Habits that will help you stay safe against heart problems

Considering the deteriorating living styles of people, and simultaneous rise in the incidence of heart problems amongst them, it has become imperative to know how to stay safe from these medical emergencies.

Our eating and lifestyle habits play a major role in enhancing the chances of cardiac trouble amongst us. Health tips offered by a New York cardiologist can help you stay safe against cardiac problems. What are those tips; let us have a look –


1. Change your diet plan – Food is a major factor that contributes to the poor cardiac health. This is the reason why doctors stress making changes in your eating habits when you are at a risk of such medical problems. An acronym used for one approach is DASH i.e. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Some major food products to avoid in this diet include fast foods, red meat, packaged snacks, bakery items, margarines and dairy products, as all of these contain saturated, and Trans fats. These fats increase the chances of CHD (Coronary Heart Diseases)

2. Keep check on your weight – People who are obese, and overweight have higher risks of developing cardiac problems as compared to non-obese people. This is the reason why the best cardiologist’s advise patients to keep their weight under control. BMI or the Basal Metabolic Index is one measure to check your body weight. Doctors have observed that people with a basal metabolic index of 25 or more are at a higher risk of facing cardiac problems

3. Quit smoking – Components like nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide found in tobacco smoke are considered dangerous for heart health. Smoking can lead to atherosclerosis or the narrowing of blood vessels. So, in order to ensure good cardiac health you need to quit smoking. In fact, passive smoking or second hand smoke can also be a serious problem, making people around you prone to heart and lung diseases

4. Do some exercise – 30 minutes of exercise daily and you can reduce your health risk. Sedentary lifestyle has been a major contributor towards worsening cardiac problems. This is the reason why medical professionals stress upon making some light exercises a part of your daily routine. This will not only ensure safety from various heart problems, but at the same time will bring other benefits like control of weight, and maintain all the body organs in a rigorous state, to name a few.


By employing the above mentioned habits in your life, you can reduce risks of facing life threatening cardiology troubles.

As they say, ‘prevention is always better than cure’, and so if you feel at the risk of facing any of these medical problems, then you must make these habits a part of your daily routine as soon as possible. After all, life does not give a second chance, so why risk it, when all the consequences can be easily avoided with a slight effort from your side!

Tests that a NYC cardiologist might ask you to undergo

A cardiologist can be the best judge for your heart’s deteriorating health. Keeping in mind that various cardiac troubles can be detected by using different techniques, you must be prepared to undergo different diagnostic test to have an idea about the physical well- being of your heart.

Here is a look at some common tests that an NYC cardiologist might recommend

1. Stress test – this test is performed on patients who are at a risk of cardiac blockages. As the test requires the person to perform physical activity, doctors also refer to it as an exercise stress test. As a part of the test, the patient is asked to walk on a treadmill bicycle. The doctor monitors the functioning of heart, under such conditions of physical stress, with the help of an electrocardiogram (ECG). Any alteration in the ECG report, when compared to the ECG of a normal person, can indicate the possibility of a cardiac problem. For patients who cannot perform physical activity medications like Adenosine, dipyridamole, and dobutamine are used (to create condition similar to physical stress.

2. Echocardiogram – a cardiologist in NYC might ask you to go for an echocardiogram to detect presence of any deformity in the physical structure of the organ. The test makes use of sound waves to get a moving picture of the organ, similar to an ultrasound, in which the activity of a developing fetus is identified within the mother’s womb. The test can also help the doctor detect a hole in the walls that acts as a septum between left and right chambers of the cardiac cavity.


3. Computerised Tomographic Angiography or CTA – the purpose of this test is to have an idea about the functioning of the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. With the help of X-rays and high-end computer aided equipment, detailed images of the blood vessels are obtained and the doctor can monitor the blood flow within them through these images. The test is not specific to heart and professionals employ it for evaluating the functioning of arterial systems of various parts of body such as brain, chest, and pelvic region, to name a few.

4. Magnetic Resonance Angiography or MRA – this test is also performed to address problems related to the blood vessels. The test makes use of magnetic fields and radio waves to generate 2-D or 3-D images of the blood vessels. The benefit of this test is that the doctor can precisely locate the blockage in the arteries as well as the severity of the blockage. A key thing to be mentioned here is that people who have pacemakers installed, stents, prosthetic joints, and mechanical heart valves might not be eligible for the MRA, as metals can influence the magnetic field used in the test.

Apart from all these specific tests, there are numerous other diagnostic tests that a doctor might recommend you to undergo. However, more often than not the cardiologist would suggest one of the above mentioned tests.

Some heart conditions about which only a cardiologist can tell you

The heart is one of the most vital organs of the body. A slight imperfection in its functioning could lead to a life threatening medical condition. Although, in general, people are aware of cardiology problems such as heart attack, stroke, coronary disease and hypertension, to name a few, but apart from these, there are many other heart problems that are not so commonly known.

Considering the importance of this organ in healthy living, it becomes important for you to be aware of other frequently occurring cardiac problems that are not commonly known to people.

Here is a look at those heart problems – 


1. Rheumatic Heart Disease: It is a serious condition that has several complications. Rheumatic heart disease is associated with the damage that rheumatic fever causes on the body. Major symptoms of this problem are chest pain, fever, and burning sensation. As far as medical science has been able to diagnose, the complications of this could be improper functioning of the valves of the organ, which restricts them to get closed properly, and therefore blood may leak into one of the chambers. So, even if you have the slightest of doubt in your mind regarding this condition, then immediately get in touch with a NY cardiologist.

2. Pulmonary Disease: this is another highly serious, yet unheard of disease. As the word pulmonary implies, the problem involves lungs and damage caused to them due to various conditions. Chest pain and breathlessness are the common symptoms associated with the disease. Under extreme circumstances there is a possibility that the patient can faint as well. Cystic Fibrosis, Pulmonary Hypertension, and Advanced Emphysema are some of the other diseases associated with it. So far, there is no tried and tested cure for this critical problem, apart from taking precautions under the guidance of a pulmonary and cardiac specialist.

3. Ischemic Heart Disease – ischemia is a medical term used for the situation of reduced blood flow to any organ, and Ischemic heart disease is the condition in which blood supply to the heart is limited due to any reason. This could lead to severe chest pain especially in the left side. Medical professionals associate this disease with the deteriorating lifestyle habits of people, which are becoming more sedentary day by day. Getting rid of that extra fat from the body and adopting a vigorous lifestyle, under the guidance of a specialist is one way out to get rid of this trouble.

These are some of the major cardiac diseases, which I am sure you must not have heard of. To know more about these problems, you must get in touch with the best cardiologist in New York, to avoid any chance of getting affected by any of these issues (or any other sort of heart issues for that matter). After all, prevention is always better than cure!