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Diets high in free sugar—which includes sugar added to processed foods and drinks as well as the sugar in syrups, fruit juice, and honey—are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
High-tech tools can help people with vision impairment. Examples include accessibility features (such as speech-to-text or text-to-speech) on a smartphone or computer; apps for navigation, magnification, or describing a scene; wearable devices that use video cameras to capture images and then project them onto tiny screens inside a headset; peripheral prism glasses, which shift light from one side of the eye to the other to make up for losses in field of vision; and household gadgets such as “talking” thermometers, scales, and calculators that audibly read out results.
Increasingly, hospitalist doctors (who are present in the hospital 24 hours a day) take care of hospitalized patients, with advice from the patients’ primary care doctors. This helps solve the dilemma of primary care doctors needing to be in two places at once—in a hospital with some patients and in an office with others. It’s not a perfect solution: hospitalists often don’t know the patients they’re caring for, and they are unfamiliar with patients’ extensive medical records. But ultimately, the increasing number of hospitalists is probably improving the quality and efficiency of hospital care.
Hospital at home provides care in a person’s home for common conditions such as heart failure. Health care providers visit at least twice daily and can draw blood, provide intravenous medication delivery, and take portable ultrasounds and chest X-rays. Patients are constantly monitored via a small patch on the chest that measures heart rate and rhythm, breathing rates, and activity. The program also provides a tablet used for videoconferencing with the doctor and specialists, if needed.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition marked by brief pauses in breathing, often triggering loud snoring, grunts, gasps, and choking noises. Because sleep apnea can put stress on your heart and circulation, it’s important to learn the signs and symptoms and get treatment.
An estimated 2.5 million Americans have implanted heart devices, which can be affected by magnetic or electrical interference from electric vehicle charging stations, induction cooktop stoves, and smaller gadgets such as smartphones and wireless earbuds. Magnetic energy can cause pacemakers to revert to a preset mode that may be faster or slower than the programmed heart rate. Electrical interference can cause a pacemaker or implanted cardioverter defibrillator to mistakenly stop functioning or deliver an unneeded shock.
A crescent stretch, which can be done in a seated or standing position, stretches the sides of the torso and strengthens the core.
The carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity considers the biological mechanisms that trigger the body to store too much fat. Eating fast-digesting carbs causes the body to release large amounts of insulin, which causes excess calories to be stored as fat. When fat cells suck up too many calories, there are too few calories for the rest of the body, which causes hunger and overeating. Cutting back on carbohydrates may shift metabolism in ways that promote weight loss without causing excess hunger, while also improving common risk factors for heart disease. The amount of carbohydrate reduction people might consider depends on their specific health parameters.
People younger than 65 with a bicuspid aortic valve who develop aortic stenosis may need open heart surgery to replace the valve. A less invasive procedure isn’t possible for several reasons, including challenges related to the valve anatomy.
Yoga has modest yet positive effects on several factors linked to cardiovascular health, including lower blood pressure and lower levels of harmful LDL cholesterol. The postures, breathing, and meditation practices inherent in yoga help cultivate the relaxation response, which trains the body to be less reactive during times of stress. People new to yoga should seek out a beginner, gentle, or chair yoga class, especially those who are over 65 or who have any medical conditions.