Blog Archive
It’s a good rule of thumb in life to find ways to reduce stress, which can greatly benefit your health and wellness. So why are we going to purposefully introduce a little bit of physical stress into your life through a stress test? Quite simply, this type of screening can...
Considering that someone has a heart attack in the United States every 40 seconds and heart disease is the leading cause of death in our country, you have every right to be concerned about this serious event. While chest pain is one of the hallmarks of a heart attack, this...
Your heart is, arguably, the hardest-working muscle in your body — it beats 60-100 times per minute, 100,000-110,000 times in one day, and about 35 million times per year. Under ideal circumstances, these heartbeats keep a steady rhythm to deliver oxygenated blood to your body. For up to 5% of...
If, like nearly half of adults in the United States, you have high blood pressure, you’ve likely heard what you need to do — exercise more, lose weight, and eat healthier. While it takes only a few words to convey these recommendations, making these lifestyle changes is no small feat. ...
Installing a pacemaker, replacing a valve, diagnosing heart disease — these are just some of the uses of cardiac catheterizations, which are among the most performed cardiac procedures in the United States — about 1 million per year. If you’re scheduled for a cardiac catheterization with board-certified cardiology specialist Dr....
Heart disease. Hearing these words is never easy, but we also want to point out that they don’t necessarily signal a point of no return. You can make adjustments to safeguard your health and prevent or slow your heart disease from becoming life-altering or life-threatening. If you want to join...
We’ve implanted a pacemaker (or we’re going to very soon) and you’re wondering what life will look like afterward. Hopefully, it will be full of improvements as we restore a regular rhythm to your heart, which is why up to 3 million Americans are living with pacemakers. At our practice, Dr. James Kim and...
Your heart feels like it skips a few beats when you’re scared, or it races after your second cup of coffee. These are examples of perfectly normal and harmless heart palpitations. If you experience ongoing heart palpitations, however, and you can’t pin down the cause, it might be time to...
As if the swelling in your lower legs wasn’t concerning enough, you’ve developed an annoying itch in the areas that are puffy. You’re probably correct in assuming that the two are related and, as cardiovascular experts, we’re going to go a step further and say the odds are fairly good...
The classic heart attack visual is someone clutching their chest, and there’s a good deal of truth to this. That said, heart attacks, which occur every 40 seconds in the United States, aren’t the only causes of chest pain. To get straight to the question of when to be concerned...
The collective heart health of our population is worrisome — about half of adults in the United States have at least one of the three biggest risk factors for heart disease: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and smoking. Considering that heart disease is the leading cause of death in our country, it’s very...
Just as orthopedists rely on an X-ray to determine whether you’ve broken a bone, cardiologists have a few critical diagnostic imaging tools in their arsenals, starting with the echocardiogram. Nearly half of adults, an alarmingly large amount, have cardiovascular disease in the United States. This prevalence also means we need to...
As cardiovascular experts, Dr. James Kim and our team feel that we should pay attention to our heart health every month. That said, February is American Heart Month in the United States, and we want to do our part to address a very important, and common, issue — hypertension. Almost...
You run up a flight of stairs or race down the street after a loose dog, and you find yourself gasping for air. This shortness of breath is temporary and well earned after your physical exertion. However, when shortness of breath comes on for no reason or it’s present more...
Every minute, your heart should beat 60-100 times so it circulates oxygenated blood throughout your body. And this heartbeat should keep a steady rhythm. When you have an abnormal rhythm in your heart, which is called an arrhythmia, complications can develop. The most common type of arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation...
Thanks to modern technology, we’re able to perform some fairly extensive cardiac procedures and diagnostics using only a catheter that we insert into a major blood vessel to access your heart. This minimally invasive approach to heart health has been a game-changer in terms of recovery, but there are still...
There’s no shortage of frightening numbers regarding cardiovascular health in the United States, starting with the fact that nearly half of Americans have heart disease. Instead of focusing on that alarming number, we want to focus on a more productive one — 90% of heart disease is preventable. When it comes to preventing...
Just as orthopedists rely on the X-ray for preliminary diagnosis, cardiologists turn to the echocardiogram (or echo, for short). This workhorse is a front-line tool for diagnosing a host of cardiovascular conditions and evaluating the function of your heart. Like all heart health experts, Dr. James Kim, who is board-certified...
It’s all well and good to evaluate your cardiovascular system while you’re sitting in our offices, but putting your body through its paces provides us with more valuable information. To do this, we place you on an exercise machine and administer a stress test, during which we monitor your cardiovascular activity....
Every time you walk into a doctor’s office, someone measures your blood pressure as a matter of course. Medical providers are so concerned with this information because hypertension, or high blood pressure, places you at a greater risk for developing some very serious, and even life-threatening, conditions. To underscore this...
True to their name, your reproductive hormones largely govern your reproductive system, but these tiny chemical messengers can cast a wide net and affect everything from your mental health to your cardiovascular health. Hormone-related heart palpitations are one example of that range. If you feel like your heart is racing, pounding, or...
Your legs routinely swell, and even become achy after you spend some time on your feet, and you want to put that spring back in your step. You’ve heard that compression stockings may be able to help, and you want to know more. To shed some light, cardiologist Dr. James...
You need to know about two statistics surrounding the state of cardiovascular health in the United States. First, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming nearly 700,000 lives each year. Second, 1 in 3 of these deaths is preventable; this is the statistic we want to focus on....
If you’re one of the 6.5 million people, age 40 or over, in the United States who has peripheral artery disease (PAD), there’s good news and bad. The bad news is that you can’t reverse PAD, but the good news is that there are steps you can take to keep...
Every time you enter a doctor’s office, one of the first things they do is slide a cuff onto your arm and measure your blood pressure as part of their vitals check. It would be no exaggeration to say that this quick, easy, and painless cardiovascular assessment tool can save...
It would be difficult to overstate the seriousness and prevalence of cardiovascular disease in the United States — nearly half of adults have some form of cardiovascular disease, and heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death. In our efforts to bring these numbers down, fellowship-trained cardiologist Dr. James...
You go out for a run and come back winded, gasping for air. Or, you simply walk from one room to another and you’re breathless. These two examples of shortness of breath are vastly different, and the second of the two might signal a serious heart-related issue. To help you...
When you want to truly evaluate the function of something, you put it through its paces. This is exactly what stress testing does in evaluating the most important organ in your body — your heart. At James Kim Cardiology, Dr. Kim provides extensive cardiovascular screening to our patients so we...
Nearly half of adults in the United States have hypertension, or high blood pressure, which means they’re in danger of developing some very serious, and even life-threatening, cardiovascular conditions, such as heart attack and stroke. While our goal isn’t to worry you unnecessarily, Dr. James Kim and our team of...
It’s hot out, you’re pregnant, or you’re on a plane — leg swelling is perfectly normal in these and other circumstances. Ongoing issues with swollen lower limbs and feet, however, could signal a problem with your cardiovascular system. To help you determine whether the swelling in your legs may be...
Your cardiovascular system begins with your heart, but then branches out to reach almost every area of your body, which can make it difficult to recognize a problem along this vast network. Still, there are often signs of a brewing problem if you know what to look out for. To...
You finish climbing several flights of stairs and your heart feels like it’s going to burst out of your chest. It’s a perfectly natural feeling, given the effort. However, ongoing heart palpitations that occur during unexpected moments could be the sign of something more serious. To help you make sense...
We’re going to begin with a sobering fact about hypertension so you understand the importance of controlling this condition — high blood pressure is listed as the primary or contributing cause of nearly half a million deaths each year in the United States. Dr. James Kim understands this statistic better...
You’re experiencing symptoms that may be heart-related, and we want to take a closer look at the function of this all-important organ using an echocardiogram, or EKG. While you may be nervous about undergoing a diagnostic test, Dr. James Kim and our team want to assure you that an echocardiogram...
Approximately 93 million adults over the age of 20 in the United States have total cholesterol numbers over 200 mg/dL, which is elevated, and 12% of adults have numbers that top 240 mg/dL. Qualifying as having bad cholesterol can mean any number of things, including not having enough “good” cholesterol...
You tuck into that juicy burger, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you remember that you should watch what you eat when it comes to red meat. The link between red and processed meats and negative effects on your heart health has been firmly established as a general...
When it comes to high cholesterol, the numbers paint a grim picture in the United States. Approximately 93 million adults ages 20 and older have combined cholesterol numbers over 200 mg/dL, and 12% of this same age group have numbers that reach above 240. Thankfully, more than half of adults...
It’s all well and good for us to monitor your heart while you’re sitting in our exam room, but this paints only a partial picture. For example, if you experience cardiovascular symptoms when you’re on the move, we want to evaluate your heart function during these more active moments. To...
While swelling in your legs after a long day on your feet is quite normal, as are leg cramps after you exercise, ongoing problems with these symptoms may signal something larger, such as a cardiovascular issue. To help you determine whether there’s any cause for concern, the team here at...
Consider this: Almost half of Americans have high blood pressure, and only one-quarter have the problem under control. There are many reasons for these staggering numbers, including stress, which is at an all-time high for many of us these days thanks to current events. At James Kim Cardiology, Dr. Kim...
There are times when slight pains in your chest occur for various reasons, and they are nothing to be concerned with, but how do you know for sure? Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that over 7 million people seek attention in an emergency room for...