February is the American Heart Association’s American Heart Month and the British Heart Foundation’s National Heart Month. In light of these occasions, we are focusing on heart health this month, from the therapeutic power of music to medical advances that are tackling cardiac decompensation and arrhythmia.

This month's issue includes:

• At least 12 young people in Britain die weekly from undiagnosed heart disease according to a UK-based charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY). However, by making routine electrocardiograms affordable and available, CRY is helping to prevent unnecessary deaths. Read more on the blog.

• Dr. Matthew Harris of Philips Research discusses recent advancements in home telemonitoring to detect cardiac decompensation to save the lives of heart failure patients. Read more of his insights from his interview with Dr. Eric Silfen.

• Nearly one-third of American children are obese or overweight. Read more about the implications of this statistic and what First Lady Michelle Obama is doing about it.

• According to the American Heart Association, studies show that 90% of primary care physicians do not know that heart disease kills more women than men.  More must be done to reduce the incidence of heart disease in women.  Learn about the problem and what can be done in Women's health: Heart of the matter from the Economist Group.

• Did you know that music can expedite recovery from heart attacks and cardiac procedures by reducing stress and anxiety?  Learn more in a fascinating article from the Harvard Business Review.

• In the United States, more than 850,000 people are hospitalized for an arrhythmia each year.  Cardiac arrhythmia (also called dysrhythmia) is an irregular heartbeat.  A revolutionary robot is making strides to cure this potentially dangerous condition.  Watch the robot in action in a video from CNBC.

• Are you getting too little sleep?  Sleeping less than seven and a half hours per night can aggravate or even cause high blood pressure.  An article from Time explains how too little sleep adds to risks of hypertension.

Many more resources on health and well-being:

Please be sure to check other features of GetInsideHealth, including our blog, webinars, podcasts, and videos – all with new information on health and well-being.

Next month:

Stay tuned for our March issue, which will focus on exciting new treatments and innovations from around the world!

Do you have topic suggestions for GetInsideHealth?  Email me at editor@getinsidehealth.com.

Take care.

Kip