If you have lupus, you may benefit from speaking to your doctor about participating in exercises to promote cardiovascular health. A small study of 27 patients with lupus showed that there was a good benefit to promoting cardiac health.
Lupus, itself, is a risk factor for heart disease. This may not be obvious to some people who are living with the disease, as they focus on the issues that are more obvious. According to a press release from the Hospital for Special Surgery
“Lupus patients are battling systemic inflammation, which in itself is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” said Doruk Erkan, …read more

Heart disease is a serious issue for anyone, but women especially need to pay attention. Women’s Health.gov says, ” Among all U.S. women who die each year, one in four dies of heart disease.”

CNN just listed ten power foods you can eat to help your heart. These are “power foods,” the concept of which is really fascinating to me. I guess I’m one of those people who likes to multi-task and save time, and if I can eat a balanced meal that is somehow better for me than any other meal, I’m all for it!
There are plenty …read more

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner you may want to consider giving your love, a heart healthy treat.
For those of us with partner’s that have high blood pressure or heart problems that love their sweets, this article is a great find. Dark chocolate may be just what the answer you are looking for.
Do you know that cocoa is actually a fruit? We all know that fruits are good for us.
Researchers have found a link that shows cocoa and dark chocolate aid in the fight against cardiovascular disease.  The studies show reduced risk for blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks.
Food …read more

This question was ask of Dr. Gupta on CNN, is belly fat the worst type to have? The research that has been done in this area has proven that belly fat is the most dangerous type of fat. The fact is that belly fat is more biologically active, and causes build-up of calcium in the arteries.
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 …read more

Researchers have found a gene known only to the Amish population so far. This information may prove to be extremity important in heart research, leading to new methods of preventing heart problems.
The researchers found that the older Amish people were the best test subjects. Older Amish are genetically homogenous, that can trace their families back 14 generations all the way to Europe in the 1700 hundreds. 
Amish people live a slower pace of life and eat homegrown foods that do not contain preservatives. They get more exercise and have higher levels of good HDL-cholesterol, lower levels of LDL or …read more

Food and drinks that taste good are not always bad for us, I found a great article I thought I would share with you.
Dr. Valentine Yanchou Njike M.D., of Yale Prevention Research Center, conducted a research study on people ages 30-75. Those participating in the research were over weight, this placed them at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
Each person in the study was given an 8-ounce cup of sugar-free cocoa, sugared cocoa or a nonfat milk drink each morning for six weeks.
The Hershey Company provided the Hershey’s Cacao Reserve mixture, because it is processed in such a way, as …read more

The heart and cardiovascular system are often likened to a pump and pipes but that imagery is misleading. Dr. Peter Libby, chief of cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, clarifies that cholesterol doesn’t directly clog an artery and cause a heart attack. We should actually picture atherosclerotic plaques as pimples in the artery wall. These plaques consist of cholesterol, white blood cells, and smooth muscle cells. When plaque pimple bursts through the artery wall, it creates an opening that is sealed by red blood cells that creates a clot which can grow so large, it clogs the …read more

As some people already know, Australians are special people. So special they don’t need to worry about the evils of trans fat in their diet.
Lydia Buchtmann of Food Standards Australia New Zealand:

There’s not a huge percentage of trans fat in the Australian diet. We’ve been carrying out a formal review with dietary modelling, and the preliminary findings have been that 0.6 per cent of our total kilojoules come from trans fat, which is well below the World Health Organisation’s maximum limit of 1 per cent.

Australian health experts want their citizens to focus more on saturated fats, the main cause of …read more

If discontinuing anti-clotting medication after receiving a coated stent is a bad idea, wouldn’t it be better to get a stent that dissolves after a certain period of time? Some good reasons to get an absorbable stent:

You’d avoid having a foreign body inside your heart
The absorbable stent is more flexible and conforms to the shape of the coronary artery
A lower risk of late-stent thrombosis
Less potential scarring
Avoid the hassles a metal stent causes with CT and MRI scans

I’ve previously written about the Abbott XIENCE V Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System and today’s news is, I believe, …read more

Everywhere I turn on the Web, I see advertisements for Goji juice and now I see another berry juice that promises to help prevent atherosclerosis – sea-buckthorn berries. Indian researchers have developed a technique to produce sea-buckthorn juice that is high in anti-oxidants, flavonoids, and vitamin C.
British Heart Foundation nutritionist Sara Stanner:
The pulp oil also contains unsaturated fatty acids and plant sterols, which could help to reduce blood cholesterol levels.
In addition, there is evidence that sea buckthorn juice might help to protect ‘bad’ cholesterol from oxidation, a process which is involved in the development of coronary heart disease.
The oil has …read more