Figures from American Heart Association (AHA) show that there is a 30% decrease in the heart diseases and stroke related deaths in the US since 1999.

According to the experts, these improvements are somewhat surprising as the majority of the Americans tend to an inactive and obesity-friendly lifestyle.

Dr. Timothy Gardner, who is the President of AHA, says in a news release: “There is not the same decline in the major risk factors for stroke and heart disease and that’s why the work in this connection has not been completed yet.”

During seven year (1999-2006) a 30.7% drop was noted in heart disease related deaths and a 29.2% decrease in stroke related deaths.

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In today’s hectic lifestyle, almost everyone has to be the victim of stress once in a while and the sad fact is that there isn’t any surest way to avoid stress, but still some treatments and natural cures can help you a lot to manage and cure stress effectively.

Stress nags different people in different ways. It makes them feel overloaded or sleepless.  When people don’t have proper sleep, their immune system gets weak and they become easy victims of many other diseases. That’s why one needs to control stressful conditions in a proper way. Your mind and body can deal with depression and stress only if they are strong enough and the thing that makes your mind and body strong is proper diet with all essential nutrients and vitamins. So, proper and balance diet is a first step to deal with stress in a right way.

Many people believe that smoking and drinking can help them to get rid of stress, but in fact, they prove quite harmful in stress as they take away some important nutrients from your body.

If you feel some signs of stress, you can use lemon balm as a natural cure to deal with stress. It has a soothing effect on nervous system and reduces stress levels instantly.

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Carrots are not only delicious and crunchy but also rich in many important vitamins and nutrients that improve eyesight and decrease the risk of developing some types of cancers and heart diseases. It’s a fact that if you eat a whole carrot everyday or take its juice, you need not to have vitamin A supplements.

Aside from red, carrots are also available in orange and some other colors nowadays. Beta-carotene, which gives orange color to this vegetable, is considered a powerful antioxidant that decreases the damages occur because of those free radicals that increase the risk of macular degeneration, early aging and some diseases like cancer and heart diseases.

Some clinical studies show that if one consumes enough antioxidants, one is less likely to die from some types of cancer. Similarly, some other studies show that the combination of Vitamin C and Beta-carotene helped to reduce occurrence of cancer by 37 percent. The results of some studies also show that people with low levels of Beta-carotene are more likely to develop some sort of cancers like the lungs or stomach cancer.

Another important antioxidant known as Alpha-carotene is also abundantly found in carrots and it is considered to avoid cells from damages that occur due to free radicals. The results of a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute show that lung cancer is more likely to occur in men who don’t have sufficient levels of Alpha-carotene in their bodies. …Click here to read more

A chat with Dr.Devi Shetty , Narayana Hrudayalaya ( Heart Specialist) Bangalore was arranged by WIPRO for its employees . The transcript of the chat is given below which is useful for everyone.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart ?

Ans: 1. Diet – Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise – Half an hour’s walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?

Ans: No

Qn: It’s still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person
gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?

Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?

Ans: Yes

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Till now, the ‘CT Scan’ techniques enabled the doctors to detect diseased vessels and valves. A new technique has been devised which would not only allow the doctors to look at the heart vessels, heart function and heart blood flow with a single CT scan. This “Single Computerized Tomographic (CT) Scan” utilized by the doctors shared their experience of working with this new technique and found that it could enable all inclusive diagnosis of the heart disease.The researchers at ‘CT Research and Development’ claimed that his new CT scan not only can detect the poor blood flow in the heart muscle but also can now detect blocked arteries and narrowing of the blood vessels in the heart.

The ‘MUSC scanner’ uses the “dual energy technique” by adding two x-ray spectrums, each emitting varying degrees of energy like a series of x-rays, to gain a static image of the coronary arteries and the heart muscle. This enabled mapping the blood distribution within the heart muscle and pinpointing areas with decreased blood supply. The whole process could be accomplished within 15 seconds or less. Doctors could also diagnose for other ailments that might be affecting the lungs or chest wall.

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