Q. One morning last week I woke up hearing my heartbeat in my left ear. I hear it most clearly when I am in bed or sitting quietly. My health is good, and I was told after a recent cardiac workup that my heart was "perfect." Should I be worried that I can hear the rhythmic pattern of my heart from inside my left ear?

A. What you describe sounds like pulsatile tinnitus (pronounced TIN-nih-tus or tin-NITE-us). It is a type of rhythmic thumping or whooshing only you can hear that is often in time with the heartbeat. Most people ...

Different readings in the doctor's office and at home are cause for concern.

A single blood pressure reading, like the one made in your doctor's office, is merely a snapshot taken from an endlessly playing 24-hour movie. For some people, that one measurement is a good summary of the movie. For others, it's a poor reflection of their usual blood pressure.

As many as 20% of Americans have different blood pressure at home than they do in the doctor's office. Some have white-coat hypertension — high blood pressure in the doctor's office but normal pressure at home. Others have ...

Combining aerobic exercise and strength training is best for diabetes.

Exercise is excellent medicine for an ailing heart, or for keeping a healthy one healthy. It's just as important for type 2 diabetes. This is the kind of diabetes that tends to develop gradually, often in response to excess weight or lack of physical activity. Is one kind of exercise better than another for diabetes? An "exercise prescription" from the American Heart Association recommends a combination of aerobic exercise and strength training. It's also a great combination for the heart.

This dual strategy makes sense. Aerobic activity, like walking ...

Take care when combining aspirin, Plavix, and warfarin.

Between a rock and a hard place. That's where many people with cardiovascular disease are finding themselves when it comes to taking the combination of three important and widely prescribed drugs.

Most heart attack survivors and folks who have received an artery-opening stent need to take aspirin plus clopidogrel (Plavix). People with atrial fibrillation or a mechanical heart valve or those who have had a deep-vein blood clot need to take warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven, generic). As the tidal wave of baby boomers swells the ranks of older Americans, the number with ...

 

Music therapy, or just listening to music, can be good for the heart.

Music can make you laugh or cry, rile you up or calm you down. Some say it's good for the soul. It just might be good for the heart, too. Make no mistake — daily doses of Mozart won't clean out your arteries or fix a faulty heart valve. But music can help ease your recovery from a cardiac procedure, get you back to normal after a heart attack or stroke, relieve stress, and maybe even lower your blood pressure a tad.

 

The sound of ...

The Heart Rhythm Society has published guidelines for the procedure to remove broken, damaged, or worn out pacemaker or ICD leads.

People with heart failure are more likely to have a B vitamin deficiency, possibly due to decreased appetite, faster metabolism, and medications that may remove certain nutrients from the body.

A Dutch study that recommends starting to take a statin medication prior to having vascular surgery supports existing advice from the American Heart Association.

A pair of studies adds to the evidence that a Mediterranean-style diet not only benefits the heart, but can also help counter age-related decline in brain function.

Eating before having a blood pressure test can artificially lower the reading by a few points.

Brief reports on a potential alternative to warfarin, the added harm of cholesterol in fried foods, reducing stroke risk, and comparing higher doses of a statin with a combination drug.