Taking Care of Your Heart

February has always been known as the love month.  For most of us who have been in love and have our hearts broken we know how much it hurts.  But do you know that heart disease does more than just hurt… it kills!  The statistics are staggering: Every 34 seconds a person in the US dies from heart disease.  That is more than 2600 Americans each day.  Heart disease can be silent, meaning a person may not be aware that he/she has heart disease until a heart attack actually ensues.  It is because of this that knowing the risk factors for heart disease is important for all of us to know.  A risk factor is something that makes you more likely to have a disease.  Some factors cannot be changed such as age (Hey… its tough getting old), but most of the factors can be modified or changed. (Hint to all of the smokers & couch potatoes out there).

So are you at risk?  Answer the following questions.
Do you have a family history of heart disease?             YES         NO
Are you a male?                                                                    YES         NO
Are you >50 yrs old?                                                           YES         NO
Do you smoke?                                                                     YES         NO
Are you obese?                                                                      YES         NO
Are you diabetic?                                                                  YES         NO
Do you have high cholesterol?                                           YES         NO
Do you have high blood pressure?                                    YES         NO
Are you highly stressed?                                                      YES         NO
Do you have a sedentary lifestyle or do not engage much in physical activity?                      YES         NO

If you answered yes to 3 or more questions, then you are at risk.  The 1st 3 questions pertain to factors that you cannot change but the rest of the questions are modifiable.

To Take Care of Your Heart, here are a few tips:

• Stop Smoking— A single puff is enough to increase heart muscle oxygen demand.
• Get to your ideal weight—A Body Mass Index between 18-25 is ideal.BMI is calculated as: BMI= Weight in lbs. x 703 divided by(Height in inches) x 2
• Control or prevent diabetes— manage it with medications & a healthy lifestyle.
• Lower your cholesterol— 200mg/DL is unhealthy, ask your doctor also the ratio between your LDL (Low Density Lipoproteins) and HDL (High- Density Lipoproteins) or good cholesterol.  The higher the ratio, the greater the risk.
• Lower your blood pressure—A systolic (high number) of > 160 and a diastolic (low number) of >95 is considered high.
• Reduce stress — Easier said than done, right?  But when you find yourself sweating the small stuff just think about what your heart is doing.
• Get up and move around!!! — Do you know that all of the modifiable risk factors above can be helped by exercise?  In physical therapy, we cannot emphasize enough how important it is to continue exercising at home during and after therapy.

There is no miracle pill out there that will wholly address these factors.  Diet and exercise, lifestyle changes, we hear it over and over again, but it’s so true.  Achieving a healthy heart and a healthy life is totally up to you.