Your heart is one of the most important organs in your body because it does a very important job: pump blood through your body. As blood pumps in and out of the heart, a sound can be detected made up of two beats. Sometimes, another sound can interrupt the normal beating of the heart. This is called a heart murmur. A heart murmur is a different than a heart beat, typically sounding similar to a “whooshing” noise. A doctor can detect a heart murmur through a stethoscope. Although it may sound ... [Read More]
echocardiogram
Diagnosing Structural Problems in The Heart: Echocardiograms and Your Heart Valves
Could You Have Heart Disease, and Not Know About It? If you have been experiencing fatigue, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, leg cramping, or chest pain/tightness, you could have a heart condition and should see your doctor for evaluation. About 60 million people, or 20 to 25 percent of adults in the United States, suffer from structural heart defects. These heart defects include diseases of the heart valves (valvular). What Is Structural Heart Valve Disease (SHD)? Heart valves ... [Read More]
Why Would Your Doctor Request an Echocardiogram?
Cardiovascular or heart health is an important medical topic that should not be taken lightly, but rather seriously. Did you know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women? To put it in perspective, approximately 610,000 people in the United States die from heart disease or heart related issues annually, which equates to one in every four deaths. So, when your doctor recommends certain diagnostic scans such as an echocardiogram, it’s time to get serious about your heart ... [Read More]
What Your Heart Is Trying to Tell You: Should You Get An Echocardiogram?
The heart and its beat are what keeps us alive. It happens to be the hardest working muscle in the human body. At an average rate of 80 times a minute, the heart beats about 115,000 times every day, or in a year, about 42 million times. A normal healthy heart beat is 60 to 100 beats per minute, or BPM. The job of the heart in the cardiovascular system is to pump and circulate oxygen and nutrient filled blood to the body’s organs, tissues, and cells through the passage of blood vessels. In ... [Read More]