High amounts of sugar and caffeine can aggravate underlying heart issues, causing fatal arrhythmias  By Christopher Maynard Christopher Maynard is a New York-based writer and editor who has worked as a security guard, high school teacher, theatrical lighting designer and volunteer fireman. He is a graduate of Marist College. To many adolescents and young adults, energy…

Home Remedies That Help With Cleaning Arteries: Your arteries carry oxygen-rich blood throughout every part of your body. When healthy, arteries are smooth on the inside, and blood flows through them easily, according to WebMD. However, sometimes we get a buildup of plaque on the inner walls of our arteries, which clogs them and inhibits blood…

Research has shown that having the right gut microbes can reduce the risk of heart disease – if you’re a mouse. Now, our latest study, published in the European Heart Journal, shows that this might be true for humans, too. Most people know that the risk factors for heart disease are high blood pressure, high cholesterol and…

So there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is there are steps you can take to slow your heart’s aging process, increasing the chances of living a long, healthy, fruitful life. The trade-off is that you really do have to go to the gym. New research published this week in the Journal of Physiology…

Subtle symptoms It’s true: Women are different from men, not least of all when it comes to heart attack symptoms. Once considered almost strictly a man’s problem, we now know that anyone can have a heart attack. Rosie O’Donnell had a heart attack in 2012, and like most women, she didn’t experience the classic, chest-clutching “Hollywood Heart Attack.”…

Common causes of chest pain All too often, the mention of chest pain conjures up images of a heart attack, but there are plenty of other diseases and conditions that can trigger this symptom. Some of them—like that chest muscle you pulled raking leaves last fall—are more annoying than serious. But others can be far more…

What is high blood pressure? Nearly half of Americans have high blood pressure, according to new guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology. The guidelines, published in Hypertension, lower the threshold for what’s considered high blood pressure from 140/80 mmHg to 130/80 mmHg. (Anything under 120/80 mmHg is considered normal blood pressure.) That…