As you may know, The Cardio Blog is being retired today. It's been an honor to write for this blog, and I hope that the information we brought to you was useful and informative. Since this will be my last post for The Cardio Blog, I thought I'd write about a topic that is near and dear to my heart (pun, lamely, intended): women's heart health.

We've seen it in the headlines again and again -- women, and often their doctors, don't always prioritize their health, and this seems to be especially an issue when it comes to heart health. But the fact is that heart disease is public enemy number one for women, and we all need to better understand and deal with our risk factors.

So I'll leave you with this post from Her Daily News. In it, they talk about Heart Truth, the National Institute of Health's campaign to bring heart education to women. They also include a checklist of questions to take to your doctor, as well as a list to help you understand your own risk. Do yourself -- and your heart -- a favor today and read through the questions to determine if you need to do more to protect your health.

Thanks for reading The Cardio Blog, and don't forget to come visit us at That's Fit for all of the latest news in health and fitness!

As consumers, we compare the prices, efficiency, and reliability of many products before buying. Now it's possible to compare the quality of the hospital you use for your heart care needs. The U.S. government recently finished ranking U.S. hospitals based on their treatment of heart failure and heart attacks. The good news is that most of the 4,700 health centers met the national average for patient care, and you can now go online to see how hospitals in your area ranked.

The new website lists mortality rates for each hospital and how they compare to the national average. Besides ranking hospitals, U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services -- the organization behind the project -- also offers programs to help hospitals who rank poorly improve the quality of their services.

The new service highlights a change in direction for Medicare. Michael Leavitt, Secretary of U.S. DHHS, says that the service is important "because for most of its history, Medicare has been paying for services, but not paying for results." Experts are hopeful that this will help patients find the hospital that best fits their needs and will give health care centers an extra "push" to improve their care. If you'd like to read more, Brian wrote about the online service over at our health and fitness blog, That's Fit.

Have you been recently diagnosed with heart disease? If so, take a moment to check out the American Heart Association's online program Heart Profilers. A recent study found that patients who used the program were more likely to have a good understanding of their disease, were more knowledgeable about their medications, and were more likely to ask their doctors questions and discuss treatment options.

The program was especially beneficial for those dealing with conditions like coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. Knowledge is power, and both knowledge and empowerment, say experts, can reduce complications from heart disease.

Evidence produced using the HeartMath Freeze-Framer shows a link between attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cardiac arrhythmia in children. The HeartMath Freeze-Framer heart rhythm coherence feedback system is a tool to monitor real-time heart rhythm patterns. Use of this system "objectively quantifies a beneficial state known as psycho-physiological coherence," says Shari St. Martin, Ph.D. The object of working with this tool is emotional-refocusing, a skill that helps self-manage stress under any condition or circumstance. The learning process incorporates the use of specific games in conjunction with the Freeze Framer to redefine the childs coping mechanisms.

St. Martin taught HeartMath tools to ADHD students, ages 6 to 18, in Guadalajara-- in both educational and clinical settings. Upon using the Freeze-Framer system to read their heart rhythms, she discovered most of the children shared abnormal heart rhythm patterns, or cardiac arrhythmia. This evidence was then confirmed by a local cardiologist. It also points to an important mind-body connection in the manifestation of ADHD symptoms.

Since 2001, St. Martin has successfully treated 396 ADHD children using the HeartMath techniques, enabling them to self-regulate their emotions-- thus controlling their own behavior. The HeartMath tools also corrected the arrhythmia, helped boost their self-esteem, and prevented the need for medication. Though the symptoms of cardiac arrhythmia may contribute to the manifestation of ADHD behaviors, the American Psychiatric Association and its DSM-IV diagnostic criteria maintain that ADHD is not a biologically founded disorder. ADHD is viewed primarily as a result of the childs environment. Helping these children learn to emotionally cope with stress contributes to better behavior and improved health, without the use of mind-altering drugs.

A quick return to a normal heart rate after a treadmill stress test indicates how well the nervous system is functioning. Cardiac recovery patients with symptoms of depression take longer to return to their normal heart rate after such tests, reports the American Heart Journal. Patients whose heart rates take longer to recover also have a higher mortality rate.

The nervous system helps the body adjust to environmental changes and stress. It regulates blood pressure, heart rate, breathing ability, and digestion among other functions. Depressed patients are less likely to exercise, and they also have a reduced exercise capacity. Based on the study, researchers recommend treatment programs for depressed patients focusing on improving physical fitness.

Eating a diet rich in plant sterols, also known as phytosterols, will lower your cholesterol naturally. Plant sterols are most commonly found in vegetables, seeds and nuts.

Cholesterol is essential for metabolism and is safely present in all our cells. However, low density lipoprotein (LDL), found in animal products, is known as bad cholesterol because it causes arterial build-up leading to heart attacks. Plant sterols actually block the absorption of LDL, it also blocks re-absorption into the bile in the liver. This lowers the LDL levels in the blood.

Studies have shown that total cholesterol levels can be lowered 15 percent in only 2 weeks by incorporating food products that are supplemented with plant sterols (you still have to get that 30 minutes of exercise a day of course). You can find plant sterol enriched orange juice, yogurt, salad dressing and more at Corowise.com.

After super-model Christy Turlington lost her father to heart disease and lung cancer, she became a major anti-tobacco advocate. She is a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Cancer Society (ACS).

In her speech for the Society for Women's Health Research, Turlington speaks out against the tobacco industry's advertising aimed at young women. Also a former smoker, "you could say I was the ideal target for the tobacco industry: young, female, wanting to fit in, wanting to look independent, wanting to show the world that I make my own decisions. I finally quit six years ago, at the age of 26.  I gave up smoking for good, quitting cold turkey.  I couldn't stand not having control anymore," she reveals.

Turlington launched her own website SmokingIsUgly.com. You'll find the facts on the impact smoking has on your health and tips on how to quit.

You are a symphony. The heart, brain and body act in concert, listening and responding to each other in complex ways. Emotions conduct the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds in a constant two-way dialogue. When we experience emotions like anger, insecurity and anxiety, the heart's rhythms become erratic. These patterns are recognized by the brain as stress, creating a chain reaction in the body. Blood vessels constrict, blood pressure rises, and the immune system weakens.

The Institute of HeartMath is a research center dedicated to studying the heart and the physiology of emotions. Over 14 years of clinical studies, they have developed positive emotion-focused techniques that reduce stress and anxiety, and lower blood pressure. Research shows that harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are indicators of cardiovascular health and help prevent disease.

The Heart Lock-In Technique is a simple five-minute exercise you can do many times a days to maintain your emotional and physical well-being.

1. Shift your attention to your heart area and breathe slowly and deeply.
2. Think of someone or something that you genuinely appreciate in your life, and stay with that thought.
3. Send these warm feelings of care back to yourself and to those you love. 

Congestive heart failure (CHF), caused by the heart's inability to pump properly, often develops after heart attacks. In a CHF prevention study at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, heart attack victims will receive stem cell infusions from their own bone marrow to help build and maintain new heart muscle.

After a heat attack, the body naturally sends in stem cells to begin repair work. The study is interested in the effects of a higher number of cells at work in a specific type of patient. European research has established the success of stem cell infusions, however results were unclear due to studying too wide a range of heart attack patients.

The institute has been involved in other heart benefiting stem cell research projects, however this particular study is a first in the U.S. The study was approved by the government last year and was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health.

While on a charity trip with Heart Care International, Dr. Samuel Weinstein performed a 12-hour operation to replace an 8-year-old boy's failing aortic valve. The procedure went along successfully, with the exception that the boy was losing too much blood. The medicine used to stop the flow wasn't available during the operation in El Salvador.

As they were running out of blood to give the boy, the doctor asked about his blood type. Both the boy and Dr. Weinstein were rare B-negative. The doctor took a 20-minute break to donate a pint of blood. He returned to the operating table to watch as the transfusion helped the boy survive the complex operation. 

"It's a real team effort," he said. "I'm getting the attention because I'm the one who gave the blood, but there wasn't anybody on the team -- I mean anybody, the nurses, the clerks -- who wouldn't have done it."

Doctors and women both hold a bias that young women can't have coronary heart disease (CHD). Typically, risk rises dramatically in middle age when women's bodies stop producing estrogen. However, CHD can strike a woman as early as her late twenties. CHD develops over time, starting in the teen years. Risk dramatically drops 82 percent by making simple lifestyle changes.

According to statistics from The Heart Truth, an organization dedicated to working for women's heart health, risk factors for CHD are increasingly more common in teen girls. By age 15, 28 percent of Caucasian girls and 58 percent of African American girls report no leisure time activity. 15 percent of girls 12 to 19 are overweight. 25 percent of high school age girls report using tobacco, and women who smoke risk heart attack 19 years earlier than non–smokers. Of 8,000,000 American women who live with CHD, 10 percent are age 45 to 64. That means if you smoke, it's entirely possible to have a heart attack at 26.

Music therapy has been medically and scientifically proven to be an effective rehabilitation tool for stroke and heart attack survivors. In a study published in the American Journal of Critical Care, 45 recovering heart attack patients benefited greatly from music played in a restful environment. Appropriately selected music helps with stress reduction, and improves athletic performance and motor functioning. The patients experienced greater reductions in heart and respiratory rates, and lower blood pressure during their listening sessions.

At the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function in New York, stroke patients improve their muscle control, speech, cognition and mood by singing and playing instruments. The patients exercise many parts of their brains and bodies in these activities, and are reportedly happier.

Contrary to popular belief, the prevalence of heart disease is far greater in women than in men. Symptoms of heart problems are different in women than men, and often go undiagnosed or mistreated. 

WomenHeart, a national coalition for women's heart health, and the Society for Women's Health Research have released a groundbreaking new report on women's heart disease research. The 10 Q Report surveyed cardiovascular experts asking them to identify the top ten unanswered research questions. 

The goal of the report is to advance women's health through improved research, diagnosis and treatment. These top ten answers could cut the number of women who die of heart disease in half over the next decade. The report outlines a research agenda to give doctors the facts they need to properly treat the disease.

I'm always on the hunt for quality heart disease-realted websites. You know I think highly of the American Heart Association site, but I think I found another one, Heart Center Online for Patients.

It's part of a network of sites called HealthCentersOnline, which provides healthcare information on the Internet for patients and their families. According to the site, they "have helped more than 10 million people understand the complex nature of their condition, diagnostic tests, treatment options and preventive care." The site provides consumers with the "most accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date physician-edited information in a format that is easy to understand and access."