heart disease

If you have chest pain, shortness of breath, or heart rhythm problems, your doctor may order a cardiac stress test to find out how well your heart pumps.

The test takes several hours and involves injecting a tracer and collecting images of the heart at rest, then collecting another image of the heart while it’s pumping vigorously. The images help a doctor determine whether blockages are causing problems and what treatments patients need.

Patients must fast for 12 hours...

Cardiac rehab is an outpatient program that combines both exercise and education to modify a participant’s lifestyle. The customized and medically supervised program helps participants improve their cardiac health. Cardiac rehab is crucial for those who have had a recent heart attack, had heart surgery, had valve surgery, or a have had a heart catheterization with or without stents. It can also help people with chronic congestive heart failure. The program...

Doing the right things to stay healthy isn’t easy. At least that’s what we tell ourselves when we become overwhelmed with information about what to eat, how much to exercise, and what is and isn’t good for us.

But if you are making a few small changes, it can make a big difference in avoiding or decreasing high blood pressure, and thus protecting your heart. Holly Schmitz, registered dietitian at Community HealthCare System, said you should pause to consider what you...