If a person who is having a heart attack is not breathing but occasionally gasps for air, CPR should still be administered. In the first few minutes after an attack, it is more important to focus on chest compressions.

Brief updates on a possible link between too little sleep and heart disease, higher blood pressure in winter, and the danger of fat around the heart.

My doctor told me I should think about having a procedure something like angioplasty to stop my atrial fibrillation. Can you tell me more?

At 78 years old, I am in pretty good shape. A couple of years ago, an echocardiogram showed a small leak in my mitral valve. A year later, a follow-up test showed some leakage in my tricuspid valve. The valves aren’t causing me any problems right now, but how will I know if they need to be repaired? I like to exercise, but don’t want to make these valve problems worse. Is it okay for me to walk on a treadmill at a speed of 3 to 4 miles an hour or lift light weights?

I have been arguing with a friend about whether the statin drugs lower blood pressure. Do they, or don't they?

A billowing mitral valve poses trouble mainly when it gets leaky.

It has been a long, strange trip for mitral valve prolapse. Since this valve abnormality gained its name in the early 1960s, it has been called both dangerous and benign, widespread and uncommon. The title of an editorial in the British Medical Journal summed up the confusion like this: "Mitral valve prolapse: harbinger of death or variant of normal?"

The uncertainty stemmed from the overenthusiastic use of echocardiography after it entered mainstream use in the 1980s. Many people were diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse when they actually had normal ...

Simple steps can help add more healthful foods to your diet.

As a nation, we aren't eating as if our hearts and health depended on what we put into our stomachs. According to the USDA's Economic Research Service, the average American gets too little of the foods that promote cardiovascular and general health and too much of those that detract from it. The service compared daily per-person food consumption with recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Its report shows that Americans eat more refined grains and added sugar and fat than is deemed healthy, and not enough whole grains, ...

Treatment focuses on controlling the heart's rate and rhythm and preventing stroke.

Imagine an orchestra directed by many conductors, all with different scores. Each musician follows whichever conductor and score he or she chooses, and switches when the mood strikes. The result would be noise, not music. That's what happens with atrial fibrillation. Instead of getting a single "beat now" signal from the heart's natural pacemaker every second or so, the upper chambers of the heart (the atria) get bombarded by many signals. The result is a chaotic heart rhythm that can interfere with daily life and increases the chances ...

People with peripheral artery disease will most likely benefit from an exercise regimen, regardless of whether or not they are experiencing the leg pain that frequently accompanies the condition.