Cardiovascular medicine has become so successful at rescuing people from major challenges, such as heart attack and stroke, that it must now confront an entirely new difficulty: helping the survivors of these health crises. In many cases, the hearts of these patients have been significantly weakened

Patients admitted to the hospital for heart failure receive a barrage of tests and treatments to assess and stabilize their conditions. But when they are discharged home, much of the responsibility for the patients’ future health rests in their own hands. If they don’t take their medications as

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes the efforts of many to maintain the health and quality of life of a person with heart failure. Cardiovascular specialists are essential, but no less so are the family doctors and other health care providers who deliver ongoing care; friends and

Shortness of breath, swelling ankles, fatigue—they can easily be passed off as part of getting older. But for more than 600,000 Canadians, these are signs of something much more serious. They are among the frustratingly non-specific symptoms of heart failure, the only form of heart disease that is

Each of us breathes in 10,000 or more litres of air every day, so it’s no surprise that the quality of that air can impact our health. Whether in large urban centres or more rural settings, air pollution can be a fact of life. As it turns out, these airborne pollutants—ground-level ozone, nitrogen

A recent study of close to 200,000 men and women found that shorter people are at higher risk of coronary artery disease than their taller counterparts, with every 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) change in height affecting their level of risk by 13.5%. This means that, if you are 5 feet tall, your risk of