Text Size:
Heart Disease
Preventative Measures You Can Take Now
By Dr. Maureen Mays
Living a healthy lifestyle will make a difference for anyone at any stage of their lives – from a toddler just starting out to an elderly person. Eating healthy foods and doing even mild exercise helps everyone feel better, have more energy, and lower their risk for heart disease as well as many other types of disease. If you’re a caregiver, this dose of prevention applies to you just as much as it applies to your parents and loved ones.
If You Say Potato and They Say French-Fry…
What does it mean to eat right? Avoid packaged processed food, fast food, and most restaurant food. Buy fresh ingredients and prepare meals yourself so you know what goes into them. Eat plenty of fresh vegetables, whole grains, beans, and fish. Keep your portions of meat lean and small. Avoid sugar and too much salt. Eating right is probably the single best thing you can do for your health. It doesn’t have to feel like a sacrifice. There are more and more delicious recipes using fresh low-fat ingredients for every palate. If your parent is hooked on fast food, get them involved in the menu planning, and you may find that soon they’re turning their nose up at the drive through.
Take Steps in the Right Direction
It doesn’t need to be intense. Just 20 minutes of exercise, seven days a week – with rare days off – changes lives. This type of exercise significantly reduces cardiovascular disease risk. It also provides other health benefits. It increases energy, lowers blood pressure, usually improves cholesterol levels and can help regulate blood sugar levels. And that’s just for starters. Do something really nice for yourself and your loved one. Take a walk together.
Sometimes, it’s Good to be a Control Freak
Do what’s necessary to help your parents and loved ones control these three conditions that are risk factors for heart disease and other problems:
High blood pressure is known as the silent killer, because high blood pressure itself doesn’t cause painful symptoms. But left untreated over time, it can cause stroke, heart failure, and heart attack. Those who control their blood pressure with lifestyle changes and/or medication have much lower risk factors for heart related illnesses than those who don’t take control. Officially, normal blood pressure is 120/80.
High Cholesterol
We’ve changed the way we look at cholesterol readings. We used to look at the overall number. Now we take the different kinds of cholesterol into account. If a person has a high overall reading, but has lots of “good” cholesterol (HDL – think “healthy”) and a low amount of “bad” cholesterol (LDL – think “lethal”), then that high reading is probably fine. However, a person who has a lower overall number, but also very low HDL may be in trouble. We also look at the triglycerides, which are simple fats in the blood and easily triggered by simple sugars, especially sweet liquids like soda and fruit juice.
Diabetes
This is another one of those sneaky diseases that in and of itself doesn’t necessarily feel bad. However, diabetes is the number one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, kidney disease, heart failure, extremity disease (vascular disease of the fingers and toes) and loss of vision. The myriad of problems that come with diabetes far outweighs how the disease feels.
Controlling diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure can reduce the risk for all sorts of serious complications. And that goes for watching your own numbers, too.
Dr. Maureen Mays is an assistant professor and director of preventive cardiology at Oregon Health & Science University. She received her MD at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and completed her residency in Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Dr. Mays did her fellowship in Preventive Cardiology and Vascular Imaging at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. She is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical LIpidology.
More...
Comments
11/30/2009
boomer
This is a really helpful article. My father passed away due to heart disease and so I know that I need to watch this.
Leave your comment
You must be an icarevillage member to comment on this article.
Join today
to take advantage of this service or
Sign In
if you are already a member.
