❌ Myth: Being tired means you didn't get enough sleep. ✅ Reality: Fatigue doesn't always mean you need more sleep. Common causes include: • Poor sleep quality or sleep apnea • Anemia or iron deficiency • Thyroid disorders • Diabetes • Heart or kidney disease • Chronic...
HCM is a condition in which the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick. This can make it harder for the heart to fill with blood and, in some people, pump blood effectively. Many people have no symptoms, while others may experience shortness of breath, chest pain, a racing...
Do you know how to measure your blood pressure (aka BP) correctly at home? The 2026 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway on resistant hypertension highlights accurate BP measurement as a critical first step. Because if the measurement is wrong, the treatment decision may be...
Clinical Trial Tracking: A SCAD Trial SCAD = spontaneous coronary artery dissection It happens when a tear or separation develops in the wall of a heart artery, which can reduce blood flow and cause a heart attack. SCAD can happen even without the usual heart disease risk...
A new 2026 statement from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) highlights an important message about nutrition and heart health: It’s less about finding the “perfect” food and more about your overall eating pattern. 🥦 More nutrient-rich foods 🌾 More fiber and...
As we close out #LipidAwarenessMonth, a reminder: 🐟 Fish oil isn’t just “fish oil.” The type of omega-3 matters. The major omega-3s are: 🔹 EPA - eicosapentaenoic acid 🔹 DHA - docosahexaenoic acid Once you eat EPA and DHA, your body absorbs them and incorporates them into...
As we close out #LipidAwarenessMonth, a reminder: 🫀 Very low HDL is not always about lifestyle. Rare genetic conditions can sometimes be the reason. 🧬 One example is familial hypoalphalipoproteinemia. Changes in the APOA1 gene can affect ApoA-I, the main protein involved in...
❌ Myth: Coffee is always bad for your heart ✅ Reality: Not necessarily ☕️ For most people, moderate coffee consumption can fit into a heart-healthy lifestyle. And what you add to your coffee matters too. Cream → extra saturated fat and calories Sugar → added sugar and...
Friday night. Most of you probably have tomorrow off. So tonight, just focus on sleep quality. Reminder: snoring isn’t always “just snoring.” Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can cause repeated pauses in breathing during sleep, leading to poor sleep quality, daytime fatigue, and...
Triglycerides (TGs) are a type of fat in your blood. Your body uses them for energy. They’re carried mainly in VLDL (from the liver) and chylomicrons (from the intestine). Hypertriglyceridemia = fasting TG ≥150 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L). Very high levels? ≥500 mg/dL is considered...
Have you ever heard of “exercise snacks”? Exercise doesn’t always mean an hour at the gym. A recent meta-analysis of 11 randomized clinical trials found moderate-certainty evidence that exercise snacks improve cardiorespiratory fitness in physically inactive adults. Think of...
❌ Myth: A CAC scan prevents a heart attack. CAC is sometimes even described as the “mammogram for the heart” ✅ Reality: Not exactly Everyone knows what a mammogram is. But many people have never heard of CAC. CAC = coronary artery calcium It’s a measurement from a CT scan...
Honestly, the cholesterol world is complicated and almost like the universe 🌌 But there’s a cholesterol number already on your standard blood test that many people overlook: Non-HDL cholesterol (non-HDL-C) Here’s the simple math: Non-HDL-C = Total cholesterol − HDL (“good”...
Did you know? On this day in 1977, cardiology changed forever. 🫀 September 16, 1977 marked the first successful human coronary balloon angioplasty. In Zurich, Dr. Andreas Grüntzig performed the procedure on a 37-year-old man with severe coronary artery stenosis, opening the...
As PAD Awareness Month continues, let’s talk about Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) and what the symptoms can mean. PAD occurs when arteries supplying the legs become narrowed, reducing blood flow. The Rutherford classification describes clinical severity: 🔹 0 – Asymptomatic...
Have you heard of HDL-c? Here is the dilemma of HDL-c—the so-called HDL Paradox: Why raising “good” cholesterol doesn’t necessarily save your heart. For decades, HDL-c was sold as the artery’s clean-up crew. Then modern trials and genetics complicated the story. Very low...
What if your “high cholesterol” isn’t just about your diet? Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an inherited condition that can cause very high LDL (“bad”) cholesterol from a young age, increasing the risk of heart attack and other heart problems much earlier than expected...