Heart Health Archive

Ads for consumer health monitoring devices make it seem like having ready and regular access to heart rate, heart rhythm, and electrocardiogram data is something everyone needs. While it may help some people with existing heart conditions, how about for an average person without such a concern?

It is possible to experience a stroke without symptoms. Addressing cardiovascular risk factors can help lower the risk.

Some people with borderline high blood pressure have higher readings during winter, even high enough to need medicine to control it. In spring or summer, they might be able to reduce the dose or stop taking the medication. Losing excess weight and cutting back on salt also can help.

The most common type of heart failure in older adults is heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This is caused by the heart's left ventricle not being able to relax, which means less blood enters the chamber, so less gets pumped out. Prevention and treatments continue to evolve, but include controlling blood pressure, addressing weight gain with exercise and diet, not smoking, and curbing alcohol intake.

The FDA called for the food industry to voluntarily cut the amount of sodium in processed, packed, and prepared foods. Those products provide about 70% of the sodium in the typical American diet.

Exposure to chemicals called phthalates, found in commonly used plastics, may be linked to a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

A draft guideline from a national panel of experts recommends that people without heart disease who are 60 and older should not take low-dose aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke.

For people with stable angina, which occurs in about two-thirds of people with heart disease, optimal medical therapy is almost always the best treatment. It includes all the medications a person needs to get cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar into a healthy range. Certain medications, including beta blockers, calcium-channel blockers, and nitrates, also help relieve the discomfort of angina.