The human heart is one of the most precious organs in the body. Starting in your teens you were warned and reminded about the importance of taking care of your brain, heart and bones, along with a few other things. So you tried to eat right, exercise and sleep when you weren’t extremely busy. With so much information available, now you understand better than any other time in public health awareness history that your genetics can trump your greatest efforts when it comes to your physical health, especially as you get older. You have been told that smoking, hypertension, stress, or lack of regular medical checkups throughout one’s life, lead to damage of the heart and cardiovascular system over time. These are the moments in life when you, or a loved one, needs a cardiologist’s expertise.Did you know that when your body endures prolonged exposure to large amounts of stress that it can throw off your autonomic nervous system, which affects one’s breathing and heart function? The lungs and the heart are connected. If you breathe slowly while you’re doing yoga the heart rate slows, if you breathe quickly while you’re running your heart is racing too. So when you are panicked because of a deadline or an even larger catastrophe, it puts inordinate stress on the heart not just on your mind because of worry. A cardiologist uses diagnostic testing to discover any maladies with the function of the heart or any physical injury that cannot be monitored from simply listening to the quickened or irregular beating. The doctor can use stress testing where they elevate the heart rate and test how long it takes to return to relax (average) beating, a cardiac catheterization, or radiology tests to find out as much information as possible. From the information they receive, the patient is given a diagnosis of their condition and the best immediate treatment options to get their heart to a healthier place as quickly as possible. For instance, the cardiologist is trained to recommend and utilize medication, physical therapy, lifestyle changes, devices such as a pace maker or other surgical options to help improve a patient’s heart condition. After applying all of the changes they can to see positive results in the rhythm and overall function of the heart, the follow up visits will become less frequent because the patient will be on the right track to improved health for many more years to come.