Heart Health Archive

Whether you walk or run, participating in a local 5K race can be a good way to enhance your heart health and community spirit.

If you're looking for inspiration to get in shape and strengthen your heart, you might think about doing a couch-to-5K program. These free or low-cost coaching plans (available online or as apps or podcasts) are designed to help would-be runners train for a 5-kilometer race, which is about 3.1 miles. They typically feature timed walking and running intervals that gradually phase out the walking over a period of about nine weeks.

"The purpose of a couch-to-5K program is to give you time to acclimate and start to enjoy the benefits of running and the sense of accomplishment of completing a distance safely," says Dr. Adam Tenforde, director of the Running Medicine Program at the Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. Running provides many cardiovascular benefits as well as an enhanced sense of well-being, he adds.

Ask the doctor

 Image: © LordHenriVoton/Getty Images

Q. I have high blood pressure and have been checking my blood pressure more often since my doctor added another drug. But lately, my readings have been all over the place. For example, one morning it was 127/70, but then it was 170/100 in the late afternoon. What's going on?

A. You may have a condition known as labile hypertension, which refers to blood pressure that fluctuates far more than usual. Everyone's blood pressure rises and falls many times during the course of a single day, sometimes even within minutes. Many factors contribute to these changes, including physical activity, emotion, body position, diet (especially salt and alcohol intake), and sleep deprivation. However, there is no clear definition or standard criteria to distinguish between normal and abnormal fluctuations.

Olive oil is just one of many plant-based oils rich in unsaturated fats, the more healthful type of fat.

When you're cooking or baking, choose a fat that's liquid instead of solid at room temperature. That advice, from the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, is based on a large body of evidence showing that replacing solid fat (mainly saturated fat) with liquid fat (mostly unsaturated fat) is linked to a lower risk of heart attack and death from heart disease.

To be clear, all fat — whether it comes from seeds, nuts, meat, milk, olives, or avocados — contains a mixture of different fatty acids, the basic building blocks of fats. However, butter, lard, coconut oil, and palm oil contain mostly saturated fatty acids. Most plant-based oils, on the other hand, consist predominantly of unsaturated fatty acids, which include both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (see "The fats of life: Healthy oils").

Why do heart attack rates rise on Monday mornings and the week after daylight savings time begins?

Deep inside your brain is a small cluster of cells that serves as your body's master clock. These cells govern your circadian rhythm, the 24-hour internal clock that keeps your body in sync with the day-night cycle. But nearly all your cells also have their own clocks to ensure that each one performs its unique role — such as producing proteins or releasing hormones — at the right time.

These biological timekeepers are under genetic control. But what happens if our behavior or environment is out of sync with our internal clocks? Understanding the potential health consequences of that misalignment is the focus of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, says Dr. Frank Scheer, who directs the program.

At 70 years and counting, the Framingham Heart Study continues to help doctors better understand stroke, dementia, and heart disease.

 Image: © BHPix/Getty Images

In 1948, more than 5,200 people living in a town just west of Boston volunteered for what has evolved into the longest running and best-known study of the causes of heart disease. But the multigenerational Framingham Heart Study has also revealed important clues about brain disorders — most notably stroke but also cognitive decline and dementia (see "Framingham's brain health findings").

In the early 1960s, Framingham researchers coined the term "risk factor," which refers to a characteristic or exposure that raises a person's odds of developing a disease. Over the following decades, they uncovered many such factors for heart disease, including cigarette smoking, obesity, lack of physical activity, and high blood pressure. These habits and conditions also turned out to predispose people to stroke and dementia, thereby establishing that what harms the heart is also bad for the brain.

Excess fat around your midsection is especially dangerous for your heart.

For decades, experts have warned that a big belly is more harmful to your heart than extra padding in your hips and thighs. A growing number of Americans now sport this unhealthy "apple-shaped" profile, according to the latest statistics from the CDC.

The average waist circumference for men is now 40.2 inches, up from the 39 inches recorded in the last survey, which was done in 1999–2000. Women's waist measurements also rose — from an average of 36.3 to 38.6 inches. That means that a majority of Americans now have belly sizes that put them at high risk (see "Gut check: How to measure your midsection").

 Image: © ALLEKO/Getty Images

All beans are rich in fiber, but the top-ranking variety is the navy bean, allegedly named for its popularity in the U.S. Navy in the early 20th century. These pea-sized, cream-colored beans provide 10 grams of fiber per half-cup serving. Most Americans are woefully deficient in dietary fiber, which helps lower harmful LDL cholesterol and is linked to a lower risk of heart disease.

Navy beans are just one of many varieties of white beans, which include cannellini, great northern, and white kidney beans. Cook's Illustrated magazine describes cannellini beans as having a "meaty, lush texture with a buttery, subtle mushroomlike flavor" whereas great northerns are "slightly chalky and mealy, with strong mineral notes." Lima and baby lima beans (also known as butter beans) are also considered white beans.

Research we're watching

 Image: © Anna_Shepulova/Getty Images

A vegan diet may help lower heart-damaging inflammation more than the diet recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA), a new study finds.

The study included 100 people with heart disease, which was defined as having at least one narrowed heart artery. Half were randomly selected to follow a vegan diet, which excludes meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, seafood, and fish. The others followed the AHA diet, which encourages lean poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy products, along with plant-based foods. All of the participants received weekly groceries, a cookbook, and sample menus. They also provided 24-hour diet recall records twice a week on random days.

Research we're watching

To encourage heart-healthy habits, a picture may be worth a thousand words, suggests a study published online Dec. 3, 2018, by The Lancet.

The study included more than 3,100 people ages 40 to 60 with at least one risk factor for heart disease. All participants received standard care to prevent heart disease, including medications (if needed) and advice about lifestyle factors. But half were given a drawing depicting the amount of plaque in their neck arteries, along with a gauge ranging from green to red to illustrate their biological age (based on their blood vessel health) compared with their actual age. Nurses called them with follow-up information, and their doctors also got the images.

Research we're watching

Living in a leafy, green neighborhood may lead to lower levels of some telltale markers for heart disease and stroke, new research suggests.

During the five-year study, researchers collected blood and urine samples from 408 people recruited from a cardiology clinic in Louisville, Ky. The researchers also estimated green space exposure using satellite imagery that showed the vegetation density in each of the participants' neighborhoods.