Do you remember your mother telling you that watching too much television wasn’t good for you? It appears as thought Mom may have been on to something. A group of researchers from Australia have found that every hour that a person spends watching TV increases a person’s chance of dying from cardiovascular disease by 18 percent! TV watching isn’t the problem, exactly. It’s the act of sitting down to watch it that’s to blame. Many people spend their lives moving from one chair to another instead of having a healthy, active lifestyle. The conclusion the researchers came to was that too much sitting is not good for one’s health. If you ever needed a reason to switch off the television and get off the couch, you’ve got one now. Instead of watching telev...

The good news about adolescent heart disease is that it’s not a major cause of death for younger people. Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death for adults in North America, though. According to the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, someone dies every 37 seconds due to cardiovascular disease. High Blood Pressure in Children High blood pressure is a relatively rare occurrence in children. Approximately three percent of kids have this medical condition, which can be serious if it goes untreated. Part of a child’s annual checkup should include a blood pressure check. A family history of high blood pressure means that a child’s blood pressure should be monitored carefully. High blood pressure in children may result from another medical condition,...

Researchers at the Centre for Eye Research Australia think that an eye exam can help to diagnose patients who have heart disease. Their work indicates that looking at the condition of the blood vessels of the retina at the back of the eye can give doctors an idea about the condition of blood vessels in the brain, heart, and kidneys. The team is using computers to analyze thousands of images of eyes to determine whether this type of procedure can accurately indicate whether a person has heart disease. Finding people who are at high risk is important, since by the time the physical signs of heart disease are apparent, the individual has already sustained damage to their body. If a non-invasive test like this one can help to diagnose heart disease earlier, then that is all the more reason to ...

If you are at a high level of risk for heart disease, you are in good company. Less than 10 percent of Americans are at a low level of risk for the disorder, according to the results of a new research study published in the medical journal Circulation. Only 7.5 percent of the population in the U.S. has none of the risk factors linked to heart disease: Smoking High cholesterol (more than 200 mg/dL) High blood pressure (above 120/80) Overweight or obese Diabetes Americans’ expanding waistlines are to blame for the lousy numbers. It’s true that smoking is less fashionable now than it was in the 1970s, but with the increasing numbers of people who are couch potatoes and the lower levels of physical activity in children, these numbers shouldn’t be all that surprising. ...

If you want to lower your risk of heart disease, make sure that you include these items in your heart diet. Fruit Vegetables Whole Grains Nuts Tea It’s easy to increase your consumption of fruits and veggies. Make a point of adding a side salad at lunch or dinner more often. If you have a choice between drinking orange juice or eating an orange, go for the whole fruit. You add valuable fiber to your diet and get a serving of Vitamin C as well. Look for whole grains in cereals, breads, and pastas, and eat them whenever possible. As long as you don’t have any issues with nut allergies, eating almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts, or walnuts is a heart-heathy move. Drinking green or black teas can help to lower your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels. ...

Your diet is a factor in your risk for developing heart disease. You can lower this risk by making a few simple changes. Don’t worry; eating healthy foods doesn’t mean that the food you eat will be boring or that you need to completely sacrifice taste for your health. If you want to lower your risk of heart disease by changing your diet, start slowly. Incorporate one heart-healthy diet change at a time and get used to it before changing something else. Most people don’t like change at the best of times, and you want to start eating better permanently, not just for a few weeks, to improve your health. Here are 5 simple diet tips that will cut your risk for heart disease: 1. Choose fish or poultry more often. Yes, you can still have red meat. You need to get into the habit...