Find Heart Health Specialists near you

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

FAQs:

What is the Heart?

The heart is a fist-sized organ that pumps blood throughout your body. It’s your circulatory system’s main organ. Muscle and tissue make up this powerhouse organ. Your heart contains four muscular sections (chambers) that briefly hold blood before moving it. Electrical impulses make your heart beat, moving blood through these chambers. Your brain and nervous system direct your heart’s function.

What Does the Heart Do?

Your heart’s main function is to move blood throughout your body. Blood brings oxygen and nutrients to your cells. It also takes away carbon dioxide and other waste so other organs can dispose of them. Your heart also:

1. Controls the rhythm and speed of your heart rate.

2. Maintains your blood pressure.

Your heart works with these body systems to control your heart rate and other body functions:

1. Nervous system: Your nervous system helps control your heart rate. It sends signals that tell your heart to beat slower during rest and faster during stress.

2. Endocrine system: Your endocrine system sends out hormones. These hormones tell your blood vessels to constrict or relax, which affects your blood pressure. Hormones from your thyroid gland can also tell your heart to beat faster or slower.

Where the Heart is?

Your heart is in the front of your chest. It sits slightly behind and to the left of your sternum (breastbone), which is in the middle of your chest. Your heart is slightly on the left side of your body. It sits between your right and left lungs. The left lung is slightly smaller to make room for the heart in your left chest. Your rib cage protects your heart.

How Many Chambers Does the Heart Have?

The heart has four chambers, two upper atria, the receiving chambers, and two lower ventricles, the discharging chambers. The atria open into the ventricles via the atrioventricular valves, present in the atrioventricular septum. This distinction is visible also on the surface of the heart as the coronary sulcus. There is an ear-shaped structure in the upper right atrium called the right atrial appendage, or auricle, and another in the upper left atrium, the left atrial appendage. The right atrium and the right ventricle together are sometimes referred to as the right heart. Similarly, the left atrium and the left ventricle together are sometimes referred to as the left heart. The ventricles are separated from each other by the interventricular septum, visible on the surface of the heart as the anterior longitudinal sulcus and the posterior interventricular sulcus.

How Does Blood Flow Through the Heart?

The right and left sides of the heart work together. The pattern described below is repeated over and over, causing blood to flow continuously to the heart, lungs, and body.

The Right Side of the Heart

1. Blood enters the heart through two large veins, the inferior and superior vena cava, emptying oxygen-poor blood from the body into the right atrium.

2. As the atrium contracts, blood flows from your right atrium into your right ventricle through the open tricuspid valve.

3. When the ventricle is full, the tricuspid valve shuts. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the atria while the ventricle contracts.

4. As the ventricle contracts, blood leaves the heart through the pulmonic valve, into the pulmonary artery, and to the lungs where it is oxygenated.

The Left Side of the Heart

1. The pulmonary vein empties oxygen-rich blood from the lungs into the left atrium.

2. As the atrium contracts, blood flows from your left atrium into your left ventricle through the open mitral valve.

3. When the ventricle is full, the mitral valve shuts. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the atrium while the ventricle contracts.

4. As the ventricle contracts, blood leaves the heart through the aortic valve, into the aorta, and the body.

What is a Normal Heart Rate?

A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Generally, a lower heart rate at rest implies more efficient heart function and better cardiovascular fitness. For example, a well-trained athlete might have a normal resting heart rate closer to 40 beats per minute.

Why is Heart Health Important?

Your heart health is central to overall good health. It’s responsible for pumping nutrient-rich blood throughout your body, it supplies oxygen while removing toxins and waste. As the center of your cardiovascular system, it is vitally responsible for just about everything that gives your body life, ranging from the transportation of oxygen to the success of your immune system.

Is the Heart a Muscle?

Your heart is a muscular organ. An organ is a group of tissues that work together to perform a specific function. In the case of your heart, this function is pumping blood throughout your body. Additionally, the heart is largely made up of a type of muscle tissue called cardiac muscle. This muscle contracts when your heart beats, allowing blood to pump through your body.

What is a Heart Attack?

A heart attack occurs when the flow of blood to the heart is severely reduced or blocked. The blockage is usually due to a buildup of fat, cholesterol, and other substances in the heart (coronary) arteries. The fatty, cholesterol-containing deposits are called plaques. The process of plaque buildup is called atherosclerosis. Sometimes, a plaque can rupture and form a clot that blocks blood flow. A lack of blood flow can damage or destroy part of the heart muscle. A heart attack is also called a myocardial infarction.

What is Heart Disease?

Heart disease is a variety of issues that can affect your heart. When people think about heart disease, they often think of the most common type — coronary artery disease (CAD) and the heart attacks it can cause. But you can have trouble with different parts of your heart, like your heart muscle, valves, or electrical system. When your heart isn’t working well, it has trouble sending enough blood, oxygen, and nutrients to your body. In a way, your heart delivers the fuel that keeps your body’s systems running. If there’s a problem with delivering that fuel, it affects everything your body’s systems do. Lifestyle changes and medications can keep your heart healthy and lower your chances of getting heart disease.

What is Heart Failure?

Heart failure is a lifelong condition in which the heart muscle can't pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen. The heart can’t keep up with its workload. Congestive heart failure is a type of heart failure that requires timely medical attention, although sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably. Heart failure is a serious condition, and usually, there’s no cure. However many people with heart failure lead a full, enjoyable life when the condition is managed with heart failure medications and a healthy lifestyle. It’s also helpful to have the support of family and friends who understand your condition.

What are Heart Palpitations?

Heart palpitations are feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart. Stress, exercise, medication, or, rarely, a medical condition can trigger them. Although heart palpitations can be worrisome, they're usually harmless. Rarely, heart palpitations can be a symptom of a more serious heart condition, such as an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), that might require treatment.

What is Congestive Heart Failure?

Congestive heart failure, or heart failure, is a long-term condition in which your heart can’t pump blood well enough to meet your body’s needs. Your heart is still working. But because it can’t handle the amount of blood it should, blood builds up in other parts of your body. Most of the time, it collects in your lungs, legs, and feet. Think of it like a shipping department that can’t keep up with getting all the shipments where they need to go. The shipping department is always running behind and things pile up. When things pile up, they cause issues.

The Heart Anatomy

The heart weighs between 7 and 15 ounces (200 to 425 grams) and is a little larger than the size of your fist. By the end of a long life, a person’s heart may have beat (expanded and contracted) more than 3.5 billion times. Each day, the average heart beats 100,000 times, pumping about 2,000 gallons (7,571 liters) of blood.

Your heart is located between your lungs in the middle of your chest, behind, and slightly to the left of your breastbone (sternum). A double-layered membrane called the pericardium surrounds your heart like a sac. The outer layer of the pericardium surrounds the roots of your heart’s major blood vessels and is attached by ligaments to your spinal column, diaphragm, and other parts of your body. The inner layer of the pericardium is attached to the heart muscle. A coating of fluid separates the two layers of the membrane, letting the heart move as it beats.

Your heart has 4 chambers. The upper chambers are called the left and right atria, and the lower chambers are called the left and right ventricles. A wall of muscle called the septum separates the left and right atria and the left and right ventricles. The left ventricle is the largest and strongest chamber in your heart. The left ventricle’s chamber walls are only about a half-inch thick, but they have enough force to push blood through the aortic valve and into your body.

The 4 Heart Valves

Four valves regulate blood flow through your heart:

1. The tricuspid valve regulates blood flow between the right atrium and right ventricle.

2. The pulmonary valve controls blood flow from the right ventricle into the pulmonary arteries, which carry blood to your lungs to pick up oxygen.

3. The mitral valve lets oxygen-rich blood from your lungs pass from the left atrium into the left ventricle.

4. The aortic valve opens the way for oxygen-rich blood to pass from the left ventricle into the aorta, your body’s largest artery.

How the Heart Works

As the heart beats, it pumps blood through a system of blood vessels, called the circulatory system. The vessels are elastic tubes that carry blood to every part of the body. Blood is essential. In addition to carrying fresh oxygen from the lungs and nutrients to your body's tissues, it also takes the body's waste products, including carbon dioxide, away from the tissues. This is necessary to sustain life and promote the health of all the body's tissues. There are three main types of blood vessels:

1. Arteries. They begin with the aorta, the large artery leaving the heart. Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart to all of the body's tissues. They branch several times, becoming smaller and smaller as they carry blood farther from the heart.

2. Capillaries. These are small, thin blood vessels that connect the arteries and the veins. Their thin walls allow oxygen, nutrients, carbon dioxide, and other waste products to pass to and from our organ's cells.

3. Veins. These are blood vessels that take blood back to the heart; this blood lacks oxygen (oxygen-poor) and is rich in waste products that are to be excreted or removed from the body. Veins become larger and larger as they get closer to the heart. The superior vena cava is the large vein that brings blood from the head and arms to the heart, and the inferior vena cava brings blood from the abdomen and legs into the heart.

Common Conditions and Disorders that Affect Your Heart

Heart conditions are among the most common types of disorders. In the United States, heart disease is the leading cause of death. Common conditions that affect your heart include:

1. Arrhythmia: A heartbeat that’s too fast, too slow, or beats with an irregular rhythm.

2. Cardiomyopathy: Unusual thickening, enlargement, or stiffening of your heart muscle.

3. Congestive heart failure: Your heart is too stiff or too weak to properly pump blood throughout your body.

4. Coronary artery disease: Plaque buildup that leads to narrow coronary arteries.

5. Diabetes: Your blood sugar is higher than it should be.

6. Heart attack (myocardial infarction): A sudden coronary artery blockage that cuts off oxygen to part of your heart muscle.

7. Heart valve disease: A valve in your heart isn’t working right.

8. High blood pressure: Your blood is pushing too hard against your artery walls.

9. High cholesterol: Your blood has too many fats in it.

10. Pericarditis: Inflammation in your heart’s lining (pericardium).

Common Signs or Symptoms of Heart Conditions

Symptoms of heart conditions include:

1. Chest pain.

2. Heart palpitations.

3. Dizziness.

4. Shortness of breath.

5. Fatigue.

6. Swelling in your lower body.

How to Check Your Heart Rate

According to the Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Diseases of the Heart, it's easy to check your pulse using just your fingers, either at the wrist or the side of the neck.

1. At the wrist, lightly press the index and middle fingers of one hand on the opposite wrist, just below the base of the thumb.

2. At the neck, lightly press the side of the neck, just below your jawbone.

3. Count the number of beats in 15 seconds, and multiply by four. That's your heart rate.

To get the most accurate reading, you may want to repeat a few times and use the average of the three values. For a resting heart rate measurement, you should also follow these steps:

1. Do not measure your heart rate within one to two hours after exercise or a stressful event. Your heart rate can stay elevated after strenuous activities.

2. Wait an hour after consuming caffeine, which can cause heart palpitations and make your heart rate rise.

3. Do not take the reading after you have been sitting or standing for a long period, which can affect your heart rate.

You can also use different types of heart rate monitors to check your heart rate. But be aware that most have not undergone independent testing for accuracy. One option is a digital fitness tracker. The most reliable ones use a wireless sensor on a strap that you wrap around your chest. The sensor detects your pulse electronically and sends the data to a wristwatch-style receiver that displays your heart rate. Others have sensors on the back of the wristwatch itself. These sensors, which are slightly less accurate, determine your heart rate by measuring blood flow through the skin.

Various smartphone apps to check your heart rate are also available. For most of these, you place your finger on the phone's camera lens, which then detects color changes in your finger each time your heart beats.

Treadmills, elliptical machines, and other exercise equipment found in fitness centers and some home exercise rooms often feature handgrip heart rate monitors. These rely on trace amounts of sweat from your palms and the metal on the grips to detect the electric signal of your heartbeat. But experts don't recommend these to check your heart rate, as they are notoriously inaccurate.

How to Lower Heart Rate

There are several ways you can do this to help your heart stay healthy:

1. Exercise. Physical activity strengthens your heart just like other muscles in your body. It trains your heart to be more efficient so it doesn’t work as hard when you’re at rest. A walk, bicycle ride, or yoga class can all help.

2. Quit smoking. Smoking causes your arteries and veins to get smaller. This can lead to a higher heart rate. Nixing tobacco products can bring your pulse down to a healthier level.

3. Relax. Stress can send hormones like adrenaline and cortisol racing through your blood, which can raise your heart rate. Things like meditation and yoga can help lower stress levels. Over the long term, they can lower your resting heart rate, too.

4. Eat more fish. A healthy diet is the cornerstone of heart health. In addition to fruits and vegetables, which are rich in vitamins and minerals, add fish to your menu. Eating it regularly can help lower your heart rate.

Tips to Keep Heart Healthy

You can help keep your heart healthy by following the tips below:

1. Cut down on sodium. Having a diet that’s too high in sodium can contribute to high blood pressure.

2. Eat fruits and veggies. These are a good source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

3. Adjust your protein sources. Select fish, lean cuts of meat, and plant-based protein like soybeans, lentils, and nuts.

4. Add foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids to your diet. Examples include fish (salmon and mackerel), walnuts, and flaxseed oil.

5. Avoid trans fats. They can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol while lowering HDL (good) cholesterol. Trans fats are often found in things like cookies, cakes, or french fries.

6. Carefully read food labels. They can give you valuable information about calories, sodium, and fat content.

7. Exercise. Try to do aerobic exercise for 30 minutes most days of the week.

8. Stop smoking. Also, try to stay away from secondhand smoke.

9. Avoid sitting for long periods. If you have to sit for long periods during a job or travel, be sure to get up occasionally to stretch and move around.

10. Sleep well. Try to get seven to eight hours of sleep each night. People who don’t get enough sleep may be at risk for cardiovascular disease.

Foods to Eat to Have a Healthy Heart

These foods are the foundation of a heart-healthy eating plan.

A. Vegetables such as leafy greens (spinach, collard greens, kale, cabbage), broccoli, and carrots.

B. Fruits such as apples, bananas, oranges, pears, grapes, and prunes.

C. Whole grains such as plain oatmeal, brown rice, and whole-grain bread or tortillas.

D. Fat-free or low-fat dairy foods such as milk, cheese, or yogurt.

E. Protein-rich foods:

1. 1. Fish high in omega-3 fatty acids (salmon, tuna, and trout)

2. 2. Lean meats such as 95% lean ground beef pork tenderloin skinless chicken or turkey

3. 3. Eggs

4. 4. Nuts, seeds, and soy products (tofu)

5. 5. Legumes such as kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, and lima beans

F. Oils and foods high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats:

1. 1. Canola, corn, olive, safflower, sesame, sunflower, and soybean oils (not coconut or palm oil)

2. 2. Nuts such as walnuts, almonds, and pine nuts

3. 3. Nut and seed butter

4. 4. Salmon and trout

5. 5. Seeds (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, or flax)

6. 6. Avocados

7. 7. Tofu

Foods to Avoid for Heart Health

Just as certain foods can benefit your heart health and lower your risk of heart disease, some foods, such as those with high levels of sodium (salt), saturated fat, added sugars, and alcohol should be avoided to protect heart health. Poor diet quality is associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. The AHA recommends avoiding these foods for ideal heart health:

- high-fat dairy products

- fatty meats

- processed meats

- tropical oils and partially hydrogenated fats

- processed foods

- foods and beverages with added sugars

- food high in sodium

- alcohol.

How to Find the Right Heart Health Specialist Near Me

It takes some time and research, but it’s worth it to find a doctor who meets your needs. Here are some steps to get you started:

1. Ask your primary care provider. Share your needs and preferences for a cardiologist with your primary care provider. They should be able to identify some cardiologists who may be a good fit for you.

2. Do your research. You can find out about local cardiologists online, through friends and family, and by contacting hospitals in your area. It can be tempting to rely solely on an online search for names, but that may not always provide the information you need to find a great cardiologist. Hospitals often will have bios online for specialists, so you can learn some information about local cardiologists in advance. For example, you may want to consider the cardiologist’s location, specialties, or languages spoken.

3. Check with your insurance company. If you have health insurance, you likely will want to work with a cardiologist who is covered under your plan.

4. Don’t choose a specialist just because everyone claims they are the best. The best heart health specialist for them may not be the best one for you.

Sources:

Cleveland Clinic

Wikipedia

Texas Heart

WebMD

Mayo Clinic

Heart

Health Harvard

Healthline

NIH

Go Red for Women

Phelps Memorial