Heart Health Basics

Diabetes & Heart Health

Q. What’s the connection between diabetes and heart disease? A. When a person has diabetes, if their blood sugar is elevated, it actually damages the inside lining of the blood vessels and the arteries. The blood vessels become thicker, and they become less elastic. Then blood cannot flow through [...]

An Aspirin a Day: An Easy Way to Improve Heart Health?

If you have diabetes, you may take an aspirin each day as a way to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. But the guidelines developed by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and other organizations about who will benefit from aspirin have recently changed. Although it is frustrating when guidelines change, it can be a very good thing. It means that more and better studies are being done all the time, and people with diabetes will benefit from more accurate, up-to-date information. [...]

Men and Women: Heart to Heart

Both men and women benefit from making healthier food choices, becoming more active, losing some weight and, if needed, taking medicines to improve blood fats (lipids) and lower blood pressure. However, there are differences in how men and women respond to these measures. For example, men recover from coronary artery bypass surgery better than women. This is thought to be because women have smaller arteries in their heart because of their generally smaller body size. [...]

Some Tweaks in What You Eat Can Improve Cholesterol

Having diabetes means you are more likely to get or have heart disease-especially if you have type 2 diabetes. One way to reduce your risk of, or take care of heart disease, is to get and keep your blood lipids (fats) in control. Blood lipids include your LDL (bad cholesterol); HDL (good [...]

Heart Disease and Your Emotions

You have probably seen it in a movie or on TV: someone gets very angry and suddenly has a heart attack. While it makes a great story, the real-life impact of emotional distress on your heart is usually not so sudden or dramatic. But stress can have a dramatic effect on your heart and blood vessels. [...]

Blood Fats: Taming Your Triglycerides

Your health care provider has probably talked to you about your cholesterol level, and if it’s high, there are many ways to help bring it down. Has he or she also talked with you about your triglyceride level? If so, you might be wondering exactly what this is. [...]

Diabetes and your Heart

Unfortunately, people with diabetes are more likely to have a heart attack than people without diabetes. But there are five simple steps you can take to help lower your risk for heart disease. It is important to establish a target for each step, to know your numbers and to work with your health [...]

Your Heart and the Doctors Who Care For It

When Bill, who has diabetes and a family history of heart disease, had chest pain, he was told to see a special type of heart doctor—an “interventional cardiologist.” Like other heart doctors, he treats problems of the heart and blood vessels. Bill wondered what this specialty is and what an interventional cardiologist does. You, like Bill, might have seen these terms and wondered the same thing. [...]

Make the Link to Better Heart Health

The leading cause of death among people with diabetes is heart disease. We have known for a long time that keeping blood glucose and blood pressure levels close to normal lowers the risk of complications in the small blood vessels of the eyes and kidneys. Until recently, nobody knew if high blood [...]

Homocysteine and Your Heart: Is There A Connection?

High blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, and high LDL (bad) cholesterol raise your risk for heart disease. But have you heard that high levels of something called “homocysteine” in the body may be one more risk factor for heart disease? This article describes the link between homocysteine and [...]

Reduce Your Heart Attack Risk with Statins

A ‘statin’ a day can keep a heart attack away. Heart disease is often thought of as a silent killer because you can have it without any warning signs. This makes it hard to diagnose until something happens. People with diabetes are at high risk for developing heart disease. There is new [...]

How to Detect Heart Trouble

Heart disease is the number one killer in America today. This article will help you learn about the common tests used today to detect heart disease. It also helps you learn the signs and risk factors that mean you might get or already have heart disease. [...]

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is vital for all normal body functions. It’s found in every cell in our bodies. When there’s too much, there is a greater risk of hardening of the arteries: the main cause of a heart attack. Normal total cholesterol is less than 200 (mg/dL). A normal [...]

Heart Attack Warning Signs

Many people think a heart attack is sudden and intense, like a movie heart attack, where a person clutches their chest and falls over. The truth is that many heart attacks start slowly, as a mild pain or discomfort. If you feel such a symptom, you may not even be sure what’s wrong. Your symptoms [...]

Are Men Different From Women When it Comes to Heart Disease and Diabetes?

Heart disease is the number.1 cause of death in both men and women, and people with diabetes are at a higher risk for heart disease than those without diabetes. Even though women and men with diabetes both have increased risk of getting heart disease, they are different in some important ways: [...]

1 2 3 »

Heart Health Basics

Remind Me About This Event