Heart Disease | Healthy Heart Net

Keep The Ticker Ticking

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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.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Blood pressure, Boston Marathon, Cardiovascular Disorders, Conditions and Diseases, Health, Heart Disease, Muscle, Physical exercise

Do What You Are Told

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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.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Cardiac surgery, Cardiovascular Disorders, Conditions and Diseases, Health, Heart Disease, Heart valve, Physical exercise, Surgery

An Apple or Five a Day

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The old proverb that, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is more than just a whimsical saying. Eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day has proven to keep us healthier. A 19 year study in adults ages 25 to 74 found that those who ate three or more servings of fruit a day cut their risk of dying by 27%, as opposed to those who only consumed one serving of fruit per day.

It is actually probably more likely that eating five servings of fruits and vegetables per day reduces the risk factors for cardiac disease rather than actually fighting the disease. Cardiac risk factors include things like being overweight, high cholesterol, and too much fat in the diet. We have no control over some of the factors for heart disease, but by substituting some of the fattier foods with a piece of fruit or a serving of vegetables, you are working towards a healthier lifestyle. You will be more likely to lose weight, the fruit will replace the fat in your diet and in turn, your cholesterol will come down.

Of course, if you are feeling healthier, the chances are that you will want to keep that feeling and work on more healthy aspects of your life. With a little weight off and the fats in your diet not weighing you down, you may just find yourself outside more often, taking in the fresh air, going for a walk. All of these suggestions will start you on a path to a healthier heart. Nobody wants to be faced with the decision to be on a lifetime of heart medication, or to have heart surgery. It is never too late to start getting healthy, and it is so easy to get started. If you eat one apple today, maybe you will eat another tomorrow and you know what they say about an apple a day.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Apple, Cholesterol, Conditions and Diseases, Fruit, Health, Heart Disease, Hypercholesterolemia, Risk factor

Living With Heart Disease

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Heart disease is a term that denotes an extremely large field of medicine. If you have high blood pressure, you have heart disease. If you have had atrial fibrillation treated by a cardiologist, you have heart disease. If you have to take medication daily to control any heart condition, you have heart disease. While many people think of heart disease as something fatal, and in some cases it can be, most heart conditions are treatable and easy to maintain if the right steps are taken.

Keeping up with health check ups with your family physician or cardiologist is essential to maintaining your health and keeping your heart disease under control. Taking any medication that is prescribed to you is essential in managing your heart disease. These medications are carefully formulated and specific to your type of heart disease. Taking them as directed will keep your heart from causing any problems in your life. Hence, not taking them as directed can have serious, even fatal, side effects. Over time if you do not take your medication as directed, your heart disease can progress, it can easily become more serious and can cause irreversible damage to your heart muscle.

Eating a healthy diet and getting as much exercise as you can are also essential steps to keeping your heart healthy. Cutting out some of the fats in your diet and substituting unhealthy snacks with fruit or low fat snacks is one way you can take charge of your care. Taking a nice walk a few times a week goes a long way in helping to keep the heart muscle strong. Obviously, if you are smoking, you should make every effort to stop. Smoking can cause serious risks to a patient with heart disease.

By just managing your lifestyle a little differently and making some minimal changes, you can keep your heart healthy for a very long time to come.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Atrial fibrillation, Cardiac muscle, Cardiology, Health, Heart, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Pharmaceutical drug

Choosing The Right Doctor

You have been diagnosed with heart disease. Those two words alone can mean something as minor as a heart beat flutter to full blown blocked arteries and need for surgery. How do you find out what the next step is? Who is the right professional for your needs?

If a baby is born with a heart problem, the professionals will probably be called in right at the time of birth, and these specialists and their colleagues will determine exactly what needs to be done and who is the best specialist for that. Heart disease will need to be followed throughout the child’s life, thus setting up lifelong heart care. If you have never had heart disease, and begin to have symptoms, you would probably start with your family doctor. Yearly physicals are so important for catching heart disease at its earliest and making the treatment of heart disease work the best for you. You may just be starting to have some high blood pressure. Your physician will tell you to exercise more, eat healthier and he may prescribe some blood pressure medication, which you may be on for a lifetime. Taken properly and taking care of yourself can keep this particular heart disease in check forever.

If it something more involved, your family doctor will send you to a heart doctor, or cardiologist. Your cardiologist may handle your issues with just medication if that is all that is necessary or you may need another step. Further testing may be involved, or even surgery. The cardiologist will then send you to a cardiac surgeon, who will do whatever is necessary to diagnose the proper issue with your particular heart. From there you may be sent to another specialist, as the study of the heart and those who have made it their life’s work are vast and varied. Do your research. With the right guidance from your doctors, your heart will be in good hands.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Blood pressure, Cardiology, Health, Heart, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Physician, Surgery

Reduce Your Heart Disease Risk By Avoiding Tobacco Products

Cardiovascular professionals and other medical professionals all point toward heart disease as a leading cause of death for both men and women. Along with diet and exercise, reducing, or better yet, eliminating tobacco use can significantly lower your heart disease risk.

Smoking or other tobacco use (smokeless tobacco and so on) is one of the major causations or risk factor for contributing to heart disease. Medical professionals state that no amount of smoking is considered safe. You may think that smokeless tobacco or low tar and nicotine cigarettes are safe, but they are risky as well. And so is exposure to secondhand smoke.

One of the reasons that tobacco smoke presents such a high-risk level for heart and circulatory disease are the more than 4,800 chemicals found in smoking. These chemicals can damage not only your heart, but your circulatory system as well—narrowing of the arteries and such.

Nicotine makes your heart work harder and increases your blood pressure and heart rate. Cigarettes contain carbon monoxide that replaces the healthy oxygen in your blood. Your heart then has to work harder to circulate oxygen through your body.

Social smoking (situations such as “only” with friends when out in social situations) is also a risk. Other risks include women who take birth control pills and smoke. They have a high change of stroke or heart attack than their counterparts who avoid both. And this risk increases when women are over the age of 35.

However, if you quit, within one year, your risk of developing heart disease drops dramatically. And it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been smoking, you will reduce your risk factor. So it’s never to late to quit. Find a physician who can help you with a smoking cessation program today. Join a support group! It may not be easy, but it will be worth it!

Filed Under: Heart Care Tagged With: Effects, Health, Heart Disease, Tobacco smoking

When It Is Time To Quit

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Everyone knows that smoking is not good for us. People who smoke two cigarettes a day know this, people who smoke three packs of cigarettes a day know this. Cigarette smoking is an addiction. Smokers do not often think of it that way, as it is legal and they are not out on the streets trying to score a pack of Marlboros. This addiction is never more prevalent then when it becomes absolutely necessary to break the habit.

There are many, many good reasons to stop smoking. It is an expensive habit. A pack a day can cost thousands of dollars over a year. It is, at least in most parts of the country, not allowed in most public places. No more lighting up at the restaurant or in the Mall. Almost all school zones and places where children are present are “NO SMOKING” zones now. It bothers other people. Nonsmokers do not like to be too close to smokers. Smoke causes an odor on the clothing, on the breath, and basically in the air surrounding the smoker.

All good reasons to quit. However, when a diagnosis of heart disease is made, your doctor will suggest, event insist, that you quit smoking. Your heart is a muscle and when you smoke, you are literally choking the muscle. Sometimes a heart attack kills a person. If you are lucky, your heart may give you warning signs, a little chest pain, some shortness of breath. When you get this checked and you get a diagnosis of heart disease, it is time to quit. It is a proven fact that if you have to have stents placed in your heart, smoking can cause your arteries to clog and block the stents, thereby causing a heart attack.

Smoking has no redeeming qualities, however it has many bad consequences. Give up the habit, be good to your heart.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Cigarette, Health, Heart Disease, Smoke, Smoking ban, Smoking cessation, Tobacco, Tobacco smoking

Walk Yourself Healthy

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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.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Blood pressure, Cardiovascular Disorders, Conditions and Diseases, Health, Heart, Heart Disease, Physical exercise, Richard Simmons

Tips To Avoid Heart Disease

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Many professionals working within the cardiovascular professions are indicating that the general public can help prevent heart disease. Heart disease is considered one of the leading causes of death—for both women and men. However this does not mean that there aren’t ways to help prevent these diseases. There are factors such as age and family history that can’t be changed there are several steps you can take to help you keep “heart healthy”.

Maintain a Healthy Diet
Eating foods low in salt, cholesterol and fat can help keep your heart healthy. A diet rich in vegetables, grains and fruits is optimal. Limiting your fat intake is also important.

Healthy Weight
Going hand in hand with a healthy diet is maintaining a healthy weight. Maintaining an optimal body mass index (your percentage of body fat determined by your height and weight) will reduce your risks.

Avoid Tobacco
Tobacco use of any kind—cigarettes, cigars and so on—is one of the greatest factors attributed to heart disease. Professionals say that no amount of tobacco use is safe. This includes chewing tobacco and low tar and nicotine cigarettes. Second hand smoke exposure also presents a risk.

Exercise
Maintaining a regular schedule of moderate physical activity can lower your heart disease risks. Exercise and physical activity can also help you maintain other healthy outcomes such as weight loss and may also reduce risks of other conditions such as high cholesterol and diabetes. It is recommended that people get 30 to 60 minutes of moderate activity.

Get Regular Checkups
Having your blood pressure and cholesterol levels tested regularly can let you know if you are at a higher risk for heart disease. It is recommended that adults have their blood pressure check every two years and cholesterol levels checked every five years.

Following these tips can help you not only avoid heart disease, but maintain an overall healthy lifestyle.

Filed Under: Heart Care Tagged With: Healthy Diet, Heart Disease

I Believe In Music

Heart disease; no one wants it and if it is diagnosed, there are many ways to make it better, or at least get a handle on it in your life. When heart disease is diagnosed a patient may need surgery. If it is a type of heart disease that can be handled with medicine, the cardiologist will prescribe the proper medication. At the same time your heart doctor will probably recommend a healthier lifestyle. He will tell you to take better care of yourself. Even if you are a person who does take care of yourself, you don’t smoke, you are not overweight, you do not drink and your cholesterol is under control, heart disease can affect you. So you take inventory and decide anything in your life that is not good for your heart may need an adjustment. Cut down on your stress, lighten your work load if possible and slow down.

The medical treatments are obvious, but there are many other ways we can help our bodies stay free of heart disease, or keep it from becoming more serious. Music has been proven an affective way to do just that. Research suggests that music therapy can reduce your blood pressure, a big culprit in heart disease. Music can also slow your heart rate and ease anxiety. A study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine showed that when people listened to joyful music, chosen by them because it made them feel good, their blood vessels dilated and there was increased blood flow to the heart. This is significant in that stricture to the vessels can have the opposite effect, chest pain and even a heart attack.

Choose soothing music, music that makes you feel good. Depressing music will not make you feel better. Take some time for yourself, put on those headphones and soothe your aching heart.

Filed Under: Heart Care, Heart Surgeons, Surgery Tagged With: Blood pressure, Blood vessel, Cardiology, Chest pain, Health, Heart, Heart Disease, High-density lipoprotein