Hypertension

If you're worried about high blood pressure, a new systematic review of scientific evidence has good news: Changing your diet really can make a difference. Not surprisingly, the most effective diet for reducing hypertension was one designed specifically for that purpose - the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) plan. But other interventions, including cutting salt and calories, also were associated with blood-pressure benefits.

The popular notion - reflected in doctors' advice and clinical guidelines - that caffeine can cause your heart to "skip a beat" is probably wrong. A new study, the first of its kind to actually monitor participants' hearts over a 24-hour span, concludes that frequent caffeine consumption is not associated with premature heart contractions or disturbances of the hearts electrical rhythm.

Eating eggs occasionally probably wont raise your risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure. That's the latest good news for egg lovers from a Swedish study following two large groups of men and women for 13 years.

If youre worried about getting too much sodium from salt in your diet, a new globe-spanning study reports you should have company among 99% of the worlds population. Daily sodium consumption in the 66 countries studied averaged 3,950 milligrams-nearly twice the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). That excess sodium intake, researchers estimated, contributes to about 1.65 million deaths a year worldwide from cardiovascular causes.

When the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association released new guidelines for preventing cardiovascular disease in November, the headlines all focused on their controversial recommendations for statin use. Almost lost in the coverage was another set of ACC/AHA recommendations, which looked at diet and physical activity rather than drugs for reducing cardiovascular risk. Whether your physician has prescribed statin medications or not, these Lifestyle Management Guidelines can help protect your heart.

Tufts research finds regular yogurt eaters are 31% less likely to develop hypertension.

Study finds sugar-sweetened beverages increase womens heart risk factors, regardless of weight gain. Women who drink two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day may be increasing their cardiovascular risk

A daily handful of nuts might help some people feel better and control their hunger

Get up off the couch, go for a walk, and youll be less likely to have problems with peripheral artery disease (PAD)

So-called white-coat hypertension, where blood-pressure readings are higher in the doctors office than elsewhere, may be responsible for more than a third of cases classified as resistant hypertension