chamber of the heart (right...
Step 4. Do I Need a Heart Catheterization (angiogram)? There are differences of practice If your CACS returns at a very high score (e.g. >1000) even if you have no symptoms. Some cardiologists recommend an invasive cardiac catheterization as described in a recent media article. I have performed cardiac catheterization...
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is wise counsel. Although not as lofty a goal, early detection of existing heart disease is worth at least half a pound of cure, agreed? Why Get a Heart CT Scan? The introduction of a simple, inexpensive, and safe screening test...
Do you have a high cholesterol? Maybe you already know of some form of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) from a prior heart attack, stroke, bypass operation or stent procedure. Most people learn of a high cholesterol from their primary care provider. Often a Rx medication is offered without further...
10 Holiday Gifts I Love! The holidays are right around the corner and most of us are spending lots of extra hours as home. I experiment with many home or personal use items. Some I love, some I don’t. This is a list of some of my favorites you...
High blood pressure, or hypertension, has earned the name “silent killer.” What Can High Blood Pressure Do? Heart disease, sexual dysfunction, stroke, kidney failure, and aneurysms can all result from elevated blood pressure. And with 1 out of every 3 Americans suffering from this malady, its impact is huge. Of course, there...
Heart disease can strike unexpectedly at any moment causing illness or death. There's nothing pretty about lying in a cardiac care unit bed on a ventilator after a major heart attack, so here's straight talk about a plan to know you are young inside and out and NOT DROPPING DEAD. ...
I spent at least 50% of my time this week in my preventive cardiology clinic answering one of 2 questions from patients across the USA. The first question was “why have I never been told that I could improve my health by changing my diet?” and the second one was...
Understanding heart diseases, particularly the risk of heart attack, strokes, valvular diseases requiring stents or cardiac surgery, is a dynamic field. Heart diseases, particularly coronary heart disease (CHD), remain the #1 risk of disability and death in western countries in both men and women. The traditional risk factors for early...
In medical school nearly 40 years ago I was taught that heart disease is mainly due to smoking, hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol disorders, and a family history of early heart events (Framingham risk factors). Most patients are still evaluated by obtaining information regarding these 5 factors. Missing from this approach are...
Eat your vegetables and fruits, get seven to nine hours of sleep, don’t smoke, walk 30 minutes a day, stand more, stress less, be more mindful. It can be quite an undertaking to arrange and maintain a schedule that promotes health and longevity. And interestingly, the one activity you may not be...
Some people are drawn to the plant-based lifestyle for the impact it makes on protecting the environment and some to avoid harming animals. Most of us hope that we also may derive some health benefits from skipping animal products, even if it is occasionally hard on holidays and travel to...
Odds are you’ve heard about fasting. Defined as “abstinence from eating,” it is something you may have tried now and then. The potential medical benefits have increasingly been substantiated in animal and medical research projects and now extend to boosting brain power. I have been using a form of periodic fasting called...
You’ve decided to avoid animal products and jump into the world of plant-based eating but you’re wondering what your three meals a day and snacks are going to look like. How will you order at restaurants? What do you need to stock up on at home? I’ve discussed this process...
Preventing heart disease in patients is my main goal, but early detection is the next best thing if you cannot totally block its development. Changes in lifestyle and medical therapies can delay or deny the onset of a heart attack and almost 80 percent of heart disease is preventable with...