A simple walking test can gauge the intensity of your walking pace.

Engage in moderate-intensity physical activity for a minimum of 150 minutes each week. That's the current national recommendation on physical activity. It's easy enough to understand, except for the "moderate intensity" part. Does that mean walking? So-called "brisk" walking? Jogging?

San Diego State University researcher Simon Marshall has come up with a practical rule of thumb for figuring out "moderate intensity" as it applies to walking: it's akin to taking at least 100 steps per minute. To get to this definition, Marshall and his colleagues recruited 97 ...

The slow-but-steady approach has benefits the quick fix can't offer.

Leg pain brought on by walking or other activity, what doctors call intermittent claudication, is caused by the same process that underlies most heart disease and stroke — the accumulation of cholesterol-laden plaque in artery walls. As with heart disease, intermittent claudication can be treated with bypass surgery, artery-opening angioplasty, or a combination of exercise and drug therapy. And as with heart disease, research suggests that the slow-but-steady exercise approach is at least as good as faster-working angioplasty.

A Dutch trial compared the impact of artery-opening angioplasty with the ...

Evaluating a transient ischemic attack right away can prevent a stroke.

Transient ischemic attack needs a new name. Its current nickname, mini-stroke, doesn't fill the bill either. Both suggest something small and passing, a fleeting problem you can put off until you have the time to do something about it. What's needed is something that conveys urgency and harm, because a transient ischemic attack (TIA) is often followed by a full-blown stroke. Getting evaluated and treated right away — within minutes of having a TIA, if possible — can lower the chances of having a stroke.

At the outset, ...

Task force offers recommendations for women and guidance on dosage.

Aspirin was once used mainly to relieve pain, ease fever, and get rid of hangovers. Today it's best known for its ability to protect hearts. This hundred-year-old drug is a mainstay for treating heart attacks, and it also helps ward off heart attacks and the most common kind of stroke. But limited evidence on aspirin's preventive effects has made it difficult for experts to give encompassing recommendations about who benefits from daily aspirin and how much to take. One consequence of this uncertainty is public confusion about aspirin. Some ...

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People with atrial fibrillation benefit from aggressive blood pressure control, resulting in fewer deaths from stroke and other cardiovascular causes.

In 2006 Americans spent more than $190 billion on heart-related health care issues, nearly one-fifth of total health care costs that year.

Brief reports on giving proper attention to high triglycerides, undermining cardiovascular drug therapy with unhealthy lifestyle choices, and an apparent bonus from taking a statin: reduced risk of blood clots.

After being diagnosed with high blood pressure several years ago, I started taking diltiazem and Atacand. The results were good, giving me an average blood pressure of 110/65. I recently developed gastroenteritis and aspiration pneumonia. While I was in the hospital, my blood pressure got so low I was told to stop taking these medications. I have been off them since, and my blood pressure has remained normal, averaging 105/65. How can this be? Will high blood pressure return?

Why is heart disease still on the rise despite the incredible increase in the number of people taking cholesterol-lowering drugs and the more than 30 years of "low-fat" propaganda?

I am due to have a colonoscopy. My cardiologist told me that I will need to stop taking Coumadin, which I take for atrial fibrillation, a few days before the procedure and get some injections. Is that really necessary?

Since having a heart attack, I have been taking lisinopril, Zocor, Plavix, aspirin, a multivitamin, fish oil, calcium, vitamin D, coenzyme Q10, chia oil, B-50 complex, grape seed extract, Nu-Zymes, Natural Energy supplement, Super C22, and astragalus. I am thinking of taking a brain booster called Procera AVH. Will it interfere with my heart medications?