Search Results for: blog six ways to protect your heart

Stocks, Weather, and Heart Attacks

Is there a link between the stock market and heart health? Researchers from Duke University think there might be. Researchers studied heart attack treatment data from Duke University’s hospital. They started with December 2007 — the beginning of the current recession — and stopped with the signs of economic recovery in July 2009. As Nasdaq stock market numbers sank, the number of heart attacks treated tended to rise. During the period studied, close to one thousand people suffered heart attacks and were treated at Duke University. Researchers found that when the stock market recovered, the number of heart attacks went … Continue reading →

Checking in with Your Pulse

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Do you check your pulse? It’s not something I do very often… but it may actually be a useful way to keep an eye out for heart disease! Your pulse is your heart rate — how many times your heart beats in a minute. Everyone’s heart rate is different, but the average pulse at rest for children (between six and fifteen) is 70-100 beats per minute. The average pulse for adults (ages eighteen and up) is 60-100 beats per minute. (Information provided by the Cleveland Clinic.) When you exercise, your pulse increases — this is so your body can provide … Continue reading →

Four Months without a Heart

A fourteen year old South Carolina girl survived for more than one hundred days without a heart in her chest. Since July 2008, D’Zhana Simmons had two heart transplants — and survived with artificial heart pumps instead of a heart between the two surgeries. That’s a total of one hundred and eighteen days without an actual heart in her chest. When the Simmons family found out that D’Zhana had an enlarged heart that was too weak to pump blood properly, they traveled to Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami for a transplant. The heart she received in July 2008 didn’t work … Continue reading →

Strengthen Your Core, Protect Your Heart

Cardiovascular exercise is a great way to protect your heart. So is weight training! Experts suggest that people who are at risk for heart disease undergo a functional exercise program. Functional exercise works many muscle groups in different directions against a source of resistance. Some examples of functional exercise include shoveling snow, raking leaves, and vacuuming the house. You can often get the same results by doing a variety of different exercises — like combining a Pilates class with free weight training. Functional exercise helps build muscle mass, thanks to the resistance portion. As you build muscle mass, you raise … Continue reading →

Not Enough People Know the Signs of a Heart Attack

A survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that too many Americans don’t know all the warning signs of a heart attack. Do you? More bad news from the CDC when it comes to heart attacks: More than nine hundred thousand Americans have heart attacks each year. More than one hundred and fifty thousand Americans die from a heart attack each year. Approximately seventy five thousand Americans die within an hour of symptom onset. Quick action and awareness of the symptoms are critical if you’re going to survive a heart attack. In case you weren’t sure, the five … Continue reading →

A Cat Can Lower Your Heart Attack Risk

As if we didn’t love our pets enough — here’s another reason to cuddle your kitty! A ten year study from the University of Minnesota suggests that having a cat for a pet can cut your heart attack risk by nearly a third! More than four thousand Americans between the ages of thirty and seventy-five were tracked between 1976 and 1980 for a National Health and Nutrition Examination Study. The University of Minnesota team looked at the data, then spent a decade following up with the participants to look at health issues and death rates. More than half the people … Continue reading →

Five Ways to Lower Your Cancer Risk

Here are some tips to help lower your risk of developing cancer — after all, prevention is the best medicine! Cut back on the couch time. And the desk time. And the beanbag chair time. You get the idea — get moving! Thirty minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week can keep your heart and body healthy. Exercise can also help cut your cancer risk! Lengthen and strengthen your workouts for better cancer protection. Aim for a forty-five to sixty minute workout five days per week to lower your risk of breast cancer by twenty percent. Workouts after … Continue reading →

Six Ways To Protect Your Heart

There are so many little things you can do that add up to BIG protection for your heart. Here are some tips for keeping your ticker safe and healthy. Eat plenty of omega-3 fatty acids. If you have heart disease already, omega-3 fatty acids can help keep inflammation in check, lower blood pressure, and slow plaque growth. Plaque is a mix of fatty substances (including bad LDL cholesterol) that can inflame artery walls. A plaque deposit that bursts can produce an artery-blocking clot and lead to a heart attack. Take a low dose aspirin if your doctor says you should. … Continue reading →

Six Reasons Why You’ll Never Regret Adopting a Dog

Photo by Bethan Hazell I happen to love my pound hound with my entire heart and soul. I know others, such as Aimee who rescued her Lally and Moose from shelters, also feel the same. Since October is Adopt-A-Shelter Dog Month, I thought I’d honor it by listing some reasons why adopting a dog will be the best decision you ever make. Reason #1: You’re Saving a Life Some shelters are no-kill, meaning the animals will stay there until the right home is found for them. But most shelters only have limited resources –space, food, and money. That forces them … Continue reading →

Ease Your Arthritis With Exercise

When it comes to easing arthritis, the relief is what most people want. There are a lot of studies out there targeting how to help your arthritis and target it for relief through exercise. We’ve talked about arthritis and exercise here in the fitness blog before and today we’re going to talk about the different types of exercises and methods for easing your arthritis. Six tips you need to keep in mind for arthritis exercise, include: Applying heat or ice before a workout in order to relax your joints Dress in comfortable clothing Warm up with gentle exercise Wear shock-absorbing … Continue reading →