Peter M Rao MD

A recent CDC report shows that many of restaurants and grocery stores have food that contain extremely high levels of sodium in its product. Breads and rolls were noted to be the most important culprits among these. Some of the foods that contribute to almost 44% of the sodium content that we...

Congestive heart failure does not indicate that your heart has stopped working; instead what it indicates is that your heart is pumping blood at a slower rate than normal.  Because the blood moves through the heart and the body at a much slower rate, the pressure in the heart builds up. Hence, the...

What is cholesterol?Cholesterol is primarily produced in the liver, which makes approximately 1,000 milligrams of cholesterol per day. However, it can also be produced by the cells lining the small intestines and also by each cell present in the body. Abnormally low cholesterol levels would mean...

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published research linking height and coronary artery disease through the study of genetics. Doctors have known since the 1950s about the link between short stature and coronary artery disease, “but the reason behind this really hasn’t been completely...

What is lupus?Lupus or systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disorder that may affect skin, kidneys, brain, and other organs. According to Lupus Foundation of America, about 1.5 million people in U.S. have lupus. This condition is seen more in women than in men....

Our heart rate is automatically controlled by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) that has two divisions: sympathetic and parasympathetic. The part of the ANS that is responsible for raising a person’s heart rate through the sympathetic plexus is the sympathetic division. The parasympathetic...