Avoiding them can help you prevent a cardiovascular apocalypse.

According to a centuries-old story, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will announce the end of the world. According to hard data, five harmful habits herald the coming of heart disease. These five are smoking, being inactive, carrying too many pounds, eating poorly, and drinking too much alcohol.

Alone and together, they set the stage for artery-damaging atherosclerosis and spur it onward. They do this by deranging metabolism and changing how cells and tissues work. They also disturb the markers of health we worry about so much: blood pressure, cholesterol, and ...

Readers often ask us about the use and safety of Plavix after angioplasty. We turned for answers to Dr. Patrick O'Gara, a member of the Heart Letter editorial board, who helped write a clinical alert about Plavix for the American Heart Association.

Almost every medical advance raises issues that demand creative problem-solving. Take artery-opening angioplasty. It uses a tiny balloon to flatten a cholesterol-filled plaque, restoring blood flow through a narrowed or blocked coronary artery without open-heart surgery. A wire-mesh stent is usually left behind to hold open the artery. However, blood clots sometimes form on a stent. This can ...

Left ventricular assist devices support the heart while waiting for — or in place of — a heart transplant.

What can be done for a failing heart when medications no longer help? A transplant is one option, but there aren't nearly enough donor hearts to meet the need. An artificial heart may someday fill the void, but one isn't yet ready for widespread use.

Small pumps the size of two D batteries offer hope and help today for thousands of people with advanced heart failure. These pumps, known as ventricular assist devices, have been around in one form or another ...

Preconditioning the heart by using a blood pressure cuff to halt and release blood flow could protect heart muscle during surgery or a heart attack.

A bedlike device that shakes the body head-to-toe stimulates blood vessels and improves blood flow, which may benefit people with heart failure who have difficulty exercising.

Microscopic particles that contain medication could one day be used to repair damaged arteries.

People who are unable to control their high blood pressure through diet, exercise, and medication may benefit from a pacemaker-like device that stimulates the body's sensors for regulating blood pressure.

A new type of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator that works without wires may be an option for younger people living with heart rhythm problems.

A process called delipidation, in which cholesterol and fats are removed from HDL particles that are then returned to a person's bloodstream, stimulates the HDL to attack cholesterol in blood vessels more effectively.

I have had a leaking aortic valve for many years. I get an echocardiogram every six months. After the latest one, my doctor told me that my heart was enlarging and asked me repeatedly whether I was getting short of breath with exercise. I told him that sure, I get tired, but it isn't like I am breathing hard while sitting still. Now he wants me to have surgery to replace the valve. Should I do this at age 68?  

When someone has pneumonia, is it common for the heart rate to fluctuate wildly?

My daughter gave me a pedometer and told me to walk 10,000 steps a day. When I wore it for a while, I realized I was taking only about 3,000 steps a day. Is 10,000 a realistic number for someone my age (70 years)?