Glossary
Glossary: Heart, sports, prevention, and performance explained clearly.
The glossary from Preventum Diez explains terms related to heart, circulation, sports medicine, prevention, examinations, training, recovery, and performance.
Glossary
Terms related to heart, sport, prevention, and performance.
Here you will find understandable explanations of medical terms from cardiology, sports medicine, and prevention. If you are missing an explanation, feel free to contact us.
A
- Arteriosclerosis
- Change of the arterial wall with deposits and narrowing. Important factor for heart attacks and strokes.
- Atrial Fibrillation
- Common arrhythmia with irregular heartbeat. Relevant for endurance, stroke risk, and therapy.
B
- Balance
- Ability to hold or restore body positions safely. An important health factor, especially in older age.
- Blood pressure
- Pressure in the arteries. Relevant at rest and under stress. High blood pressure can remain unnoticed for a long time.
- Bypass
- Surgical diversion to improve blood flow to the heart in case of significant vascular narrowings.
C
- Coordination
- Interaction of the nervous system and muscles. Important for safety, technique, balance, and fall prevention.
- Coronary heart disease
- Disease of the coronary arteries. Can lead to chest tightness, shortness of breath, performance dips, or heart attack.
- Chest Pressure
- Pressure or tightness in the chest. Take seriously when dependent on exertion or radiating.
- Cryotherapy
- Targeted cold stimuli. Discussed for recovery and activation, not suitable for everyone.
- Cholesterol
- Blood lipid value relevant in the context of vascular risk. Patterns, risk profile, and medical assessment are crucial.
- Cardiac Rehabilitation
- Medically supervised rehabilitation program following cardiac events or procedures. Known in Germany mostly as cardiac rehabilitation or heart sports.
D
- Dietary supplements
- Targeted supplementation of nutrients. Advisable only with necessity, risk, specific goals, or proven deficiency.
- Diabetes risk
- Increased likelihood of glucose metabolism disorders. Exercise, strength training, and diet play important roles.
E
- Endurance
- Measure of how much physical stress the heart, circulation, breathing, muscles, and metabolism can safely handle.
- Endurance training
- Training that challenges the heart, circulation, respiration, and metabolism over extended periods. Examples: walking, running, cycling, swimming.
- Exercise Blood Pressure
- Blood pressure reaction during physical exertion. Abnormal reactions can be important for training and diagnostics.
- Exercise ECG
- ECG during physical exertion. Shows heart rate, blood pressure, rhythm, and potential stress-related abnormalities.
- Echocardiography
- Imaging study of the heart. Assesses pumping function, heart valves, heart walls, chambers, and other structures.
- Echocardiography
- Technical term for Echocardiography.
- Emergency signs
- Acute warning signs such as severe chest pain, severe shortness of breath, fainting, neurological deficits, or suspected heart attack. Here, call emergency services instead of using the online form.
F
- Family history
- Family diseases that may give indications of increased risk, e.g., early heart attacks, sudden cardiac death, or certain heart diseases.
H
- Heart Rate
- Number of heartbeats per minute. Indicates stress response and recovery, but is not sufficient alone for medical decisions.
- Heart rate variability
- Fluctuation of intervals between heartbeats. Often discussed in the context of regeneration and stress, it should be interpreted with caution.
- Holter Monitor (Long-term ECG)
- ECG recording over a longer period, often 24 hours or longer. Useful for palpitations, arrhythmias, or unclear events.
- Heart Attack
- An acute event where heart muscle tissue is damaged due to inadequate blood flow. Afterward, secondary prevention is particularly important.
- Heart rhythm disorder
- Irregularity of heartbeats. Some are harmless, others require clarification or treatment.
- Heart failure
- Limited cardiac performance. Training can be important depending on the situation, but must be medically supervised.
- Heart Valve Defect
- Changes in heart valves that can affect blood flow and resilience.
- HDL
- Lipoprotein in fat metabolism. Individual values should be considered in the overall risk context.
- Heart Sports
- Structured exercise under professional guidance for people with heart diseases. Can be part of Secondary prevention.
I
- Intensity
- How strenuous a load is. Can be assessed via heart rate, subjective effort, or lactate.
- IHHT
- Intermittent Hypoxia-Hyperoxia Training. Alternating between oxygen-poor and oxygen-rich air.
- Inflammation
- Defense and response process of the body. Chronic inflammatory activity can affect health and performance.
L
- Lactate
- Metabolic product that rises during intense exertion. Can be used for training control.
- Long-Covid
- Prolonged symptoms after COVID-19. Stress tolerance, pulse, breathing, fatigue, and recovery may be affected.
- LDL
- Lipoprotein that plays a significant role in atherosclerosis. Target values depend on individual risk.
M
- Movement
- Any form of physical activity in daily life or sports that consumes energy.
- Mobility
- Mobility and functional movement ability. Foundation for daily life, training, and injury prevention.
- Medical History
- Medical consultation about symptoms, medical history, medications, family, daily life, training, and goals. Determines which diagnostics are advisable.
- Micronutrients
- Vitamins, minerals, and trace elements that influence many body functions.
- Mitochondria
- Cell organelles involved in energy production. Play a role in endurance, metabolism, and recovery.
- Mitochondrial Training
- Collective term for approaches to support cellular energy supply: movement, interval stimuli, regeneration, nutrition, and complementary procedures.
- Metabolism
- The entirety of biochemical processes by which the body provides energy, builds tissue, and regulates.
N
- Nutrient status
- Laboratory findings on relevant nutrients. Should be assessed based on the question posed.
P
- Prevention
- Measures for the prevention of diseases. Primary prevention is aimed at people without a known disease. Secondary prevention after an event or diagnosis. Tertiary prevention for chronic diseases.
- Primary Prevention
- Identify risks early before diseases develop. Examples: blood pressure, blood lipids, weight, stress, lack of exercise, family history, smoking.
- Pulse
- Noticeable heart rate. Increases with exertion, stress, illness, or certain medications.
- Performance drop
- Unexplained decline in physical performance. Get it evaluated if it persists.
- Post-Infection Reintegration
- Cautious return to training after infection. Too early or too intense a load can be unfavorable.
R
- Risk factors
- Characteristics that can increase the likelihood of diseases. Blood pressure, blood lipids, diabetes, smoking, weight, stress, lack of exercise, genetics.
- Resting ECG
- Recording of electrical heart activity at rest. Shows rhythm, conduction disorders, or other abnormalities.
S
- Secondary prevention
- Avoidance of further events post-heart attack, stent, bypass, arrhythmia, or other cardiovascular conditions. Movement often plays a part.
- Sports
- Structured physical activity with the goal of health, performance, enjoyment, or social participation.
- Strength training
- Resistance training to improve muscle strength, stability, bones, metabolism, and daily function.
- Sitting time
- Time spent sitting or lying down. Less sitting time is an important health issue, regardless of the exercise routine.
- Spiroergometry
- Exercise Examination with Measurement of Breathing, Oxygen Uptake, Carbon Dioxide Release, Cardiovascular Reaction, and Performance Ability.
- Stent
- A vascular support meant to keep a narrowed or blocked vessel open.
- Shortness of breath
- Shortness of breath or unusual breathlessness. Causes can involve the heart, lungs, blood, metabolism, training, or stress.
- Sleep
- Central regeneration factor. Poor sleep can affect blood pressure, metabolism, training success, and recovery.
- Stress
- Physical and mental stress. Chronic stress can affect blood pressure, sleep, inflammatory processes, and exercise capacity.
- Shared Decision-Making
- Shared decision-making between doctor and patient. Especially important when sport, risk, goals, and personal autonomy come together.
T
- Training management
- Planning frequency, duration, intensity, recovery, and variation. Goal: Adapt stress to the person and the goal.
- Triglycerides
- Blood lipids, influenced by nutrition, metabolism, alcohol, and exercise, among other things.
V
- VO2max
- Maximum oxygen uptake. An important performance and health parameter, especially in endurance and sports medicine.
- Ventilatory thresholds
- Points during exertion where breathing and metabolism change. Helpful for training management.
- Vascular Diagnostics
- Examinations for assessing vessels, circulation, or arteriosclerosis risks.