Arteries are the vital channels that carry oxygen-rich blood from the heart to all the body's tissues. When blockages develop, blood flow slows and tissues suffer. Blockages in the coronary arteries cause angina and heart attacks; blockages in the arteries that supply blood to the brain cause strokes. But the peripheral arteries that carry blood to the legs and other parts of the body are also vulnerable. Heart attacks and strokes get all the publicity, but peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a major problem that deserves more attention and respect — especially since new methods make diagnosis easier and treatment ...

Regular exercise has enormous benefits for health. Most importantly, it will reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and premature death. And if that's not enough for you, consider the many studies that link physical activity to protection against diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and fractures, depression, insomnia, dementia, colon cancer, breast cancer, and possibly prostate cancer.

Despite all these benefits, only about a third of American adults get the exercise they need. Couch potatoes have many excuses to explain their sedentary ways. Lack of time is the most common, and the belief that exercise is too hard is ...

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How are you?

This simple question may soon give way to a growing array of more sophisticated queries: What's your cholesterol? Your blood pressure? Your weight? Your PSA? And with increasing health awareness, even these inquiries are beginning to sound quaint, as men ask about LDL and HDL cholesterol levels, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, BMIs and waist circumferences, free and total PSAs.

To men who grew up in a simpler era, it must seem like a tyranny of numbers. Knowing your numbers may stand you in good stead on the 19th hole, but do they really matter for your ...

I am a 56-year-old man with high blood pressure. At my last check-up, my dentist found gum disease and referred me to a periodontist for treatment. I know that high blood pressure increases my risk of heart disease, and I've been told that gum disease does too. Is it true, and will the treatment help?