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Source: Harvard Health Blog
Education: Training
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Total 6 results found since Jan 2013.
Your resting heart rate can reflect your current — and future — health
One of the easiest, and maybe most effective, ways to gauge your health can be done in 30 seconds with two fingers. Measuring your resting heart rate (RHR) — the number of heart beats per minute while you’re at rest — is a real-time snapshot of how your heart muscle is functioning.
It’s easy to do. Place your index and middle finger on your wrist just below the thumb, or along either side of your neck, so you can feel your pulse. Use a watch to count the number of beats for 30 seconds and double it to get your beats per minute. Repeat a few times to ensure an accurate reading. An RHR between 60 and 100 beat...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - June 17, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Matthew Solan Tags: Exercise and Fitness Health Heart Health Prevention Source Type: news
Diabetes drug pioglitazone could get personal: Neither panacea, nor peril
When I was in training, one of my beloved mentors declared, “I never use a drug until it’s been on the market for 20 years.” I was young enough then that I couldn’t fathom being a doctor for 20 years, let alone waiting two decades to use a new drug. As my career has progressed, I’ve seen many new drugs released to the market. Some of them are truly miraculous, bringing people longer, healthier, and more productive lives. Many of them have not withstood the test of time. More than a few have even been taken off the market. Even though the Food and Drug Administration diligently reviews each new medicine before it...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - May 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Lori Wiviott Tishler, MD, MPH Tags: Diabetes Drugs and Supplements pioglitazone thiazolidinediones Source Type: news
CPR during cardiac arrest: someone’s life is in your hands
Cardiac arrest is the ultimate 911 emergency. The heart stops sending blood to the body and brain, either because it is beating too fast and too erratically, or because it has stopped beating altogether. Oxygen-starved brain cells start to die. Death occurs in minutes — unless a bystander takes matters into his or her hands and starts cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Doing CPR keeps blood circulating until trained and better-equipped first responders arrive on the scene to jump-start the heart back into a normal rhythm.
“The brain is the most sensitive of the body’s organs to oxygen deprivation,” sa...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - July 23, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Daniel Pendick Tags: Heart Health cardiac arrest CPR Source Type: news
Grip strength may provide clues to heart health
A strong or weak hand grip carries more than just social cues. It may also help measure an individual’s risk for having a heart attack or stroke, or dying from cardiovascular disease.
As part of the international Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) study, researchers measured grip strength in nearly 140,000 adults in 17 countries and followed their health for an average of four years. A device called a dynamometer was used to assess grip strength.
Each 11-pound decrease in grip strength over the course of the study was linked to a 16% higher risk of dying from any cause, a 17% higher risk of dying from...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - May 19, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Howard LeWine, M.D. Tags: Heart Health grip strength hands Source Type: news
More than a stretch: Yoga’s benefits may extend to the heart
As a long-time yoga enthusiast, I’m always happy to hear about benefits newly attributed to this ancient practice. Doing yoga for a few hours each week helps me feel calmer and more balanced, both physically and mentally. Now, new research suggests that my habit also may be helping my heart.
A recent review of yoga and cardiovascular disease published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology indicates that yoga may help lower heart disease risk as much as conventional exercise, such as brisk walking.
As I write in the April issue of the Harvard Heart Letter, the studies in the review looked at different types...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - April 15, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Heart Health alternative therapy cardiovascular disease exercise yoga Source Type: news
Check the pulse to track irregular heartbeats after a stroke
The rapid, irregular heartbeat known as atrial
fibrillation is a key cause of stroke. New research suggests that it's to blame
for more strokes than doctors realized, and that simply measuring the pulse could
help detect unrecognized atrial fibrillation and avert a second stroke, reports
the October 2014 Harvard Heart Letter.
Atrial fibrillation can come and go,
lasting from a few seconds to several days. Some people have distressing
symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness, or chest pressure. For many others, atrial
fibrillation passes silently. Either way, blood can pool in the heart's upper
chambers, or atria. This stag...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - September 30, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
