ARTICLES RELATED TO:
Cardiology

When Jill’s third child, Emmy, was born with a hole in her heart, Jill wasn’t too worried. Her two older sons also had the condition—called Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)—and theirs had cleared up over time. In children with ASD, blood recirculates inside the heart, and doesn’t reach the rest of the body as well as it should. Dr. Mary Mehta, Pediatric Cardiologist at Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Pensacola, worked with the family to track Emmy’s condition. It didn’t improve, and it soon became clear that Emmy would need complex and invasive surgery to repair the hole in her heart. When Emmy was just three years old, the right side of her heart began to enlarge, presenting more risks: asthma-like symptoms and other coronary issues.  It was time to prepare for open heart surgery. Emmy’s family met with Dr. Peter Wearden, Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Nemours Cardiac Center at Nemours Children’s Hospital […]

February is Heart Month, a time when we traditionally hear many messages about adults at risk for heart disease. Now it’s time to focus this message toward kids, as medical research has shown that cardiovascular disease has its roots in childhood. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in five U.S. teens have abnormal cholesterol. This means either their good cholesterol (HDL) is too low or their bad cholesterol (LDL and triglycerides) is too high. As a parent, you may not be thinking about what cholesterol means for your kids. But with the dramatic increase in childhood obesity, more and more kids are at risk. Obesity can not only cause abnormal cholesterol, it can lead to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke. So, here are four steps you can start taking — today — to help keep your kids’ hearts healthier […]