Category: harvardhealth_news_UNDEFINED

About 10% of American adults say they practice meditation, a mind- calming technique that may improve factors linked to cardiovascular health. Many forms slow down a person’s breathing rate, which may partly explain meditation’s ability to trigger physiological effects. These include lowering the heart rate and blood pressure. Similar meditative techniques such as guided imagery, tai chi, yoga, prayer, or even knitting can also induce those changes.

One of the most popular fruits in the United States, bananas are affordable and available year-round. They’re a good source of potassium, a mineral linked to lower rates of high blood pressure and stroke.

Most cohabitating couples tend to have less-then-ideal behaviors related to their heart health. But because couples tend to sync their behaviors, programs to encourage heart-healthy habits could help both people.

A unique diabetes drug called sotagliflozin (Zynquista) shows heart-related benefits in people with recently worsening heart failure or kidney disease in addition to diabetes. The drug is not yet approved for use in the United States.

Doing vigorous exercise for just 12 minutes triggers changes in blood levels of substances linked to cardiovascular health. The patterns of these substances may provide a way to gauge a person’s fitness level.

The Internet contains many claims about factors that increase blood sugar. Some, however, just don’t hold up. For example, stress from sunburn pain, not drinking enough water, and using steroid nasal sprays will not make blood sugar spike. Likewise, it’s unclear if caffeinated coffee, artificial sweeteners, or gum disease will increase blood sugar. However, it is well established that some factors do raise blood sugar over time, such as overeating, a sedentary lifestyle, and obesity.

A test for COVID-19 antibodies, which shows past infection, can be helpful in the rare situation of a person who has COVID like symptoms but a persistent negative nasal swab test. Also it may help diagnose people who have long-term symptoms post COVID, known as “long COVID.”

Doctors advise adult children with COVID-19 symptoms or positive COVID test results to avoid visiting their parents, who are more vulnerable to becoming severely ill from the virus.

Instead of being pessimistic or optimistic, it’s better for well-being to focus on reality and not on just positive or negative outcomes. To cultivate such a realistic outlook, one can focus on the present moment and take refuge in it; build a social network so one can lean on friends and family for support; identify with things that are more enduring than a current situation, such as nature or humanity; and focus on things that bring meaning to one’s life.

Tai chi and yoga are gentle exercises that share a long list of benefits, such as pain reduction and improved balance, flexibility, strength, mobility, mood, quality of life, range of motion, reflexes, and thinking skills. But the exercises have subtle differences. For example, tai chi consists mostly of flowing movements, while yoga has mostly static poses. And tai chi is typically performed while standing; yoga may be performed while standing, lying down, sitting on the floor, or kneeling on all fours. Choosing one over the other often comes down to personal preference and practical considerations.