by cardiopulmonarydiagnostic | Aug 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
More than 30 million American adults have heart disease. The term “heart disease” includes conditions that affect blood vessels, heart valves, heart rhythms, and your heart muscle itself.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease in the United States, but every type can have serious impacts on your health. In fact, nearly 660,000 people in the US die from heart disease every year, and it’s the leading cause of death in the country.
Receiving a heart disease diagnosis is serious. There’s no cure for it, and having heart disease increases your risk of complications like heart attack, stroke, and heart failure.
The good news? There’s still a lot you can do to improve your health, even after you’re diagnosed with heart disease. Kunal Patel, MD, and our team at NJ Cardiovascular Institute offer comprehensive heart disease care with our Heart Smart Program.
When you’re living with heart disease, your daily habits can make a big difference for your health. Here are the lifestyle changes to start making for better heart health.
Get regular exercise
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week. Regular exercise helps your heart get stronger. It can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and over time, it contributes to lower risk of heart disease complications.
Your workouts don’t have to be intense for you to get the heart-health benefits. Strive for at least 30 minutes of movement most days a week. Try a variety of activities, like walking, biking, or swimming, to see what you enjoy the most.
Eat a healthy diet
Did you know the food you eat affects your heart health? It’s true! When you have heart disease, eating a heart-healthy diet can lower your risk of complications.
We recommend eating a diet that’s low fat and low sodium. That means eating mostly fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein, like chicken and fish. Limit your consumption of red meats, and steer totally clear of processed foods that are high in trans fats.
Limit your alcohol intake or consider avoiding alcoholic beverages completely. Don’t start smoking, and if you do smoke, talk to our team about ways to quit.
Partner with your cardiology care team
Taking a proactive approach to your health care is important if you’re living with heart disease. Our Heart Smart Program combines diagnostic tests, routine screenings, checkups, and healthy lifestyle programs to help you manage your heart disease and lower your risk of complications.
We teach you how to eat a heart-healthy diet, and we offer exercise regimen planning. Through diet and exercise coordination, we can help you reach a healthy weight and maintain it.
You should know your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels, and we help you take steps to keep them in healthy ranges.
We also work with you to manage other chronic conditions that can increase your risk of heart disease, including:
Diabetes
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Maintaining regular cardiology appointments is one of the best ways to ensure you’re enjoying your best possible health when you have heart disease. Dr. Patel and our team may prescribe medication and a range of other treatments, depending on the type of heart disease you have.
Recently diagnosed with heart disease and not sure where to start? We’re here for you. Schedule your first appointment online or call the NJ Cardiovascular Institute location nearest you today.
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by cardiopulmonarydiagnostic | Aug 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
One American dies from heart disease every 36 seconds. It’s the leading cause of death in the United States, and it impacts men and women of every race.
Heart disease, also called cardiovascular disease, is a group of conditions that impact your heart’s ability to do its job. It develops when your blood vessels get narrow or blocked, making your heart work harder to send blood throughout your body.
Having heart disease increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, and death — but the symptoms and warning signs of these conditions are often different in men and women. If you’re a woman, it’s important to learn more about your heart and how to take care of it throughout your life.
Kunal Patel, MD, and our team at NJ Cardiovascular Institute partner with women of all ages to promote heart health. We specialize in diagnosing and treating heart disease, and today we’re taking a closer look at things every woman needs to know about her heart health.
Your risk for heart disease
Heart disease is very common, but it doesn’t always have obvious warning signs. To protect your heart health, it’s important to learn your risk of developing heart disease and check in with your doctor regularly.
Some factors increase your risk of heart disease, no matter your gender. These risk factors are:
Sedentary lifestyle
Poor diet
Obesity
Older age
High cholesterol
High blood pressure
Tobacco use
Family history of heart disease
Some risk factors carry more weight depending on your gender and could contribute to heart disease more often in women than in men. If you’re a woman, some factors that could make you more likely to develop heart disease are:
Depression
Stress
Sedentary lifestyle
Tobacco use
Pregnancy complications
Being postmenopausal
If you have risk factors for heart disease, schedule a cardiology consultation at NJ Cardiovascular Institute. Dr. Patel specializes in comprehensive evaluations to test for heart disease and personalized treatment plans to boost your well-being.
Signs of heart conditions in women vs. men
Having heart disease increases your risk of experiencing a life-threatening heart condition like heart attack or stroke. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of women who die from heart disease had no obvious symptoms beforehand.
Heart disease and other heart conditions often go undiagnosed in women, and cardiac emergencies can cause different symptoms in women than in men.
The signs of heart attack in women may include:
Aching chest pain
Cold sweat
Dizziness
Heavy sensation in chest
Nausea
Sharp pain in abdomen, neck, jaw, or upper back
Shortness of breath
Unexplained fatigue
The signs of stroke in women can include:
Blurred vision
Difficulty speaking or understanding
Difficulty walking or standing
Numbness in face, arms, or legs
Sudden, severe headache
Learning to recognize the signs of heart attack and stroke in women could help save your life or the life of someone close to you. Seek immediate medical attention or call 911 if you or someone you know experiences these symptoms.
Ways to keep your heart healthy
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among American women, but there’s a lot you can do to protect your heart and improve your health. Dr. Patel and our team work with you to identify risk factors that you can change, like your activity level, diet, and tobacco use.
Our Heart Smart Program is here to help you learn ways to improve your wellness. Depending on your health, we recommend regular exercise and healthy eating to help you reach or maintain a healthy weight.
If you have an underlying condition like high blood pressure, managing it can help lower your risk of developing complications. Proactively addressing other health concerns, including stress levels, can also help lower your risk of long-term heart problems.
Keep up with regular doctor’s appointments and primary care visits. Even if you don’t have signs of a heart condition now, preventive care is the best way to identify and address changes before they get worse.
As a woman, you should never overlook your heart health. Schedule an appointment with us at one of our four New Jersey offices. Book online or over the phone today.
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by cardiopulmonarydiagnostic | Aug 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
by cardiopulmonarydiagnostic | Aug 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
When it comes to heart health, knowledge is power. One important measure is how well your heart functions when it’s working hard — and a stress test is a noninvasive diagnostic procedure that measures your heart’s response to physical activity or simulated exercise.
By monitoring your heart rate, blood pressure, and electrical activity during controlled exertion, a stress test helps doctors uncover issues that might not be apparent at rest. Kunal Patel, MD, and our team at NJ Cardiovascular Institute use stress testing to evaluate cardiovascular health and guide treatment decisions.
If your doctor has recommended a stress test, here’s a closer look at how it works and some of the most common reasons you might need one.
What is a stress test?
A stress test, or exercise stress testing, gives your medical team the opportunity to observe how well your heart performs under physical exertion, usually through monitored exercise on a treadmill or stationary bike. In some cases, if physical exercise isn’t possible or sufficient, we may use medications that simulate exercise’s effects on your heart instead.
We place sensors on your body that track your heart’s electrical activity via electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure, and symptoms as your cardiovascular system works harder. The goal is to reveal problems with blood flow, rhythm, and heart function that may not show up when your heart is at rest.
Common reasons for stress testing
Stress tests are a widely used and effective method to evaluate patients with known or suspected heart disease or other concerning cardiovascular symptoms. Four of the most common reasons we recommend stress testing are:
1. Unexplained chest pain or discomfort
A stress test can help evaluate chest pain or discomfort, particularly when the pain may be related to reduced blood flow to your heart. Not all chest pain is cardiac in origin, and a stress test helps determine whether your heart muscle is receiving enough oxygenated blood during exertion — especially if your symptoms arise with activity and improve with rest.
A stress test can also help distinguish between heart-related pain, such as pain caused by coronary artery disease, and pain that may have a non-cardiac source. By observing your heart under controlled, increasing workload, we can assess how well your heart tolerates stress and whether you need further evaluation or treatment.
2. Shortness of breath or exercise intolerance
If you find yourself unusually short of breath during physical activity or unable to exercise as expected for your age and fitness level, a stress test can help determine why. Shortness of breath with exertion can be a sign of cardiovascular limitations, including issues with blood flow, heart rhythm irregularities, or diminished pumping capacity.
A stress test provides a structured way to evaluate how your heart and lungs respond to increasing levels of activity. This helps us understand whether your symptoms stem from cardiac causes or if other systems may be involved, allowing for targeted diagnostic follow-up and care.
3. Abnormal findings on other heart tests
Sometimes, we recommend a stress test after initial heart evaluations — such as an ECG at rest, an echocardiogram, or imaging study — reveal abnormalities or inconclusive results. For example, if a resting ECG suggests reduced blood flow, a stress test can provide additional information.
4. Assessment of known heart disease or risk factors
If you’ve already been diagnosed with heart disease or you have significant risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, a family history of early heart disease, diabetes, or prior heart events, a stress test may be part of your routine monitoring.
Regular stress testing helps track how well your heart tolerates activity and whether treatment strategies like medication changes or lifestyle interventions are effective. It can also help identify changes over time, prompting adjustments to your care plan before symptoms worsen.
Partner with our team for top cardiovascular care
A stress test offers valuable insight into how well your heart performs when pushed beyond resting conditions, making it a good option to evaluate symptoms like chest pain and clarify past test results. Getting a stress test is an opportunity to take proactive steps toward better cardiovascular care, and our team is here to guide you each step of the way.
Call us at 201-866-7000 to book an appointment at one of our offices in Elizabeth, Lakewood, Paramus, and Secaucus, New Jersey, or send us a message online to learn more.
by cardiopulmonarydiagnostic | Aug 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
Pneumonia is a serious lung infection that inflames the air sacs in the lungs. It makes breathing difficult, and the infection can range from mild to life-threatening. In fact, more than 1 million people are hospitalized for pneumonia each year — and it’s important to know your risk.
While pneumonia can affect anyone, certain groups are more vulnerable to severe complications. Kunal Patel, MD, and our team at NJ Cardiovascular Institute are here to help you understand the illness and who is most at risk, so you can get the care you need, when you need it.
The basics of pneumonia
Pneumonia is an infection that targets your lungs, and it develops when pathogens like bacteria, viruses, or fungi invade. This invasion triggers inflammation and cause the air sacs in your lungs to fill with fluid. Pneumonia can make it hard to breathe and limit the amount of oxygen that reaches your bloodstream.
Common symptoms of pneumonia include:
Chest pain, especially when breathing or coughing
Fever, sweating, and chills
Shortness of breath
Fatigue
Coughing, which may produce phlegm
Confusion or changes in mental awareness (especially in older adults)
Chest pain can be one of the more alarming symptoms of pneumonia, because it can feel like a tightness or sharp pain, especially when you try to take a deep breath.
Why is pneumonia dangerous?
Pneumonia is dangerous because it can quickly progress, causing serious complications if it’s not treated promptly. The infection can spread from the lungs to your bloodstream, causing sepsis — a life-threatening immune response to infection.
Another possible complication is lung abscesses, which are pockets of pus that form in the lungs. And if pneumonia severely impairs your breathing, it can cause respiratory failure.
For those with weakened immune systems, pneumonia can be especially threatening because the body is less equipped to fight off the infection. Even in healthy individuals, if left untreated, pneumonia can escalate from a mild illness to a life-threatening condition in a short time.
Understanding your risk factors for pneumonia
Anyone can get pneumonia, and it’s important to take the illness seriously and get professional treatment. However, certain risk factors increase the likelihood of developing a more severe case. Those most at risk for severe pneumonia and complications are:
Infants and older adults
Children under the age of 2 and adults over the age of 65 are particularly susceptible to pneumonia. In children, their developing immune systems can struggle to mount an effective defense against pneumonia-causing pathogens. For older adults, the immune system weakens with age, making it more difficult to fend off infections.
People with chronic health conditions
Having a chronic disease like asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) puts you at greater risk for pneumonia. These conditions can compromise your lung function and reduce your body's ability to clear out infection, making it easier for pneumonia to take hold.
People in hospitals or long-term care facilities also have a higher risk of contracting pneumonia. The risk is even greater if they’re being treated with an invasive device, such as a ventilator, because of exposure to drug-resistant bacteria that are more likely to cause severe pneumonia.
People with weakened immune systems
People with compromised immune systems — including those undergoing chemotherapy, taking immunosuppressive drugs, or living with HIV/AIDS — are at a higher risk of developing severe pneumonia. In these cases, a weakened immune responses make it harder to fight the infection.
People who smoke or have substance use disorders
Smoking damages your lungs, making them more vulnerable to infections like pneumonia. Alcohol or drug abuse can also impair your immune system and leave your lungs less able to fight pathogens.
For these high-risk groups, pneumonia can quickly escalate from a manageable infection to a life-threatening condition. Vaccination, practicing good hygiene, and seeking prompt medical attention for respiratory symptoms are essential for preventing and managing pneumonia.
Pneumonia can be dangerous, but recognizing the symptoms, understanding its dangers, and seeking timely medical care are the best ways to protect your health and the health of those you love. Learn more with a consultation at NJ Cardiovascular Institute. Call one of our offices in Elizabeth, Lakewood, Paramus, and Secaucus, New Jersey, or send us a message online now.
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by cardiopulmonarydiagnostic | Aug 9, 2026 | Uncategorized
A healthy diet is often associated with a healthier heart. And while it’s true that your diet is an important element of heart health, it can be disheartening and confusing to follow a healthy eating regimen only to find yourself dealing with high cholesterol levels.
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance produced by your liver and obtained through certain foods. It’s essential for your body, but too much can increase your risk of heart problems.
At NJ Cardiovascular Institute, Kunal Patel, MD, and our team are here to help you understand the links between your diet and cholesterol levels. We’ll explore the risk factors associated with high cholesterol and discuss treatment options to help you manage the condition effectively — no matter what you’re eating.
Understanding cholesterol
Cholesterol is a substance that your body uses to make certain hormones, synthesize vitamin D, and construct cell membranes. You need some cholesterol for optimal health, but high cholesterol is a risk factor for a number of common heart conditions.
Lipoproteins in your blood transport cholesterol through your bloodstream. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is often referred to as "bad" cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) as "good" cholesterol.
If you have high LDL levels, cholesterol may build up inside the walls of your arteries. The buildup makes your arteries narrower, which forces your heart to work harder when it pumps blood throughout your body.
Diet isn’t the only factor affecting your cholesterol levels
Your diet plays a crucial role in cholesterol management. For example, eating a lot of sugary, processed foods may have detrimental effects on triglyceride levels and heart health.
Certain foods, like processed meats, baked goods, and fried foods are high in saturated fats and trans fats. If you eat a lot of these foods, your blood cholesterol levels may get too high. Healthier foods that contain saturated fats include meat and dairy from grass-fed cows.
On the other hand, some foods are linked to lower blood cholesterol. Whole grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits may help keep LDL levels in check — but even if you eat a healthy diet, it’s still possible to have high cholesterol.
There are other factors that contribute to high cholesterol levels, like:
Genetics
Having a family history of high cholesterol can significantly increase your risk of high cholesterol levels, even despite your efforts to eat healthy.
Your age and gender
Your cholesterol levels tend to increase with age. Men are generally at higher risk than premenopausal women, but after menopause, women's risk catches up due to hormonal changes.
Your weight
Being overweight or obese may contribute to increasing your cholesterol levels. Excess weight can disrupt the balance of fats in your body and affect your LDL cholesterol, regardless of your diet.
Living a sedentary lifestyle
Lack of physical activity can affect the way your body metabolizes fats, leading to higher LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol levels.
Smoking
Smoking damages your blood vessels and reduces HDL cholesterol levels, making smokers more susceptible to high LDL cholesterol.
Your high cholesterol management options
If you have high cholesterol despite a healthy lifestyle, it’s essential to consult a health care professional for personalized guidance. Dr. Patel and our team specialize in diagnosing and treating high cholesterol, and we work with you to develop a plan to keep your cholesterol in check.
We start by evaluating your lifestyle. Regular exercise can have a positive impact on cholesterol levels by increasing your HDL cholesterol and improving your overall cardiovascular health. And even if you already eat healthy, there might be room for improvement.
Focus on consuming heart-healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. Cut out trans fats completely and limit your intake of refined carbohydrates like white bread, cookies, and chips.
If excess weight is a contributing factor, losing weight through a combination of healthy eating and regular physical activity can help lower your cholesterol levels. If you smoke, quitting is one of the best ways to improve cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of heart disease.
Depending on the severity of your cholesterol levels and associated risks, we may prescribe medications like statins to help lower your LDL cholesterol and increase HDL cholesterol. Finally, it’s crucial to regularly monitor your cholesterol levels. We use blood tests to track how effective your treatment is and make any necessary adjustments.
High cholesterol levels can be perplexing — especially when you follow a healthy diet and lifestyle. By understanding the contributing factors and taking proactive measures, you can reduce your cholesterol levels and improve your overall well-being, and we’re here to help.
Schedule a consultation at one of our offices Elizabeth, Lakewood, Paramus, or Secaucus, New Jersey or send us a message online to learn more.
