Heart Health Archive

Blood thinners don't "thin" blood; rather, they discourage blood from clotting. Candidates for anti-clotting drugs are people at high risk for dangerous blood clots, such as those with atrial fibrillation or those who have received a stent. Others who can benefit from an anti-clotting drug are people who are immobile after surgery and individuals who have had deep-vein thrombosis (clots in the veins of the legs or arms) or pulmonary embolism (clots in the lungs). A higher risk of bleeding is the main side effect, but most people can tolerate the medication.

A 2023 analysis suggests that men older than age 70 can fight declining testosterone levels by engaging more in healthy lifestyle behaviors like increasing exercise, losing weight, and managing high blood pressure.

Dietary choices can influence weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood sugar levels, all factors that can determine a person's risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Adopting certain eating habits can help manage these factors. These include reducing the intake of saturated fat and refined sugar that are included in many processed foods, eating more healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, and following a plant-based diet like the Mediterranean or DASH diet.

Men who report specific types of job-related stress face a higher risk of heart disease than those without such stress, according to a 2023 study.

Older adults who take medications to lower their blood pressure may reduce their risk of dementia, according to a 2023 study. The finding reinforces the connection between heart and brain health.

A 2023 study suggests that a "weekend warrior" exercise pattern, in which people concentrate their exercise into one or two days weekly, can lower cardiovascular risks as effectively as a pattern of spreading exercise out over the week.

People who climb more than five flights of stairs—about 50 steps—daily may lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a 2023 study.

Planks are an isometric exercise, in which the muscles contract but do not move. They are a great way to strengthen muscles in the abdomen, back, legs, shoulders, and arms.

For people with chronic coronary disease who do not have symptoms, new guidelines recommend against routine testing with cardiac CT angiography, echocardiography, and stress testing. The results are unhelpful—and in some cases harmful. Unclear results often general additional testing or unnecessary procedures, including some that expose people to radiation for no reason. In addition, the tests add expense without any corresponding benefit, and these costs are increasingly being passed back to patients, in the form of copayments or higher premiums.