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But living on a salt-restricted diet can be a challenge. “It’s really hard to know how much sodium is in food because you don’t see it,” explained Kathleen Turner, a registered dietitian with the Division of Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation at the Ottawa Heart Institute. “It just disappears

In 2016, the first Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit marked the only national gathering focused on women’s heart health in over 15 years. Now, as planning for the 2018 Summit moves into full swing, the organizers have published a summary of the results from the 2016 event in the Canadian Journal

Broadly speaking, Canadians at risk for a heart attack know they need to improve their physical health. But not all do. In a recent study of residents of six Canadian provinces, almost one in five people with the highest cardiac risk did not think they needed to make any lifestyle changes to improve

The Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation at the Ottawa Heart Institute is home to a variety of evidence-based wellness programs, inpatient and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation, the widely adopted Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation and an active research program. On May 1, 2017, Thais Coutinho

Whether you live in a large urban centre with frequent smog advisories or in a more rural setting, the air you breathe can pose significant risks for developing cardiovascular distress and disease. While children, the elderly and those with diabetes, lung disease or existing heart conditions are

Clinical trials, medical studies performed on people, are held to high standards. The researchers running them endeavour to include a diverse group of participants, both men and women. Trial participants are randomly assigned to the treatments being compared, and trial staff measuring the outcomes

Being a patient can be confusing and overwhelming. There can be a lot of new information to absorb at a time when patients are not feeling their best. Decisions are often necessary and the implications of those choices may not be clear. Recovery can involve following detailed instructions or making

The next time you stub your toe so hard it becomes red and swollen, consider the fact that you are witnessing one of life’s original defensive manoeuvres. When ancient Earth was populated only by microscopic, single-celled organisms, if one of them preyed upon another the only result was death. But

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are used for a variety of indications, but in all cases, their function is the same—to deliver an electrical shock to the heart when they detect an erratic heart rhythm, known as a ventricular arrhythmia. An ICD is surgically implanted, as the name

After five years as a post-doctoral fellow at New York University, former Ottawa Heart Institute trainee Mireille Ouimet, PhD, has returned to the Institute to lead the new Cardiovascular Metabolism and Cell Biology Laboratory. Her team will focus on understanding how defects in a cellular process