Your medical history, that is. If you (or your spouse) has a strong family history of cardiovascular disease, you (or your spouse), too, could be at risk, and you could be passing that risk on to your kids. Therefore, it's important to make your internist and your pediatrician aware of any incidence of heart disease in primary relatives -- parents, siblings, and grandparents.

Your family doctor probably has taken a detailed medical history, but your child's doctor might not have. So don't hesitate to bring up the subject with your pediatrician at the earliest possible opportunity.

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It's true, jazz music is good for your heart -- so is techno, pop, and anything else that's uptempo. According to a group of University of Oxford researchers, music with faster rhythms speeds up breathing and circulation.

That's just one of 9 tips offered by Scott Westcott in a recent Health magazine article, just in time for the last couple days of American Heart Month.

Among the other suggestions were drinking more milk, as those who consumed more than three servings a day of milk, yogurt or cheese had lower blood pressure; trying tai chi, which has also been proven to lower to blood pressure; and eating more fish, which can slow your at-rest heart rate. You can also drink pomegranate juice, laugh, get more sleep, and breathe deeper -- all of which will help to maintain a healthy heart.

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Like there are not enough things to stress about during the holidays, a new study reports that December is the deadliest month for heart attacks. The study didn't say anything about more heart attacks in December, just that of those that did happen more people died as a result than in any other month.

Thankfully, the margin of difference is small: 22 percent of December heart attacks were fatal within 30 days, compared to only 20% of heart attacks happening in any other month. That seems like a fairly small difference, but still interesting because one month stands out from the other eleven -- why? Researchers are considering many factors, but as of now they aren't sure what the cause is. Things they're looking at include stress of the holiday season, vacationing doctors, and possible treatment trends.

The important thing to remember is that the key to surviving a heart attack is receiving fast medical attention. Maybe during the holidays people are so busy they ignore symptoms and don't go to the hospital as soon as they should? Remember also that heart attacks can present in a variety of ways, it doesn't always happen with sharp chest or arm pains like in the movies.

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