While searching Nova my husband came across a very interesting article, I thought I would share it with you.

In the article you will find facts such as, the human heart beats 100,000 times per day.

The human body contains 6 quarts of blood, which circulates throughout the human body 3 times per minute. In one day alone the blood in your body travels 4 times the distance across the United States, or a total of 12,000 miles.

Your blood starts and stops as it moves throughout the arteries, this movement is known as a pulse. Adults pulse rate on average is 70 beats per minute. Children’s resting pulse rate is in the range 90 to 100 beats per minute.

The muscles in the human heart work twice as hard as the muscles in your legs while sprinting.

When you are squeezing a tennis ball with a lot of pressure, you are using the same amount of force that the heart uses to pump blood throughout the human body.   

To see the entire article click here Nova map of the human heart.

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Map Of The Heart

Good cholesterol HDL levels for men should be higher than 40 and 50 for women. When the levels are over 60 it lowers your risk factors for heart disease.

The HDL removes cholesterol from the arteries, taking it back to the liver where it passes from your body.

Bad cholesterol or LDL builds up in the walls of the arteries. The walls of your blood vessels will narrow over time, due to the build-up of the fatty deposits. The fatty build-up will slow the blood flow, eventually causing heart failure.

It is wise to have a complete physical once a year, this will aid in preventing problems such as high cholesterol.

To learn more about cholesterol levels click Understanding Cholesterol.

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Knowing Your Cholesterol Level

You may be in a normal BMI range, but if you carry belly fat you are at a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. On average the risk factor is 17% for men and 13% for women regardless of their BMI.

We all know what our weight is and what it should be, but it seems as though we are always planning to go on a diet tomorrow. Keeping your weight down is important, but we should also keep track of our waist-to-hip ratio. By measuring the circumference around your belly button and your hips you find the waist-to-hip ratio. Your waist should be smaller than your hips and thighs.

Belly fat is the easiest fat to lose. Just by changing your daily eating habits and what you drink along with 30 minutes of daily exercise you can eliminate belly fat.

You will find more information on the site listed Belly Fat. 

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Belly Fat And Your Heart

tPA is only administered if the symptoms are within a 3 hour window at most ER’s. What happens if you present saying your symptoms started yesterday? Well, first of all you are not fast tracked and wait as a stage or grade 2 patient. Next, you are not eligible to receive any clot busting type medications.

Aldo of importance, how you arrive at the hospital. Yes, believe it or not it does make a difference. If you are having signs or symptoms of a stroke you need to call 911 right away. An ambulance will assure you fast and prompt treatment as well as quicker service on the receiving end. I am a nurse and I can say this with 100% conviction!

Researchers analyzed data on 15,117 patients from 46 hospitals enrolled in the North Carolina Stroke Registry (NCCSR) from January 2005 to April 2008. The majority were ages 45 or older; 54 percent were women; 53 percent of patients arrived by Emergency Medical Service (EMS); and 38 percent received care at hospitals designated as stroke centers. Only 23 percent of all NCCSR patients arrived at the hospital within two hours of symptom onset and were thus suitable for evaluation to receive tPA. Current National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) guidelines recommend that a patient receive a computer tomography (CT) scan within 25 minutes of hospital arrival. In an analysis of 3,549 patients who arrived at the hospital within two hours of symptoms onset, only 23.6 percent received a CT scan within 25 minutes. Among this group, researchers found that those who arrived by ambulance were more than twice as likely to receive a timely CT scan than were those who “walked in” on their own.

What are the signs and symptoms of a stroke:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

via AHA

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Stroke and tPA: The way and speed in which you present is life or death

This could save many of lives, in emergent and routine situations. What are the real benefits?

The 3-D ultrasound has the benefit of being less expensive and faster than the traditional methods of assessing blood flow in the brain — MRI or CT scanning, Ivancevich said. Though 3-D ultrasound will not totally displace MRI or CT scans, he said that the new technology would give physicians more flexibility in treating their patients.

via Science Daily

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New 3-D ultrasound sees past skull

A study by an international team of cardiac imaging specialists, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins, concludes that sophisticated computed tomography (CT) scans of the heart and its surrounding arteries are almost as reliable and accurate as more invasive procedures to check for blockages.

The 64 slice CT scan that the researcher’s are talking about was first introduced in the US in 2005 and was tested at Johns Hopkins. Beware though, they are not saying that the CT scans will replace cardiac cath’s but to rule out patients that do not need the more invasive procedure. The 64 slice CT scan also proved to be a good predictor of patients that will need catheterizations in the future.

via Science Daily

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64 Slice CT Scan Proves To Be Effective In Detecting Heart Blockages That Would Otherwise Look To Heart Catheterizations

The authors concluded that while efforts to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad cholesterol”) “have consistently reduced cardiovascular disease risk, HDL-based approaches are much more complex and sometimes disappointing.” As a result, “the primary focus should be on LDL,” said review co-author Mehdi Shishehbor, D.O., of the Cleveland Clinic.

Yes, it is true that HDL aids in moving fat molecules out of the arteries and towards the liver, but when HDL is large in nature, that helpful cholesterol can cause inflammation and blockages, which in turn can prove to be harmful!

Bottom line… be aware of the what if’s. Not all research is black and white and this is definitely a gray area. Be cautious when taking any prescription medication. Have you had a negative experience with this type of medication? Or have you had a positive response? Research is helpful, but patient experiences are truly first hand.

via Science daily

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Can HDL Raising Medication Actually Prove To Be Harmful?

Scientists have long reported that deaths from lung diseases, heart attacks and strokes are significantly higher on days with high pollution levels, the newspaper said.

This was reported out of Los Angeles, imagine that. A US study has shown the exposure to diesel exhaust can cause heart disease in people with high cholesterol. Hmm… Can’t anything trigger a heart attack in people with extremely high cholesterol?

This is why you always have to take research with a grain of salt. True diesel exhaust has been linked to lung cancer and asthma attacks, as well as DNA damage, but this is first to suggest that it can induce a heart attack. Just how is this possible you ask?

The report said diesel particles enter the body from the lungs and then react with fats in the arteries to alter how genes are activated.

Bottom line, more research needs to be done. I will keep you updated as it comes in.

via Science Daily

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Diesel Exhaust Can Trigger A Heart Attack

— The death rate for patients admitted with a severe heart attack, where the arteries are completely blocked, went down from 8.4 to 4.5 per cent.
– The risk of heart failure for severe heart attack patients also went down from 20 to 11 per cent.
– The death rate for patients admitted with a milder heart attack, where the arteries are only partially blocked, also went down from 2.9 to 2.0 per cent.
– This equates to 30 fewer deaths and 90 fewer patients with new heart failure per 1,000 hospital admissions.
– Critical heart failure or “cardiogenic shock”, which kills 70 per cent of patients who suffer severe heart attacks, went down from 7.1 to 4.7 per cent among these patients.

Bottom line… Hospitals are staying current and using newer medications and treatment guidelines. This largely contributed to the results of the study.

“This is a great example of why long-term investment in heart research is vital. The study shows that fewer people are dying, and fewer are developing debilitating heart failure thanks to research evidence prompting these hospitals to improve the way they treat people with heart disease.”

via Medical News Today

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Death Among Heart Failure Patients Has Halved Over Last 6 Years