Summer 2015

Many people live their entire lives and never consider the importance of healthy heart valves. But what happens when a heart valve is not working properly? Heart valve replacement survivor, Robert Epps & expert Dr. Robert Bonow tell us.

One thing some of us heart patients grump about the most is having to change our diets. Give me eight new medications to take? No problem. Try to teach me new ways to manage stress? Sketchy. But eliminate my best friends, salt and fat, from my diet? No way!

Greg Weglowski thought he was invincible. After all, he led an active life in law enforcement, ran marathons, sky dived and volunteered for the first Persian Gulf War. "I’ve always been a bit extreme," the Detroit native admitted. His family’s heart history was no exception.

For some of us, the process of selecting the best produce, storing it for freshness and longevity and preparing it in ways that get the most nutritional bang for our buck may seem challenging or complicated. Here are some tips to help you choose, store and prepare the good stuff.

In January 2004 during a routine ultrasound, my wife Stacie and I learned that our son, Luke, would be born with complex congenital heart defects. It was an emotional roller coaster to understand the challenges that lay ahead.

Kimberly Goodloe knew something was wrong the moment the pain began. "I came out of a class where I was a substitute teacher and grabbed my chest," she said. "It was the worst feeling."

One in three American adults has high blood pressure. That’s about 80 million people, so odds are that you or someone you know has it.

Any physical activity that uses the big muscles of your body burns some calories. Doing finger calisthenics with your remote not so much. Here's a quick list of ways to burn 100 calories.

Added sugars are not the friend of a heart healthy diet. Although they are not harmful to the body, our bodies don’t need sugars to function properly.

High levels of HDL cholesterol — at least 40 mg/dL for men and 50 mg/dL for women — appear to reduce heart disease. That’s why it’s often referred to as "good" cholesterol.

If your "bad" cholesterol level stays the same or increases after you take statin drugs, you may have more blocked arteries than people whose levels drop, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

Insomniacs who take longer than 14 minutes to fall asleep face a greater risk of hypertension, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

Stress may partly explain why young and middle-age women have a worse recovery after heart attack, according to new research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

The American Heart Association recommends that children and adolescents get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity every day. But less than 30 percent of children meet that goal.

Middle-age women who are physically active a few times a week have a lower risk of heart disease, stroke and blood clots than inactive women, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Children with favorable psychosocial experiences may have better cardiovascular health in adulthood, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Miriam and Robert Epps had been married eight years when Robert was diagnosed with aortic regurgitation and required valve replacement surgery. In those eight years she had never seen him sick. “I was scared and stressed by the diagnosis,” she recalled.