Strawberries and blueberries are rich in beneficial plant compounds known as anthocyanins, which give berries their vibrant red, blue, and purple hues. Several studies have linked diets with anthocyanin-rich foods to better heart health.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when soft tissue at the back of the throat temporarily blocks the airway during sleep. People with sleep apnea face a heightened risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, atrial fibrillation, and stroke. The condition can also affect mood, and some people diagnosed with depression may actually have sleep apnea. Treating apnea with positive airway pressure improves both high blood pressure and depression.
People with heart-related conditions or risks should take simple precautions when travelling by airplane. These include taking steps to ease stress, such as listening to music or reading a good book; bringing medications in their original containers in carry-on luggage; and not worrying too much about blood clots, which are uncommon during air travel even in people with a history of clots.
A diastolic blood pressure reading lower than 60 mm Hg may be linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke in people at high cardiovascular risk. Diastolic pressure tends to fall with age. Some people with a low reading have a leaky aortic valve, which interferes with normal blood circulation throughout the heart and causes diastolic pressure to fall. But in people with healthy aortic valves who can be physically active without any symptoms (such as chest pressure, shortness of breath, or lightheadedness), a low diastolic blood pressure should not pose a problem.
In people with obesity, a high-dose weekly injection of the diabetes drug semaglutide caused a 15% weight loss and improved other heart-related risk factors. Semaglutide works by mimicking a substance called GLP-1, which is made naturally by the gut and the brain. It prods the pancreas to release insulin when blood sugar rises too high, reduces appetite, and makes people feel full following a meal.
Some panic attack symptoms—a racing heart, breathlessness and dizziness—overlap with supraventricular tachycardia. This heart rhythm disorder occurs when faulty electrical signals trigger a series of very fast heartbeats.
Taking multivitamins doesn’t prevent heart attacks or strokes, and most dietary supplements (such as fish oil, red yeast rice, and coenzyme Q10) offer no or limited benefits for avoiding heart-related problems. For people who don’t have heart disease, eating two servings of fatty fish weekly or following a healthy vegetarian diet rich in nuts, legumes, and healthy oils makes more sense than spending money on over-the-counter fish oil supplements. People with heart disease would be better off asking their doctor about the prescription drug icosapent ethyl (Vascepa), a high-dose, purified EPA that lowers cardiovascular risk when taken with a statin.
Concerns circulating about the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in American Indian/Alaskan Native communities, compared to the other available vaccines for COVID-19, have been answered by responses from medical professionals within the Indigenous population, as well as by statistics showing that all three vaccines are safe and effective in people of all races and ethnic backgrounds.
Children with sickle cell disease are at higher risk for many health problems and possible complications get more serious as children grow into adults. Here are ways for parents to support teens with SCD in learning to take care of themselves.
The American Heart Association issued a statement addressing cardiovascular risks from hormonal therapy for prostate cancer, emphasizing the need to identify men with pre-existing cardiac risk factors or a family history of cardiovascular diseases who should be monitored closely during treatment.