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Heart problems and cardiovascular health
Atrial fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation (when part of the heart ‘quivers’ rather than beating normally) could lead to a stroke. Know the symptoms and decrease your risk.
Understanding chest pain
Chest pain is any sort of pain felt in your upper body, from your jaw and shoulders down to your ribs. Find out the facts and when to be concerned.
Heart attack
Acting fast when you notice the warning signs of a heart attack could save your life – or someone else's. Here's how to recognise the symptoms.
Heart palpitations
If you become suddenly aware of your heartbeat, especially if it’s faster or harder, you could be having palpitations. Learn how to ease the symptoms.
High blood pressure
High blood pressure affects around 1 in 3 Australian adults, so it's important to know your risk of hypertension and how to prevent it.
Is your blood pressure healthy?
High blood pressure is common and often has no symptoms. Read these tips for keeping your blood pressure under control.
How to lower your cholesterol
High cholesterol levels increase your risk of heart disease and stroke - here's how you can help lower the level of cholesterol in your blood.
Low blood pressure
Although low blood pressure (hypotension) is better than high, it could signal an underlying condition. Consult your doctor if you have hypotension.
Peripheral vascular disease
Peripheral vascular disease refers to diseases of arteries outside the heart and brain, mainly in the legs and feet. Find out how to prevent it.
Stroke
A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted. Learning the 'F.A.S.T.' test for stroke can save a person's life.
Tachycardia
Tachycardia is a condition where the heart beats at a faster rate than normal (usually more than 100 beats per minute).
Need more information?
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Top results
Heart procedures and devices | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
What is a heart health check? | The Heart Foundation
A heart health check is the best way to know if you're at risk of heart disease. Get information on what happens at a heart health check and what questions you should ask your doctor.
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Heart attack stories | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Heart attack support | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Common heart attack questions | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Get heart attack recovery emails | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Active living | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Get active | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Women's stories | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Sit less | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Top results
Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection | The Heart Foundation
The Heart Foundation saves lives and improves health through funding world-class cardiovascular research, guidelines for health professionals, informing the public and assisting people with cardiovascular disease
Read more on Heart Foundation website
Reduced dietary salt for the prevention of cardiovascular disease | Cochrane
Cardiovascular disease includes heart attacks and strokes and is a major cause of premature death and disability. This is an update of a review first published in 2011. This review sets out to assess whether intensive support and encouragement to cut down on salt in foods, and substituting low-sodium salt, reduces the risk of death or cardiovascular disease. This update includes two new studies and eliminates one problematic study, giving a total of eight trials with 7284 participants.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Adenosine-diphosphate (ADP) receptor antagonists for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus | Cochrane
Adenosine-diphosphate (ADP) receptor antagonists for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Tools for implementing rheumatic heart disease control programmes: TIPS Handbook | Rheumatic Heart Disease Australia
The TIPS Handbook provides a resource for people and places contemplating a rheumatic heart disease control programme.
Read more on RHDAustralia website
Burden of Disease | Rheumatic Heart Disease Australia
The global burden of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease declined dramatically during the 20th century, mainly due to improved living conditions and better access to health services. The introduction of penicillin in the 1950s and 1960s also meant that people could be treated effectively for streptococcal infections, thus reducing the potential for rheumatic fever.
Read more on RHDAustralia website
Ganoderma lucidum mushroom (lingzhi/reishi) for treating cardiovascular risk factors | Cochrane
Cardiovascular disease is the name given to any disease, such as heart attack or stroke, that affects the heart and circulatory system (which moves blood around the body). Risk factors for cardiovascular diseases include high blood pressure, and high levels in the blood of glucose and cholesterol. People with cardiovascular risk factors are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people without them.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Tai Chi to prevent cardiovascular disease | Cochrane
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a group of conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels that are a worldwide health burden. However, it is thought that CVD risk can be lowered by changing a number of modifiable behaviours including increasing levels of exercise, and relaxation to reduce stress levels, and both of these comprise tai chi. This review assessed the effectiveness of tai chi interventions for healthy adults and adults at high risk of CVD at reducing cardiovascular death, all-cause death, non-fatal endpoints (such as heart attacks, strokes and angina) and CVD risk factors.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Fibrates for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke | Cochrane
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of fibrates for the prevention of major events including heart attacks, strokes, and circulatory disease death in people with existing circulatory disease.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Dietary advice for reducing cardiovascular risk | Cochrane
Diet is an important determinant of chronic disease risk, particularly heart disease. This review assessed the effects of providing dietary advice to healthy adults in order to produce sustained improvements in their diets. Whether dietary improvement would reduce the risk factors associated with heart disease was also examined. We found 44 trials in which healthy adults were randomly assigned to receive dietary advice or no dietary advice. The dietary improvements recommended to the people in the intervention groups centred largely on the reduction of salt and fat intake and an increase in the intake of fruit, vegetables and fibre. Advice was delivered in a variety of ways, including one-to-one contact, group sessions and written materials. There were variations in intensity of the intervention, ranging from one contact per study participant to 50 hours of counselling over four years. The duration of the trials ranged from three months to four years, with a median follow-up period of 12 months. There was some evidence of greater effectiveness in people told that they were at risk of heart disease or cancer. Modest improvements were shown in cardiovascular risk factors, such as blood pressure and total and LDL-cholesterol levels. In the trials that separated effects by gender, women tended to make larger reductions in fat intake but there was insufficient evidence to show whether this translated to a larger reduction in total cholesterol levels. Two trials followed people up 10 to 15 years after the end of the trials and showed that the beneficial changes in cardiovascular risk factors may have resulted in a reduced incidence of heart disease, stroke or heart attack, although more evidence is needed to confirm this.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Flu vaccines for preventing cardiovascular disease | Cochrane
Flu infection may make cardiovascular disease (e.g. heart attack, stroke) and associated death more likely, and flu vaccination may reduce this risk. We included randomised studies comparing people receiving flu vaccine with those receiving no vaccine (placebo or no treatment). For this review update, we found eight trials studying 12,029 participants. Four of these studies examined patients with known heart disease (1682 participants), and the other four focused on the general population or elderly people (10,347 participants). The general population studies reported cardiovascular disease outcomes as part of their safety analyses, but the numbers of cases were too few to allow a judgement on whether flu vaccination was protective in these populations, and no differences were seen between groups. Overall, studies in people with heart disease suggest that flu vaccination may reduce death as a result of cardiovascular disease and may reduce combined cardiovascular disease events (such as heart attacks, strokes, necessity for bypass operations, etc.). However, these studies were small and had some risk of bias, so larger studies of better quality are needed to confirm the results.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
