Tips for telling cardiac chest pain from other types.

That dull burning in your chest doesn't seem to be going away, and even feels like it is getting worse. Is it a heart attack, or something else?

It's a vexing question, one that millions of people — and their doctors — face each year. What's the problem? Chest pain can stem from dozens of conditions besides heart attack, from pancreatitis to pneumonia or panic attack.

More than six million Americans with chest pain were seen in hospital emergency departments in 2009. Only 20% of them were having a heart attack ...

Tobacco smoke from other folks' cigarettes, cigars, and pipes can be bad for your heart.

In the catalog of cardiac villains, smoking is still a leading cause of heart disease even though fewer people are smoking these days. That's a testament to the hazard of this habit. It is also because its effects don't stop with the smoker — they extend to anyone who breathes air polluted by smoke from a cigarette, cigar, or pipe.

Secondhand smoke isn't an innocuous byproduct of smoking. This mixture of freshly burnt tobacco and exhaled smoke contains hundreds of chemicals, including formaldehyde, benzene, ...

 

Catheter ablation can halt atrial fibrillation, but side effects and durability pose problems.

What's the best way to treat atrial fibrillation, the fast and chaotic beating of the heart's upper chambers? Taking medicine to help the heart maintain a normal, steady beat sounds like a logical strategy. But the drugs for doing this don't always work and sometimes cause side effects as bad as the disease. Another option is taking medicine to make the powerful lower chambers (the ventricles) keep a slow, steady beat no matter what the atria are doing.

A third option is emerging from laboratories and ...

The lack of mobility that often accompanies a hospital stay can cause a blood clot to form in a vein. Blood-thinning medication can prevent clots from forming.

People who ate walnuts daily as an addition to their regular diets had more flexible arteries at the end of the trial period.

Statistics from an American Heart Association survey reveal what women do and do not know about heart disease.

About one third of those who take the diabetes drug metformin develop a vitamin B12 deficiency.

In a study, people who used a motorized scooter to enhance their mobility experienced an increase in their levels of blood sugar.

Brief reports on a connection between shingles and stroke, the heart-protective properties of oats, and a warning about combining two HIV drugs in people with a heart rhythm problem.

The FDA has approved a heart replacement valve that is implanted via a catheter. Men with heart disease who receive androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer should have their heart health monitored carefully.

Q. I am an 84-year-old woman who recently had stents placed in two coronary arteries. The doctors, of course, told me to quit smoking. I told them, as I have told all of my other doctors, that I have tried to quit but just can't. I have tried the patch and Chantix, but neither worked. Support groups aren't for me. I have cut back, but that's as far as so-called willpower goes. Hearing over and over again that I need to quit leaves me feeling depressed and weak. Is there some news about current or future approaches that might give ...