Heart Health Archive

Your resting heart rate can be an instant measure of your present and future health.

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One of the easiest ways to gauge your health can be done in 30 seconds with two fingers. Measuring your resting heart rate (RHR), the number of heartbeats per minute while at rest, provides a real-time snapshot of your heart muscle function.

It is easy to do. Place your index and middle finger on your wrist just below the thumb, or on your neck to one side of your throat, so you can feel your pulse. Use a watch to count the number of beats for 30 seconds and double it to get your beats per minute. Repeat a few times to get an accurate reading. A normal RHR for most adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute.

Migraine headaches are associated with an increased risk of heart disease as well as stroke in women.

Age-related drops in sex hormone levels sometimes cause undesirable symptoms. But is hormone therapy safe for the heart?

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A decline in sex hormones is a natural part of growing older. Still, it's only natural to want to feel robust, mentally sharp, and healthy as we age. So it's no surprise that hormone therapy—which has been touted by drug companies as a way to restore youthful vigor, first for women and more recently for men—has generated so much interest.

But hormone therapy has a long, controversial history, particularly with regard to how it may affect the risk for common, chronic health problems. The following is a summary of what we know—and don't know—about the cardiovascular effects of hormone therapy for women and men.

Recovering from heart bypass surgery usually takes at least six weeks. Common challenges include feeling weak and tired, a loss of appetite, constipation, and depression. Also, heavy lifting and driving should be avoided. 

If you're at risk for heart disease, you may need additional testing before a hip replacement or other major surgery.

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All surgery, even minor procedures like cataract removal, involves a certain amount of stress. People facing surgery might experience emotional stress related to their illness or condition, often coupled with concerns about their recovery.

Some of the most common noncardiac surgeries done in older people, such as a hip replacement or gallbladder removal, can also put physical stress on the heart. Anesthesia and the operation itself can causes changes in heart rate and blood pressure as well as unmask previously undiagnosed heart disease.

A better understanding of the gut microbiome may herald novel ways to prevent artery-clogging plaque.

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The trillions of bacteria dwelling deep inside your digestive tract play a key role in your health. Collectively known as the gut microbiota, these microbes not only assist with digestion, but also make certain vitamins, break down toxins, and train your immune system. Over the past decade, scientists have uncovered compelling connections between different types of gut microbes and the development of obesity and diabetes—two factors closely tied to a higher risk of heart disease. Recently, several studies have explored how our gut microbes interact with the food we eat to spur artery-damaging inflammation and narrowing. While these findings are preliminary, experts hope they'll one day lead to personalized diet recommendations or other therapies to lower the risk of heart disease.

Artery damage

Gut check?

Genetic testing can help doctors guide care for families with a history of heart disease.

Having a family member with heart disease—especially when it shows up at a young age—is a warning sign that you too may be at risk. The more common maladies such as high blood pressure and coronary artery disease are influenced by an array of different genes and compounded by lifestyle choices and environmental factors. However, certain relatively rare conditions stem from only one or a few faulty genes with powerful disease-causing effects. The most common of these inherited heart conditions is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which affects up to one in every 500 people.

What is HCM?

Decision making in the family

Regular, moderate-intensity dancing may lower the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. Aside from the exercise benefits, dancing is often a lifelong habit and provides stress-lowering social connections. 

When older people start taking a new blood pressure drug or change the dose of their current drug, they may be more prone to a serious fall during the following two weeks. But this increased fall risk doesn’t seem to persist over the long term. 

Dancing, playing sports, and even cleaning your house can give you a nontraditional workout that helps maintain good health.

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Exercising is supposed to be a regular part of your daily health maintenance. That can be a problem if you don't have the motivation to get your heart pumping; you raise your risk for weight gain, chronic disease, and an earlier death.

Fortunately, you can get plenty of effective exercise by engaging in recreational or household activities that work your heart and muscles. "There's a real reward in doing an activity you enjoy, such as swimming or playing with your grandchildren. You get a workout, but it doesn't seem like you're exercising, and you may be more willing to keep doing that activity every day because it's fun," says Dawn Rogers, a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.