Heart Health Archive

Mitral Valve Prolapse

Questions to Discuss with Your Doctor:

• Have you had an echocardiogram?
• What did it show?
• Does your mitral valve leak?
• Do you get chest pain?
• What brings it on?
• How long does it last?
• What relieves it?
• Do you ever get a rapid or pounding heartbeat (palpitations) for no reason?
• How long does it last?
• Do you feel faint or develop chest pain or shortness of breath?
• Have you ever fainted?
• Do you get short of breath when you lie down or exert yourself?
• Have you ever taken any medications for your heart?
• Did you develop any side effects from these medications?

Your Doctor Might Examine the Following Body Structures or Functions:

• Heart rate, blood pressure, and weight
• Heart (sometimes while you are standing, squatting, or performing other maneuvers)
• Lungs

Your Doctor Might Order the Following Lab Tests or Studies:

• Electrocardiogram
• Echocardiogram
• Holter monitor or event monitor

Early treatment of the most common type of stroke, ischemic stroke, can limit brain damage and vastly improve outcomes. Ischemic stroke is the kind caused by atherosclerosis, which causes blood clots that block the blood supply to a part of the brain. Yet too few ischemic stroke patients receive important clot-busting drugs, which are most effective when given within three hours after symptoms start. Patients often arrive at the hospital after that window of opportunity has closed. They delay getting treatment because stroke symptoms may not be that pronounced or they are mistaken as coming from other, less serious problems.

As a result, doctors are looking for ways to make it easier for the layperson to identify a stroke. The Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale is one such attempt. Some experts say it leaves out too many symptoms. Others say it will cause false alarms because it's not specific enough..

The overall message on "bad" LDL cholesterol is much the same as it has been: Lower is better and how low your level should be depends on your cardiovascular risk factors.

But the standard for what low LDL means keeps on getting lower. While  an LDL level under 70 is still the usual goal for people at the highest risk for cardiovascular disease perhaps that is still too high.

When it comes to fighting high blood pressure, the average American diet delivers too much sodium and too little potassium. Eating to reverse this imbalance could prevent or control high blood pressure and translate into fewer heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from heart disease.

Normal body levels of potassium are important for muscle function. Potassium relaxes the walls of the blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and protecting against muscle cramping. A number of studies have shown an association between low potassium intake and increased blood pressure and higher risk of stroke. On the flip side, people who already have high blood pressure can significantly lower their systolic (top number) blood pressure by increasing their potassium intake when they choose to eat healthy foods.

Thiazide diuretics like hydrochlorothiazide (Esidrix, HydroDIURIL, other brands) continue to be a very effective way to lower blood pressure for people with hypertension. They're inexpensive, and results from large studies have shown them to be at least as effective as other types of blood pressure drugs for most patients.

But if you're taking a diuretic, your potassium levels need to be watched. These drugs direct the kidneys to pump water and sodium into the urine. Unfortunately, potassium also slips through the open floodgates. A low potassium level can cause muscle weakness, cramping, or an abnormal heartbeat, which is especially dangerous for people with heart problems.

If you don't mind pricking a finger, you can check your cholesterol without sitting around in a doctor's waiting room or laboratory. Devices available in pharmacies or through the Internet make this easy to do at home. But is it worth doing?

The makers of home cholesterol tests rightly tout their products as faster than visiting a doctor. You prick your finger, gently squeeze a few drops of blood onto a test strip or into a small "well," and you get the results in a few minutes, instead of waiting a few days.

Higher intake of saturated fats is associated with a 24% greater risk of coronary artery disease. Replacing 1% of those fats with the same amount of calories from unsaturated fats, whole grains, or plant proteins appears to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease.

Cardiovascular disease in women isn't identical to that in men. Understanding the differences can help you prevent or minimize the effects of a heart attack.

Image: SomkiatTakmee /Thinkstock

Cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of women, but women's heart disease hasn't captured the popular imagination the way men's has. Although you can probably recall a movie in which a man collapsed with a heart attack, you're unlikely to remember a similar scene starring a woman. That may be because women develop heart disease about 10 years later than men do. While men are most likely to have a first heart attack around age 65, a woman's first heart attack occurs at an average age of 71. Moreover, heart disease doesn't become the leading cause of death for women until age 85.

If heart disease comes to women so late in life, why should we be concerned about it when we're younger?

In a large, long-term clinical trial, people taking the diuretic chlorthalidone had significantly fewer hip fractures than those taking the calcium-channel blocker amlodipine or the ACE inhibitor lisinopril.

In a large United Kingdom study, regularly practicing racket sports, swimming, or aerobics significantly reduced the risk of dying over eight to 13 years.