You need some blood cholesterol. You couldn’t live without it. But if you have too much cholesterol, your body can’t use it all, and the effects can be cardiovascular disease. Excess cholesterol builds up in your arteries. It combines with other substances to form fatty deposits, or plaque. Year after year, the plaque builds up,…
Chest pain does not necessarily mean a heart attack. Other conditions can result in chest pain. Some, like heartburn, have nothing to do with the heart. Also, heart attacks don’t always cause chest pain. One study found 1 in 5 heart people had heart attacks without chest pain. With a heart attack, you may feel…
Hyperlipidemia means the levels of lipids such as cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood are too high. There are no hyperlipidemia symptoms, but the condition can have serious consequences for your health. Lipids perform a number of important and useful functions in your body. Too much of these fatty compounds, however, can be harmful. With…
Syncope and seizure both can cause a loss of consciousness, but there are important differences. Syncope — commonly referred to as passing out or fainting — often results from a drop in blood pressure. Seizures, on the other hand, are caused by abnormal brain activity. The reason behind the abnormal activity may be epilepsy, stroke,…
Some people who experience migraine face an increased stroke risk, but there are ways to lessen the danger, according to Brian M. Plato, D.O., headache and migraine specialist with Norton Neuroscience Institute. Nearly 1 in 5 women have migraine three times the rate for men. In the United States alone, 28 million women experience migraine….
When your heart is beating too fast, the heart doesn’t have time to fill up with the normal amount of blood between beats. As a result, you might feel lightheaded or dizzy. The medical term for an abnormally fast heart rate is tachycardia. Two types of tachycardia are supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) and ventricular tachycardia (V-tach)….
Heart palpitation, or a rapid heartbeat, can bring on dizziness and even fainting and can be a symptom of a potentially serious heart condition. When the fast heart rate begins in the upper heart chambers, it is called supraventricular tachycardia (soop-rah-ven-TRICK’-yoo-lar TAK-ih-KAR-dee-ah), also known as SVT. When it starts in the lower chambers, it’s called…
At age 30, Stephanie Deeley was diagnosed with familial cardiomyopathy — the same diagnosis that abruptly took the life of her father when he was just 31. Stephanie received a pacemaker and implanted defibrillator, and lived a full life until five years ago, when she began being shocked repeatedly by her defibrillator. “This is a…
Most people are familiar with the typical way someone shows they are having a heart attack: gasping, clutching their chest, and so on. Despite what may be depicted as a heart attack in movies or on TV, sometimes chest pain is just chest pain — with a harmless cause. However, sometimes pain in the chest…
A normal heart rhythm is 60 to 100 beats per minute. If your heart is beating too fast, too slow or irregularly, you may have an arrhythmia. An abnormal heart rhythm doesn’t always require treatment. However, if the arrhythmia is causing significant symptoms or putting your health at risk, an electrophysiologist can help. One common…
Statistically, more people experience a heart attack during the holidays. However, most cardiologists would agree the holidays don’t cause heart attacks. “Stretching from Thanksgiving to Christmas and even into the new year, there is about a 5% increase in heart attacks or emergency room visits due to heart-related concerns,” said Abdolreza Agahtehrani, M.D. , cardiologist…
When blood flow is partially blocked through one or more arteries to the heart, the heart muscle is damaged. This is a heart attack. But when the flow is blocked completely, damage happens much faster, and the condition is far more dangerous. The chances of recovery — and survival — lessen with every minute. This…