Ask the doctor Will taking arginine and citrulline protect my arteries? Q. My husband is taking arginine and citrulline supplements because he read that they will protect his heart and arteries. Should I try these supplements, too, or is this a waste of money?

A. The idea that arginine and citrulline supplements can improve the health of arteries makes sense. But it's one of those notions that have been dashed by solid science.

Arginine and citrulline are both amino acids. Early in life, the body can't easily make them from scratch and so they must be supplied by food. Later ...

I have an electrocardiogram as part of my yearly checkup. After the last one, my doctor mentioned that my ST segment was longer this year than it was last year. He recommended that I have a stress test to check this out. I passed with flying colors. When I asked the cardiologist who did the stress test about the ST segment, he said the length isn’t really important, that the height and shape are what matter. Can you explain?

Does mild aortic stenosis (causing a mild heart murmur) ever correct itself without medication or surgery?

X-rays, CT scans, and other procedures should be used judiciously.

Diagnosing heart disease without opening the chest and looking at the heart is like trying to tell what's wrong with a car's engine without opening the hood. Treating heart disease without "opening the hood" is even more problematic.

Yet doctors have figured out a variety of ways to examine the heart from the outside. They can open clogged arteries without opening the chest and will someday fix faulty valves that way. Radiation is the key to these advances. But wherever radiation has been put to use, it has turned out to be ...

Diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in women still lags behind that in men.

Does sex matter? The national Institute of Medicine asked that question about human health. The answer, of course, is yes. Nowhere are the differences between men and women more apparent than in matters of the heart.

Women's hearts are built from the same general blueprint as men's and pump blood along the same circuit. But small variations in anatomy and physiology interacting with differences in behavior and culture mean that heart disease in women isn't always diagnosed or treated as promptly or thoroughly as it is ...

Too little potassium and too much sodium is bad for the heart and general health.

Potassium and sodium. In the pantheon of classic partners, they aren't quite up there with Abbott and Costello, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, and John, George, Paul, and Ringo. They should be. Potassium and sodium together play a huge role in regulating blood pressure, and mounting evidence shows they are intimately involved in bone health.

Research and dietary recommendations tend to focus on one or the other, usually sodium. That's a mistake, since these two elements go hand in hand. And the huge imbalance of ...

A study from Finland shows an association between binge drinking and an increased risk of having a stroke.

An FDA review of trials involving bisphosphonate drugs used to treat osteoporosis found no link between their use and any increased risk of atrial fibrillation.

Brief updates on the benefit of the Maze procedure, St. John's wort's interference with statins, the safety of angioplasty performed through the radial artery, and the cardiac risks of newer antipsychotic drugs.