Did you know that someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds in the United States? It’s true—and the risk gets higher with age. The average heart attack age for men is 65, and 72 is the average age for women. Of course, you’ve probably heard advice before for how to prevent a heart attack. And it probably goes something like this: Be active, give up hamburgers and fries, and stop smoking if you smoke. “Those are the three mainstays,” says Nick Ruthmann, M.D., a cardiologist

Even an occasional cigarette can endanger a person’s health and increase their risk of cardiovascular disease , according to a new study. Researchers report that people who smoke as few as two cigarettes per day have a 57% higher risk of heart failure and a 60% higher risk of death from any cause. They add that a person’s health risks decline significantly in the decade after quitting smoking. However, the researchers note that a former smoker can still have increased health

Cardiac arrhythmias can produce a range of symptoms—from very mild, like lightheadedness, to life-threatening, including cardiac arrest. These can be divided into a “classic” group of symptoms that are highly (though not exclusively) indicative of cardiac arrhythmia and an “other” group of symptoms that are just as likely to be caused by an arrhythmia as something else. But many times, much to patients' surprise, cardiac arrhythmias may not produce any symptoms at all. This i

High cholesterol can raise blood pressure because it contributes to plaque build-up in your arteries (atherosclerosis). High blood pressure can occur as a result of your heart having to work harder to pump blood. How High Cholesterol Influences High Blood Pressure High cholesterol influences blood pressure by causing changes in your arteries. When LDL (bad cholesterol) builds up in your bloodstream, it forms into plaque that thickens the inner vessel walls, causing your arter

For as long as the human race has lived on this planet, meat has been a part of our diets . And although there are more vegetarians and vegans nowadays, Americans continue to consume high volumes of meat. As Ipsos reported in 2021, 89% of Americans include meat as part of their diets. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in 2021 that between 63% and 74% of people eat red or processed meat every day. And interestingly, just 12% of Americans eat half the nation’s b

Have you ever heard someone say that they like long walks on the beach? If so, they might have already uncovered one of the many secrets to longevity. Adults who walk for longer periods, which researchers defined as longer than 10 minutes, had substantially lower risks of cardiovascular disease and premature death when compared to those participants who walk for shorter periods, according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. “Most studies fo