Learn about our approach to cardiovascular health and how our cardiologists care for members who experience heart disease, congestive heart failure, and more.
Keep your heart healthy to prevent heart disease. Kaiser Permanente can help you make healthy lifestyle choices and get personalized support from your doctor.
Discusses cardiac rehabilitation (rehab), which helps you feel better and reduce risk of future heart problems with exercise and lifestyle changes. Looks at rehab for people who have heart conditions such as heart attack, heart surgery, or heart failure.
Describes heart failure (congestive heart failure). Discusses common causes like hypertension and coronary artery disease. Has info on symptoms. Covers diagnostic tests and treatments. Discusses heart failure classification system and stages of CHF.
A heart attack is an event that occurs when part of the heart muscle does not get enough blood and oxygen. This part of the heart starts to die. A heart attack most often happens because blood flow through one or more of the coronary arteries is blocked. This blockage is usually caused by a blood clot that forms when...
Heart-healthy eating means eating food that can help lower your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. It focuses on eating more healthy foods and cutting back on foods that aren't so good for you. It is part of a heart-healthy lifestyle that includes regular activity and not smoking. A heart-healthy eating...
Screening for heart attack and stroke risk is a way for your doctor to check your chance of having a problem called atherosclerosis. This problem is also called hardening of the arteries. It is the starting point for most heart and blood flow problems, such as coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke, and...
Includes causes and symptoms of heart disease. Looks at cholesterol, hypertension, and risk of heart attack. Covers diet, physical activity, and treatment with medicines, angioplasty, and bypass surgery. Includes how to help prevent heart disease.
Heart failure means that your heart muscle doesn't pump as much blood as your body needs. In time, this causes fluid to build up in your body, and you have symptoms like swelling in the legs and feeling out of breath and weak. Heart failure usually gets worse over time. But treatment can slow the disease, help you feel...
Covers causes of heart attack (myocardial infarction, or MI) and unstable angina. Discusses symptoms like chest pain or pressure. Explains MI and angina differences. Offers prevention tips. Covers diagnostic tests and treatment with medicines and surgery.
You can help keep your heart and blood vessels healthy by having a heart-healthy lifestyle. These healthy habits include eating healthy, being active, staying at a weight that's healthy for you, getting the screening tests you need, and not smoking.
Guides people not already diagnosed with coronary artery disease through decision to take statin medicine to lower risk of heart attack or stroke. Covers cholesterol and other risk factors. Includes interactive tool to help you make your decision.
Your pulse is the rate at which your heart beats. As your heart pumps blood through your body, you can feel a pulsing in some of the blood vessels close to the skin's surface. The usual resting pulse for an adult is about 60 to 100 beats per minute. Certain illnesses can cause your pulse to change, so it is helpful to...
Your pulse is the rate at which your heart beats. Your pulse is usually called your heart rate, which is the number of times your heart beats each minute (bpm). But the rhythm and strength of the heartbeat can also be noted, as well as whether the blood vessel feels hard or soft. Changes in your heart rate or rhythm, a...
Topic guides reader through decision to get a pacemaker for heart rate problems. Provides general overview of what pacemakers are and what heart problems can be helped with pacemakers. Lists benefits and possible complications of getting a pacemaker.
Congenital heart disease refers to structural heart problems or abnormalities that have been present since birth. These problems usually have no known cause. In some cases, they may be passed from a parent to a child (inherited). They also may occur in the developing baby (fetus) of a person who has an infection or who...
The American Heart Association (AHA) publishes dietary and lifestyle recommendations for general heart health. . These recommendations are for healthy adults at least 18 years old. These guidelines may also be useful for adults who have health problems, children, and teens. But talk to your doctor because some of these...
Provides link to info on high cholesterol and cholesterol/triglyceride tests. Also has links to info on coronary artery disease and peripheral arterial disease of the legs, plus tools to decide about treatment options.
Covers the kinds of cholesterol. Explains that cholesterol is one of many risk factors for heart attack and stroke. Covers treatment to lower risk of heart attack and stroke, which includes healthy habits and statins.