Creating a Heart-Healthy Lifestyle: Small Changes, Big Impact

 The heart, a vital organ that silently and tirelessly works for us, often goes unnoticed until it faces trouble. It's disheartening to realize that sudden cardiac arrest ranks among the top causes of death in the United States. That's why we highlight the importance of a healthy heart during Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month. 

Why is Heart Health Important?

The heart is often compared to an engine that drives a car. Just as a car cannot function without its engine, our body can't operate without a healthy heart. It's the central hub of our circulatory system, and its influence extends far beyond mere blood circulation.

Each heartbeat resonates with life, delivering oxygen and essential nutrients to every corner of our body, from our brain to our toes. It is crucial in removing waste products like carbon dioxide and other metabolites. This cleansing action ensures that our organs and tissues remain functional and healthy.

Furthermore, our heart's rhythm and rate are indicators of our overall health. A steady, regular heartbeat suggests a balanced system, while irregularities can hint at underlying health concerns. The heart also interacts with other systems, like the endocrine system, by responding to hormones that regulate blood pressure and volume.

Small Steps for Significant Gains

Stay Active - Even simple activities like daily walking can have a remarkable effect on heart health. Exercise not only strengthens the heart but also boosts overall wellness.

  

Eat Wisely - A balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains does wonders for the heart. Reducing salt, unhealthy fats, and excessive sugars is also essential.

Stay Away from Smoke - Whether first-hand or second-hand, smoke damages the heart. If you smoke, consider quitting. If you don't, avoid environments where smoking is prevalent.

Manage Stress - Our modern life can be a source of constant stress, which strains the heart. Find relaxation techniques that work for you, be it meditation, reading, or simply listening to music.

Stay Hydrated - Drinking water helps to improve circulation and aids in digestion, both of which can help maintain a healthy heart. Aim for at least eight glasses of water daily.

Limit Alcohol - While occasional drinking can be part of social gatherings, excessive alcohol can harm your heart. Limiting your intake can prevent potential heart complications.

Maintain a Healthy Weight - Being overweight can strain your heart. By choosing nutritious foods and engaging in regular physical activity, you can keep your weight in a healthy range for your age and height.

Heart health is not something to be taken lightly. With heart-related problems becoming more prevalent, a proactive approach to our lifestyle is crucial. Making even minor adjustments in our daily routines can profoundly affect heart health.

In some cases, physicians may want to monitor the heart's activity over an extended period to identify any irregularities. For this, they might connect patients to devices like the Cardio Holter ECG. It's a tool used mainly to record the heart's rhythm for 24-96 hours. It's discreet, allowing patients to go about daily activities while wearing it. The physician will analyze the data once the monitoring period is over to identify any irregularities.

Consulting a physician is crucial if someone in your family is experiencing health concerns, especially those related to lifestyle. They might advise monitoring the heart with tools like the Holter ECG, ensuring they get a complete picture of the heart's health during normal daily activities.

Shedding Light on Stress and Heart Health

 

April - National Stress Awareness Month - focuses on both the causes and cures of the modern stress epidemic. It has been running since 1992 to increase public awareness for the same; however, we still have a long way to go. Stress can be enervating, causing, or putting out health problems, but it's also a common part of our lives. Quite often, stress is linked with heart health. "Chronic stress is connected with aggravated cardiovascular events," Schiffrin stated, pointing to a 2017 study in The Lancet. While your heart is a vital organ, it's essential to understand the ugly effects of stress on it. Below we throw some light on how stress harms your heart.

Harms of Stress on our Heart

When you're stressed, a hormone named cortisol produces in response to stress. High cortisol levels may increase blood pressure and blood cholesterol triglycerides - traditional heart disease risk factors. Taking the cases of minor stresses may trigger heart problems, and Chronic stress may affect the way your blood clots. Chronic stress may also pose physiological changes directly that direct to atherosclerosis - the gradual buildup of plaque deposits in the arteries. Your heart's functioning and condition can be detected with the help of a Holter monitor system. It is a portable electrocardiogram [ECG], records the heart's electrical activity - excellent to use while you're away from your doctor.

Stressing about Stress? Don't!

National Stress Awareness Month recognizes the importance of coping up with stress. Fortunately, you can deal with and decrease the effects of stress on your mind and body. The first step that goes along is identifying triggering situations that lead to stress and learn to control your body and mind's reaction to these situations. Adopting essential lifestyle habits is one such way that might help you feel less vulnerable to stress and its effects on your heart.

Tips for Stress Relief

• Exercise: Regular workouts may counteract the effects of stress. You should perform moderately intense physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day. It has been seen that people who exercise tend to respond better to potentially stressful situations. Their heart rates and blood pressure are maintained and do not go as high as people under stress who do not exercise.
• Get Support: A solid social support network has positive effects on how you feel - physically and emotionally. Moreover, having someone to talk to and trust helps you feel better and take care of yourself.
• Seek Professional Treatment: Anxiety and depression may increase the risk of heart problems. Hence, it is best to consult a professional or physician about proper stress-reduction techniques and stress management strategies.

 

Stress relief is heart relief. Closely monitor your heart's health with a high-quality Holter monitor system from a reputed provider. Nasiff's Holter Monitoring ECG System provides reliable and accurate data. It has a feature-rich monitoring system that is compact and comprehensive.

 

 

 

4 Causes Of Stroke Every Person Should Know

Considering that it is Stroke Awareness Month, it is important to talk a little bit about this condition. A stroke occurs when blood flow to a certain part of your brain is cut off. The interruption in the blood supply prevents blood and oxygen from reaching the brain's tissue. Without oxygen, brain cells and tissue become damaged and may start to die within minutes. To help prevent stroke, it is important to know what its major causes are. Let's take a look at them!

High blood pressure

Medical practitioners may call it hypertension. High blood pressure is one of the biggest causes of strokes. If your blood pressure is typically 140/90 or higher your doctor will advise and discuss treatments with you.

Tip: To effectively calculate heart rate and blood pressure, most clinics and hospitals use a PC Based Resting ECG (Electrocardiogram) device.

Tobacco

Smoking or chewing tobacco increases your chances of getting a stroke. Nicotine can make your blood pressure go up. Cigarette smoke creates a fatty buildup in your main neck artery and also thickens your blood, making it more likely to clot. 

Heart disease

Under this condition, patients tend to have defective heart valves as well as atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, which contributes to a quarter of all strokes among the elderly. You might also have clogged arteries from fatty deposits.

Diabetes

People with diabetes often have high blood pressure and are more likely to be overweight. Both increase the chances of a stroke. Diabetes can damage your blood vessels, which makes a stroke more likely to occur. If you have a stroke when your blood sugar levels are high, the injury to your brain is larger.

To calculate your heart rate and measure blood pressure, if you are a physician, you should purchase a PC Based Resting ECG system. If you are a patient, you should continue to have annual physicals and if needed, take a Resting ECG test.

Is Your Pounding Heart A Sign Of Anxiety Or Is It Afib?

You could feel your heart racing or pound arrhythmically and it could be happening due to various reasons. From being excited after getting a piece of good news to feeling nervous due to a job interview, it could be possibly due to anything. People who consume too much coffee or any other thing, which is high in caffeine content, may also experience a phenomenon called 'caffeine jitters'. While you may misconstrue your irregular heartbeats with anxiety, it can sometimes be a serious condition known as atrial fibrillation or AFib.

AFib is a heart rhythm disorder or better known as arrhythmia, in which electrical signals in the heart don’t travel the way they do in a healthy heart. Consider it a miscommunication that results in your heart’s upper two chambers - atria - to beat too quickly. 

Symptoms of AFib include;

● A skipped heartbeat followed by a pound

● Heart palpitations or a fluttering sensation

● Sweating

● Chest pain

● Dizziness

● Fatigue and weakness

 

What’s important to understand is that the symptoms of AFib overlap the symptoms of anxiety, which is why it’s hard to tell if you have anxiety or AFib. 

How to Tell the Difference?

Studies reveal that people with stress or anxiety may develop the condition of AFib or those who already have it may worsen their symptoms. The best course of action, as described by medical professionals, is to keep a check on your heartbeat with the help of a Holter monitor system. It can detect less frequent heartbeat and consequently help you figure out if you have AFib while ruling out the possibility of anxiety. 

If you often have patients with the symptoms of AFiB or anxiety and you face difficulty with the right diagnosis, consider getting a PC-based Holter monitor system to record electrical signals in the heart.

Cardiac Arrhythmias And Ambulatory ECG Monitoring

Cardiac arrhythmias, commonly known as heart arrhythmias or irregular heartbeat, are a group of heart conditions that deal with an irregular heartbeat. People with arrhythmias may experience faster heartbeat (tachycardia), slow heartbeat (bradycardia), or irregular heartbeat (referred to as flutter or fibrillation) or early heartbeat (premature contraction). The condition occurs when the electrical signals responsible for heart contraction or heartbeat stops working properly.

Is Cardiac Arrhythmias Dangerous?

Most cardiac arrhythmias are harmless. However, if they are a result of a weak or damaged heart, they can be serious and may even prove to be fatal. Often, arrhythmias do not have symptoms, which is why monitoring you and your patients' heartbeat using ambulatory ECG regularly is crucial. 

Why use ambulatory ECG?

Ambulatory ECG monitoring is the most preferred technology employed by the majority of medical professionals for the evaluation of patients with symptoms indicative of heart arrhythmia or conduction abnormality. Contrary to the standard electrocardiogram (ECG), which only gives a brief sample of cardiac electrical phenomena over 10-15 seconds, ambulatory ECG displays ECG data over a long period, hence enabling professionals for the assessment of dynamic and transient cardiac electrical activity.

Bottom Line

Despite the harmless nature of cardiac arrhythmias, it’s important not to overlook the condition, especially if your patients have diabetes, hypertension or have a history of stress, drug abuse or smoking. 

If you are looking for a PC based ambulatory ECG system, CardioHolter™ is a compact, comprehensive and feature-rich monitoring system you should consider. It’s fully interpretive with pacemaker detection and has a 3 channel display screen with an event button for reliable and accurate reporting.