Heart Blips Edition 

Living longer is important, but those years need to be healthy ones (Science Daily) 

Data reported by the American Heart Association (AHA) show heart disease and stroke deaths continue to decline, but that trend has slowed significantly in recent years. With more people are living in poor health – beginning at a younger age – as a direct result of risk factors that contribute to these leading causes of death worldwide,  AHA published a presidential advisory outlining new national and global 2030 Impact Goals to help all people live healthier for more years of their life. More... 

Our bodies are chronically in "threat mode"— but being kind recalibrates our nervous system (Big Think) 

Kindness is a virtue that is admired and applauded, in most cases. But did you know that being kind can also be good for your health? In fact, being compassionate to others can actually reset our consistently stressed systems back into our default "rest mode." According to Dr. James Doty, Stanford professor, the nervous system doesn't function optimally if it's in threat mode all the time. And yet, our adrenaline-fueled, "on-the-go" lifestyles have us operating mainly in threat mode, which can be one of the reasons we contract a variety of different illnesses. More... 

Podcast | What's new in heart research? (Cleveland Clinic) 

People often ask what’s the latest heart research? Dr. Steven Nissen, Chief Academic Officer, Chief Academic Officer, Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute provides a recap of 3 important studies that were presented at the 2019 American Heart Association meeting. He provides his take on the ISCHEMIA trial, the COLCOT trial and the ORION trial , three trials that may impact future care of patients with coronary artery disease. More... 

The Surprising Reason Mindfulness Makes You Happier (Psychology Today) 

Experiencing positive feelings can improve our health and quality of life. However, positive emotions are difficult to change because almost half of our happiness seems to be a function of genetic factors. Nevertheless, some practices have been shown to increase positive emotions, including practicing gratitude, spending money on others, doing loving-kindness meditation, and practicing mindfulness. More... 

Why being an optimist is good for your heart (CTV) 

People who look at life from a positive perspective have a much stronger shot at avoiding death from any type of cardiovascular risk than pessimistic people, according to a new meta-analysis of nearly 300,000 people published in the medical journal JAMA. "We observed that an optimist had about a 35% lower risk of major heart complications, such as a cardiac death, stroke or a heart attack, compared to the pessimists in each of these studies," said cardiologist Dr. Alan Rozanski, a professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. More...