Cardiology is the discipline that researches, diagnoses and treats heart injuries and diseases as well as their causes. A cardiologist will treat your heart problem while staying aware of other conditions, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and other factors that risk damaging the heart. Some of these risk factors include a family history of heart disease, obesity, cigarette smoking, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.

Cardiology is a specialty that we all have some knowledge of and I bet there are not many of us who do not know someone who has suffered from some form of cardiac problem. The lifestyle pointers are more or less known to us through advertising and public health messaging but there are many people who have adopted healthy lifestyles and still suffer from cardiac disease. It is important therefore to make sure that we recognise when we might be in trouble with our hearts. Shortness of breath perhaps on exertion where before there was none is a warning sign that should never be ignored. Tightness in the chest may be muscular, related to stress or a sign of angina. Never make your own guess, always get it checked out. If you have a family history, be aware of it and be extra vigilant with diet and exercise, make your doctor aware of it and go for regular check ups. That being said, don't let a fear of heart problems rule your life, be sensible and be aware, but keep things in perspective and remember, life is to be enjoyed!

Hi,
I am a 3rd year fellow in cardiology and have the choice of either learning diagnostic angio graphy, or getting credentialed in pacemaker implantation. Which way to go?

That is a tough choice to make! Can't you do both? I suppose if I was choosing I would go for the angiography as I think that this is the way forward for diagnostics with a lot more development and innovation to come. On the other hand pacemaker technology is a life line to many. Try and get them to let you do both, what a skill set that would be!

Cardiology is the study of heart and blood vessels, everything related to the heart is called as the cardiac, like cardiac muscles that is heart muscles, cardiac artery that is the arteries which supply blood to heart. Cardiologist is a person who is a heart specialist.