Cardiology 101

Your one-stop resource for the basics on heart disease and cardiology

Whether you are new to the topic of heart disease or an old pro, this is the place to find the resources you need. Check out our sections on Basic Information on the Heart and Heart Disease, Preventing Heart Disease, What You Should Know About Common Heart Problems, and Other Resources:

Basic Information on the Heart and Heart

How the heart works - a 15 minute primer
A quick primer on the heart - what the heart does and how it works.

A brief survey of common heart problems
A quick survey of the common heart problems: valvular heart disease, heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy), coronary artery disease, and heart arrhythmias.

A glossary of common terminology
Confused by all the strange lingo? Here's a plain English glossary that explains terminology commonly tossed about by heart doctors.

Symptom checker
Have symptoms? Wonder whether they may be related to the heart? Here's a list of symptoms commonly caused by heart disease, and what they might mean.

Common heart tests
An explanation of the common testing procedures used in cardiology.

What to do if you or your loved one has heart disease
Getting what you need from a hostile health care system.

Preventing Heart Disease

Assessing your own risk for heart disease
To a large extent, people can control most of the the factors that cause heart disease. To decide which risk factors to focus on, first you should compute YOUR personal cardiac risk. Here are resources for doing so.

What to do if your cardiac risk is high
If you are at high risk for heart disease, there's a lot you can do to reduce that risk. Here are some suggestions about where and how to start.

Cardiac risk factors and how to control them
Here is information on the risk factors themselves, (including cholesterol, hypertension, poor diet and obesity, smoking, diabetes or metabolic syndrome, and lack of exercise,) and what you can do about them.

Cholesterol and triglyceride disorders
High cholesterol and high triglycerides, good cholesterol and bad cholesterol - they're important but confusing. We try to straighten it all out here.

What You Should Know About Common Heart Problems

Living with coronary artery disease
Surviving and thriving after you have coronary artery disease means both you and your doctor have to do the right things. Here's what you need to know about coronary artery disease, angina, and heart attacks.

Cholesterol and triglyceride disorders
High cholesterol and high triglycerides, good cholesterol and bad cholesterol - they're important but confusing. We try to straighten it all out here.

Heart rhythm problems
primer on the cardiac arrhythmias - PVCs, atrial fibrillation, SVT, IST, and other heart arrhythmias - their causes, the symptoms they produce, and how they should be treated.

Living with heart failure
Study after study show two things: 1) receiving appropriate treatment for heart failure makes you feel better and live longer, and 2) many doctors fail to give the appropriate therapy. Here's what you need to know.

Miscellaneous topics related to heart disorders
Articles on miscellaneous topics including the dysautonomias, pericarditis, valvular heart disease, and others.

Other Resources

Frequently asked questions
Brief answers to some of the more common questions on heart disease.

Personal Stories
Read the personal stories of members of our support community.

Join our on-line support community
Join DrRich and a whole lot of other people in a continuous 5-year (so far) discussion on heart disease, health care, why your doctor doesn't have time for you any more, cats, and a lot of other topics of interest.