Blog Archive

Taking steps to avoid the most common cause of death in the United States — heart disease — is a great way to lead a happier, healthier, and longer life. Every 33 seconds in the US, a person dies of cardiovascular disease and one out of every five deaths in...

When something is nicknamed a Silent Killer, it’s very much worth learning some of the basics, especially when that condition is so prevalent. High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects nearly half of all adults in the United States (almost 120 million), putting nearly half our adult population at a much...

It’s no mystery that you can credit your parents for many of your physical attributes, such as the color of your eyes, your hair, and your body shape. Heredity not only influences you on the outside, but it can play a large role on what goes on inside your body....

Millions of Americans deal with irregular heart rhythms that jump, flutter, skip, and race. Called an arrhythmia, there are many different types, and thankfully, most are considered harmless. But not all. For people who have more severe and problematic arrhythmias, taking steps to offset the risks that come with this...

We want to kick off this discussion with a statistic — more than 6 million Americans are living with heart failure, and we want to emphasize the term, “living with.” We concur that a heart failure diagnosis isn’t the best news, but it’s far from a death sentence as many...

Did you know that the average heart beats about 100,000 times per day, which calculates to about 35 million times per year? If your heart rate is falling short of these numbers, dangerously so, a pacemaker is an excellent solution. There are about 3 million Americans who are living with...

You’ve been on your feet all day, or you’ve gone for an unusually long walk, and your legs feel tired and achy. These are perfectly normal results of muscle fatigue, and the symptoms should clear once your legs get some much-needed rest. If, however, you’re dealing with tired, heavy, or...

Your pet/child/family member sneaks up on you while you’re deep in thought and you jump in response, your heart racing and fluttering for a few seconds. Or, you’re heading into a situation that makes you nervous, perhaps a job interview, and you feel your heart flip-flopping and racing. Or, your...

Since cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease, you’re doing the right thing by reading this blog post and learning more. Approximately one in 20 adults aged 20 and older have CAD,...

You've probably heard this scenario more than once — the person was perfectly healthy and just up and had a heart attack or stroke that seemed to come out of nowhere.  Although heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the US, there are...

The first thing we want you to know about peripheral artery disease (PAD) is that it’s fairly common — PAD affects between 8 and 12 million people in the United States, though this number might be on the low side. Given this high prevalence, the team of heart health experts...

The first thing to understand about blood clots is that, most of the time, they’re a good thing.  In fact, they can be life-saving as they prevent you from bleeding out when you’ve been cut. But what about those blood clots that are unrelated to wounds? The ones that form...

In an ideal world, your heart keeps a steady pace — about 60-100 beats per minute — rhythmically pumping out oxygenated blood to your body. When there’s a problem with this rhythm — it’s too fast, too slow, or irregular — you have an arrhythmia, which can cause problems. At...

You race up a couple flights of stairs, and your heart feels like it’s going to jump out of your chest. Or, out of the blue, it feels like your heart is doing somersaults in your chest. These are both examples of heart palpitations that are driven by different conditions....

We want to get straight to the answer we pose in the title of this blog about whether heart disease is preventable. In a word, yes. More to the point, about 90% of heart disease is preventable, which is great news considering that heart disease is the leading cause of...

Nearly half of people in the United States have some form of cardiovascular disease, which ranges from high blood pressure to more serious issues like heart failure. If you fall onto the more serious end of this spectrum and you’re worried how it may affect your sex life, the answers...

It’s hard not to get through the day without at least one stressful event. Unfortunately, many people live in an almost constant state of stress, which can have no small impact on their physical and mental health. As heart health experts, the team here at Advanced Cardiology Specialists wants to...

Instead of pumping rhythmically, your heart is fluttering or beating chaotically, which can lead to some serious and life-threatening complications. Called atrial fibrillation, or AFib, this condition is the most common type of arrhythmia and affects more than 6 million people in the United States, a number that’s expected to...

There are three main risk factors when it comes to heart disease, which is the number one cause of death in the United States: Smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Though not a terribly common condition, an aortic aneurysm is an example of a cardiovascular disease that’s directly linked to smoking. To...

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is one of the most common health issues facing the population in the United States. To put some numbers to the problem, nearly half of adults (47%) in the US have blood pressure numbers that are higher than we like to see. Though the team...

You’ve likely seen the image of an electrocardiogram, or EKG, many times in your life — that jagged line that looks like an outline of a mountain range. As a diagnostic tool, the EKG is one of the biggest workhorses in the cardiac field, and many others, as it’s one...

You’ve been on an airplane for a while or you’re pregnant — these are common and temporary situations that can cause swelling in your lower legs and feet. If you’re experiencing swelling without any identifiable cause or precipitating event, the problem may lie in your cardiovascular system. Although swelling in...

You know that heart disease runs in your family, and you’re understandably concerned. The fact is that genetics can play a role — for example, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease among those who have a family history of premature heart disease is two times greater than those who have no...

Your skin is your body’s largest organ — covering an average of 22 square feet — and it plays an invaluable role in providing a shield for your body. Though the evidence of this protection can show up in the signs of scars and blemishes, your skin can also register what’s going...

Approximately 6.2 million people in the United States are living with congestive heart failure, and we want to underscore the words “living with.” As with most medical conditions, the sooner that we’re aware of the problem, the sooner we can take action to treat the issue. This certainly applies to...

Each year in the United States, 200,000 pacemakers are implanted, and this number is expected to increase as the population ages. There are many reasons why people with irregular heart rhythms opt for these lifesaving devices and understanding them is important. To help you better understand the role that a pacemaker can play...

Being diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm can be scary, but we want you to know that there are treatment options. In fact, 200,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm each year, yet deaths because of an aortic aneurysm are relatively low — slightly more than 9,900 in 2019. ...

At least 2.7 million people in the US are living with atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is the most common type of heart arrhythmia. Most any problem that develops in your heart has the potential to be life-threatening, and this is certainly true of AFib. That said, with early detection and vigilant oversight, AFib...

When you cut yourself, your platelets jump into action and form a clot that prevents the blood vessels from leaking blood. In this regard, blood clots are lifesavers. When a blood clot forms in your blood vessels, however, quite the opposite can be true as the clot can prevent your...

Your heart is the primary transportation hub for your blood. Controlling the traffic and making sure that your blood flows in the right direction are your heart valves, which open and close with each heartbeat. As you can imagine, when there’s a problem with one of these valves, it can...

An aortic aneurysm certainly sounds serious, and there’s no question that the complications that arise from this condition are potentially life-threatening. Thankfully, aortic aneurysms aren’t all that common — they affect 5-10 people in the United States out of every 100,000 — and deaths related to the condition cause approximately...

You look down and are unable to tell where your calves end and your ankles begin thanks to swelling in your lower limbs. This is a typical result of a condition we call edema, which is caused by fluid buildup in your body. In some cases, this swelling is perfectly...

Under ideal circumstances, your heart steadily pumps away — about 115,000 times a day — and circulates 2,000 gallons of oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood throughout your body. If there’s an irregularity in this steady pace, which we call an arrhythmia, you should sit up and take notice as some arrhythmias...

Your heart beats about 100,000 times per day and accomplishes 35 million beats over the course of a year. During an average human lifetime, the heart beats a whopping 2.5 billion times, give or take. Though the sheer number of times your heart beats is incredible, it’s equally as important...

There are some serious and frightening associations with the umbrella term, “heart disease,” and for good reason. To start, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming one in four deaths.  To help you better understand what heart disease encompasses, the team of cardiology experts...

Walking up a few steps leaves you disproportionately winded or, worse, you struggle to breathe when you lie down. These are two of the hallmarks of congestive heart failure, a serious disease that affects approximately 6.2 million people in the United States. As heart health experts, the experienced and comprehensive...

Under ideal circumstances, your heart maintains a steady rhythm of 60-100 beats per minute, which totals 100,000 times per day and a whopping 35 million times a year. When you have an arrhythmia, your heartbeat is too fast, too slow, or irregular, all of which can lead to serious complications,...

Something gives you a fright and your heart flutters in your chest, which is perfectly normal as adrenaline floods your body. If you routinely experience a fluttering heart with no obvious cause, however, this could be the sign of a potentially serious arrhythmia. To help you discern the difference, our...

To call your heart hard-working is a big understatement. Each day, your heart pumps about 100,000 times, circulating the 5.6 quarts of blood throughout your body three times every minute. When you have congestive heart failure, your heart isn’t pumping blood as efficiently as it should, which can lead to...

We’re going to get straight to the question we pose in the title of this blog about whether there are any warning signs of an aortic aneurysm — in most cases, the answer is no. That said, it’s important to understand what happens when an aortic aneurysm bursts or leaks...

Structurally, there isn’t a great difference between a man’s cardiovascular system and a woman's, but there are variations in the way heart disease can present itself, not to mention certain gender-specific risks. The highly qualified cardiology team here at Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists wants to take this opportunity to highlight some...

To say that your heart is a busy organ would be a gross understatement. Not only does your heart beat 100,000 times a day (about 35 million times a year), it circulates the entirety of your blood three times every minute. Going a little further with these fascinating statistics, your...

To keep your blood flowing smoothly (and in one direction), your heart is equipped with four small one-way valves that open and close to allow blood through, but not back. When there’s a malfunction in one of these valves, valvular disease takes hold, and some are more serious than others....

All too often, symptoms of a medical condition can develop in seemingly unrelated areas, which is certainly true of cardiovascular-related peripheral edema. Since it’s difficult to connect the dots with medical issues like these, you need trusted medical providers in your corner, which is where we come in. At Advanced...

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is a common heart rhythm disorder, affecting 2.7 million people in the US, but the CDC predicts that this number will jump to 12.1 million by 2030.  To shed some light on these rising numbers, the team here at Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists is taking this opportunity...

Although there may be fewer office or neighborhood parties this year, you’ll likely still be celebrating the holidays in some fashion. From buying gifts to family feasts, the holidays present some challenges for those who are trying to safeguard their heart health. As the holiday season approaches, our team here...

We started this discussion with a scary statistic — one person dies every 36 seconds of heart disease in the US. To counter this, here’s another statistic that should bring some hope: A whopping 80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable. Our team here at Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists understands these revealing...

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects 6.5 million people over the age of 40 in the United States, putting them at risk for far more serious cardiovascular issues down the road. Thankfully, you can make a few lifestyle changes to manage and improve this serious health concern. Our experienced team of...

The prevalence of atrial fibrillation, or AFib, in the United States is between 2.7 and 6.1 million, but experts predict that this number could rise to more than 12 million in the next decade. There are solutions for this fairly common heart rhythm problem, but left untreated, AFib can lead...

Your heart is a complex organ that acts as the main hub and power source for your circulatory system. To ensure that blood flows through the four chambers of your heart correctly, your heart is equipped with valves that open and shut with each heartbeat. With valvular disease, the flow...

Understanding your heart health risks is one of the best ways to avoid very serious, and potentially life-threatening, problems. Though an aortic aneurysm may not be terribly common — the condition causes nearly 10,000 deaths a year in the United States — it’s still a condition well worth considering when...

If you’re among the millions of people in the US who have an arrhythmia, which is the term used to describe abnormal heartbeats, you’ve likely explored the benefits of a pacemaker. Each year, around 200,000 Americans have pacemakers implanted to be able to regulate moderate-to-severe arrhythmias and avoid potentially life-threatening...

Your body is an incredibly efficient machine that, more often than not, sends up warning flags when something’s amiss. And this is very much the case when it comes to your all-important heart. The key, however, is understanding — and heeding — these warning signs, especially when it comes to...

Scare tactics are never a great way to kick off a conversation, but they’re hard to avoid when it comes to heart disease. The fact is that nearly 650,000 men and women die from heart disease each year, which represents one in every four deaths in the United States. The...

Congestive heart failure affects approximately 6.5 million people in the United States, preventing their bodies from getting the oxygen-rich blood they need. This serious condition is progressive and develops in stages — from class I to IV — which means recognizing the early signs is paramount. At Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists,...

Every year in the US, more than 800,000 men and women have a heart attack and, for more than 600,000, it’s their first one. At the same time, nearly 5% of adults in the US experience a panic attack at some point in their lives — many of whom struggle...

Peripheral artery disease affects the arteries outside of your heart and brain. Most commonly, PAD affects arteries that send oxygenated blood to your legs, but it can also affect arteries that travel to your head, arms, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract. PAD develops when plaque, which is a fatty substance, builds...