Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States for all adults. However, you can do a lot to protect your heart and stay healthy. February is American Heart Month, dedicated to raising awareness of heart disease and promoting heart-healthy living.
Heart-healthy living involves understanding your risk, making healthy choices and taking steps to reduce your chances of getting heart disease, including coronary heart disease (the most common). By taking preventive measures, you can lower your risk of developing heart disease that could lead to a heart attack. You can also improve your overall health and well-being.
The American Heart Association defines Life’s Essential 8 as the key measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health. Better cardiovascular health helps lower the risk for heart disease, stroke and other major health problems.
1. Eat Better: Aim for an overall healthy diet that includes whole foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds and cooking in non-tropical oils such as avocado and olive.
2. Physical Activity: Adults should get two-and-a-half hours of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week. Kids should have 60 minutes every day, including play and structured activities.
3. Quit Tobacco: Use of nicotine, which includes traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping, is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., including about a third of all deaths from heart disease.
4. Healthy Sleep: Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Adequate sleep promotes healing, improves brain function and reduces the risk for chronic diseases.
5. Manage Weight: Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight has many benefits. Body mass index, a numerical value of your weight in relation to your height, is a useful gauge. You can calculate it online or consult your doctor.
6. Control Cholesterol: High levels of non-HDL, or “bad,” cholesterol can lead to heart disease. Your health care professional can consider non-HDL cholesterol as the preferred number to monitor, rather than total cholesterol, because it can be measured without fasting beforehand and is reliably calculated among all people.
7. Manage Blood Sugar: Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose (or blood sugar) that our bodies use as energy. Over time, high levels of blood sugar can damage your heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves. As part of testing, monitoring hemoglobin A1c can better reflect long-term control in people with diabetes or prediabetes.
8. Manage Blood Pressure: Keeping your blood pressure within acceptable ranges can keep you healthier longer. Levels less than 120/80 mm Hg are optimal. High blood pressure is defined as >130mm Hg systolic pressure (the top number in a reading) or >80 mm Hg diastolic pressure (bottom number).
Families can also do their part by learning CPR. The life-saving skill is crucial because thousands of people experience a cardiac arrest every year, including many children. Kids as young as 9-years-old can learn CPR.
Shailee Shah, MD, FACC, is a cardiologist at Ascension St. Vincent’s St. Johns County.
