Keep The Ticker Ticking

December 23, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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While all the muscles in the body work together to keep us moving and shaking, one of the most important muscles is the heart. The heart works hard to keep the body fueled, and we need to take care of it. Exercise is wonderful. A good brisk walk not only clears the mind, it makes us feel good. At the same time, we are exercising that very important muscle in the middle of the chest, the heart. Keeping stress down is important to a healthy heart, and hence, a healthier life. An extremely important part of heart health is obviously, the diet.

Eating the right foods, in the right combination, at the right time of day, is a huge step towards a healthy heart, and a healthier you. The truth is that healthier choices can please the palate as well as the heart. While a breakfast of bacon and eggs is fine sometimes, substituting that breakfast meal with some whole grain cereal and fresh fruit will make your heart very happy, and you will be healthier. Substitute a healthy breakfast more often during the week, say four to six times a week, and your heart is a happy little muscle.

Keep yourself active. One does not have to run the Boston Marathon on a monthly basis to keep the heart healthy. A nice brisk walk a couple of times a week makes a huge difference. Not only will you be exercising your heart, you will be exercising your body, which will also reap the benefits. Tighter muscles work better, make us less tired, and we will be less likely to sit on the couch and grab a bag of chips.

Our hearts will hopefully keep us living for a very long time. If we take good care of it, the chances are that the heart will take care of us well into our golden years.

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Do What You Are Told

December 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Heart conditions and heart surgeries are serious business. When chest pain hits, you never know what is causing it. It can be as simple as a bad case of indigestion, or as serious as one or more blocked heart valves. When the heart valves are blocked, the heart cannot do its job. There are as many reasons for heart disease as there are people who have heart disease. Finding out you have a heart condition is only the first step. The next step is yours.

We all know that eating right, exercising, staying away from cigarettes, drugs and alcohol are all ways to stay heart healthy. Everyone has a vice. When your heart is at stake, there are seriously important decisions to be made. Once the doctors determine what the problem is, they will take steps to fix said problem. This may include just diet and exercise. It may be that you need medication. Or in more serious cases, surgery might be the answer. Whatever the treatment for your problem, your doctor will tell you to take better care of yourself. Start eating right, exercise regularly, and absolutely stay away from cigarettes, alcohol or illicit drugs.

When it comes to your health and your heart, do what you are told. Make the decision to have a healthier life. Put down the cigarettes, cut out the happy hours, take a walk, eat an apple instead of a doughnut. These can be very difficult steps for some people. People who have smoked for many years find it near impossible to quit. Many people who have heart issues still continue to smoke. Those who have issues with alcohol find it just as difficult to put the bottle down.

Stop and think. What is important to you? Can those cigarettes or that drink possibly be more important than what you have left to live for? Take a good look at your family, the answer is right there.

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Walk Yourself Healthy

December 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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You have been diagnosed with heart disease. The cardiology professionals have told you what you need to do. If you have had surgery, you need to let your body heal. If you are taking medicine, you should be taking it properly, as directed. After the major event and the healing has occurred, you now are more aware than ever that you have to take better care of yourself. There are the obvious things, no smoking, keep drinking to a minimum, get your weight under control. You know that these things need to be done. In taking care of your heart remember one thing, the heart is a muscle.

If your leg muscles were sore, you would rest them and then you would exercise them, so that the next time you overdid it a little, there would be no pain. You can exercise your heart in really much the same way. Walking is one of the best ways to exercise your heart. Nobody loves exercise, well maybe Richard Simmons loves exercise. Most of us do it because there is a goal. A goal of a healthy heart should be more than enough motivation to want to exercise more.

It is said that a home walking program can be as beneficial as hospital directed cardiac rehabilitation. Have a check-up to make sure walking for exercise is safe. Start out slow, pick up the pace as you go along and slow it down at the end. Use a pedometer and try adding 2,000 steps to your daily walk, gradually increasing as you go. Walk with friends, walk on your lunch break, or put on your trusty MP3 player and walk to your favorite tunes. Doing this just 30 minutes a day five times a week will be of great benefit to your heart. You will feel so much better, it might even make you want to make other changes to better your health.

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The Doctor Is In

December 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Getting heart healthy is a lifestyle change. If you have been diagnosed with heart disease or have had heart surgery, you know the importance of making your heart healthy and keeping it that way. If you are lucky enough to get that second chance, the warning that maybe you need to take better care of your heart, then it is time to step up to the challenge. Hopefully you will make the necessary lifestyle changes. Though challenging, it is worth it, to live a longer, healthier life. It might be an easy change to start eating healthier. While we like the greasy, fast food world, it is not horrible to start eating more vegetables and drinking more water. Fruits and vegetables can be delicious, and you will start to feel better almost immediately by replacing high sugar drinks with water. Quitting smoking or excessive alcohol drinking will be more difficult, but hopefully, with the new motivation of a healthy heart and living longer you will get there.

While these are all very important factors to getting your heart healthy and keeping it that way, one of the most important things you can do is to keep up with your doctor’s appointments. Your doctor will know of any new trends in the treatment of your heart disease, and will need to keep a close eye on you to regulate your medications. The only way for you to keep getting your medications as they need to be taken, is to follow up with your doctor. Staying on track is actually easier when you are following closely with your doctor. He or she will be able to track your progress, let you know what you are doing right, as well as what you need to do better, and will be able to give you the encouragement you need to keep working at it. Your lifelong health is worth it.

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And The Beat Goes On

December 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Statistics show that a beating heart is evident in a fetus 22 to 23 days after conception. The baby will not be born for another seven or eight months, and yet the heart is already doing its job. From the time our heart begins beating until the time it stops, it has one of the most important jobs in our body. The heart pumps the blood to all the other organs, the heart regulates the flow so that our body has exactly what it needs all of the time. At the very least, we need to be taking good care of that all important organ.

Most people do not give heart health a second thought, until they need to. We should be taking care of our hearts so that we never need to see a heart specialist. Unfortunately once heart damage is done, most of the time it cannot be reversed. It can be treated and dealt with, but not reversed. Take charge of your heart health before anything happens to make you.

We all know that we should not be abusing our bodies. Maybe it is time to stop talking about it and start doing it. Stop smoking, it is terribly harmful to most of our body, but especially to the heart. Smoking blocks arteries, the all important pathways for transporting the blood to our heart so that it can do its work. To block the pathway is to cause heart disease. Try to take off the extra weight. Carrying around extra weight puts a strain on the heart, making its job more difficult, thereby slowing us down and beginning the process of heart disease. Do not take any illicit drugs. Obviously putting something into your body that does not belong there can cause a myriad of problems.

Take care of your heart, so that the beat can go on, and on, and on.

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Get Heart Healthy

November 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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There’s a lot of talk nowadays about healthy hearts. We live in a day and age where technology is increasing and we know more and more about our health. It’s time to take advantage of all of this technology and information at our fingertips and get heart healthy. Here are some tips for keeping your heart going strong for years to come.

1. Get a checkup. Before you can start any real healthy living routine, you need a check up from your doctor. Make sure your heart is strong enough to exercise and live a healthy life. Once you get the sign-off from the doctor, you’re good to go.

2. Take any medications. It’s true, many of us have to take medications daily. Some of these medications actually help our hearts. If you are on any kind of heart medication, don’t skip it. You could even look into getting a prescription discount card to help pay for your medicine.

3. Start exercising. If you’re just beginning, start slow. Take the stairs, park farther away, or go for a walk around the neighborhood. If you’re a seasoned exerciser, kick up your routine a bit. Run an extra mile, add on some weights, or try yoga. The important thing is to move and keep moving.

4. Eat healthy. You are what you eat, right? For a healthy heart, cut back on red meat, eat lots of leafy greens, don’t forget some fruits, and enjoy lean meats. The less fat you take into your body, the less that will reside around your heart.

You’ve only got one heart so make sure you take care of it. The heart is our most vital organ. It keeps our bodies and our minds moving. Follow these few simple tips here to start getting in heart-healthy shape.

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Who Needs a Cardiovascular Surgeon?

October 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Cardiovascular surgeons perform operations on the heart and blood vessels. The need for cardiovascular surgery can arise out of a congenital condition, or coronary disease that occurs later in a patient’s life. Lifestyle factors can play a part in the onset of heart disease, with those who are obese, are smokers, diabetic or have high levels of cholesterol being most at risk from developing heart disease.

All heart professionals espouse the very real benefits of preventative measures when it comes to heart health. Maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle with a diet rich with fresh fruit and vegetables and a balance of the four food groups together with regular exercise and not smoking gives the human heart the greatest chance of a long and healthy life.  Even little exercise such as golfing is a way to prolong your life.  Golf is an exciting escapade for family fun or just a couple. Florida vacation home rentals are the best way to enjoy over 1,000 golf courses in Florida.

Of course, not all heart patients go under the knife because they have made lived out ill advised lifestyle choices. Patients born with a hole in their heart or some other defect will require the expertise of a cardiovascular surgeon to improve the quality of their life by reducing pain or curing the condition they are suffering with.

What operations does a heart professional carry out?
The range of heart surgeries is vast, and each one is a complex and intricate process that requires the immense skill and knowledge of only the most highly trained medical professionals. Whether it’s inserting a pacemaker, carrying out heart bypass surgery or a heart transplant for the most extreme cases, heart surgery is never a small undertaking. However, advances in technology have reduced the severity of some procedures.

Some operations that were open heart surgeries (where the chest is opened to allow the surgeon to gain access to the heart) are now carried out through just a few small incisions. A coronary bypass procedure is one example where a less invasive method can be used. The troubled artery is accessed through a small incision which is far better for the patient as it speeds up recovery time when compared with the more invasive alternative.

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Open Heart Surgery

August 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Open heart surgery refers to operations when the patient’s chest is opened to allow the surgeon to gain access to the heart. It does not mean opening up the heart itself in order to operate inside it. Open heart surgery is a serious undertaking as such an invasive procedure requires a lengthy recuperation time for the patient as their chest cavity heals from the operation.

Cardiovascular surgeons have continually altered and improved their methods, as is the motivation of the medical fraternity to improve upon treatments and methodology. Heart professionals do still operate ‘open heart’, but there are many procedures which can now be carried out in a much less invasive way.

Rather than opening up the chest cavity, which not only takes the patient a long time to recover from, but leaves the patient more exposed to infection and other complications than a less invasive method would. Not only do a few small incisions take less time to heal than one larger one, the patient can quicker recover from the surgery itself as the body does not have to deal with the recovery of a major opening in the chest at the same time as the heart heals.

Robot assisted surgery utilises a machine to carry out the actual operation under the control of the surgeon. This means that rather than opening the patient’s chest, a single small incision, or a few small incisions, can be made into which the robot can access the heart or blood vessels to be operated on. Patient recovery time is dramatically reduced and complications are less likely.

That is not to say that complications do not happen. Operating on the human heart, even relatively minor procedures, always carries some degree of risk. In all heart operations, cardiovascular surgeons work knowing the potential risk of both neurological damage and the possibility of the patient suffering a stroke. This factor further highlights the difficult and complexity of performing surgery on one of the body’s major organs.

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What Does a Cardiovascular Surgeon Do?

August 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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When a person suffers a heart condition that puts their life or long term quality of life at risk, they may be referred to a cardiovascular surgeon. Surgery is always the last intervention after other treatments have been attempted. Undergoing surgery is a not a decision taken lightly by doctors, but for many heart patients, surgery is the only way to restore their health.

There are a number of more common operations performed on the heart. A coronary bypass is a procedure that many people have heard of but not everyone knows exactly what this entails. A coronary bypass is carried out when a person has a major blockage in one of the arteries feeding into or out of the heart. When an artery is blocked, the surgeon will take a portion of blood vessel from another part of the patient’s body and insert it so that it bypasses the blocked artery and allows the blood to flow again. Where there is more than one blockage, a triple or even a quadruple heart bypass may be required.

When a person’s heart is not beating fast enough, or there is a problem with the heart’s capacity to maintain a regular heart beat with its natural pacemaker, they may become a candidate for an artificial pacemaker. An artificial pacemaker is inserted into the heart to send electrical impulses through electrodes which are attached to the heart muscles. This is done to regulate the patient’s heart beat.

A heart transplant is the very last resort reserved for patients with the most life threatening coronary disease or heart condition. As with all organ transplants, there is a waiting list and no guarantee of a new heart being available as soon as the patient needs it.

All heart operations are testament to the skills of heart professionals and the many years of training and study that they have undertaken to reach the level of competence required to carry out such complex and intricate operations.

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How to Maintain a Healthy Heart

August 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Cardiovascular health is one of the most important health aspects of all. It is crucial that you maintain a healthy heart and arteries in order to sustain a long, happy life. Heart disease currently affects a number of people throughout the world and can causes health problems and even an early death. Luckily there are a number of things you can do to keep your heart healthy.

Probably the most obvious thing you can do is to alter your diet. People who eat foods with a high fat content end up gaining weight, which can put a strain on their heart as it is forced to work harder to get blood around the body. Although some fat is good for you, it has to be a certain type of fat – the kind found in olive oil and nuts for example, rather than processed foods. Even so, you only need a relatively small amount to stay healthy.

Getting more exercise is an important part of maintaining a healthy heart. The physical activity makes your heart pump blood harder and faster around the body as muscles burn oxygen and require more to remain active. This activity causes the heart to grow stronger over time and can protect it against disease in later life. Exercise is also proven to reduce stress levels as chemicals like dopamine are released during physical activity, so it can be a great way to feel better about yourself as well.

Another thing you can do is to cut down no alcohol. Drinking too much can have bad effects on vital organs such as the liver and in turn the heart. Similarly, quitting smoking is probably the most important thing you can do to keep your heart in good shape. The damaging effects of smoke are well documented and stopping at any point is a great way to ensure that your heart will stay healthy for years to come.

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