(KYTX) - This week, we're having a heart to heart in a Special Fit City report. You may feel like a million bucks, but that doesn't always mean your heart is healthy. Consider this, every 90 seconds someone dies of heart disease, so do you know how healthy is your heart?
One of the best things you can do for yourself ahead of this Valentine's Day is find out your numbers. This can assess your risk of heart disease. There are factors we can control and some we can't, but like the American Heart Association promotes, Don't Die of Doubt.
"I always felt good all the way up to the day I went in for my heart cath and didn't leave the hospital," says Judy Calvert, patient at the Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital.
Judy Calvert never experienced any symptoms. Her heart cath uncovered the hidden truth, 3 blockages that required almost immediate bypass surgery. "They basically told me the first symptoms, based on my blockages, would have probably been my last," says Judy.
Being proactive about her heart health likely saved Judy's life. She first learned about her risk through her father. "I knew I had issues because it runs in my family. My father had bypass surgery years ago when it was a new technique. We found out all of his kids have high cholesterol," says Judy.
Family history of heart disease is one of the 4 risk factors we cannot control. Age, ethnicity and gender are also risk factors.
There are even more risk factors we can control to protect our hearts, which is critically important since cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer in men and women.
"Those are things we are in power to make changes o protect our hearts, things like managing our weight," says Deb Taylor, Chief Nursing Officer at the Louis & Peaches Owen Heart Hospital.
Deb Taylor is the Chief Nursing Officer at the Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital. She says there are other risk factors we can control:
blood pressure
cholesterol levels
diabetes
stress
not smoking
heart healthy diet
exercise
"Women get mammograms to protect against breast cancer, men and women get colonoscopies to protect against colon cancer, but we are not doing these great screenings to protect our hearts. There is a great new test called a calcium scoring test that's done with a catscan. It is a very quick and easy test. There are no IVs needed. I made a lunch date with some girlfriends to have it done and we had it done in under an hour. At the end of the procedure, they came out and gave us a number that showed us our risk for heart disease and that gave us a report we could take to our doctors and talk about it," says Deb Taylor.
Other important tests you should be getting are blood sugar and blood pressure checks, plus a lipid profile that looks at your good, bad and total cholesterol levels. "You may need to focus on that and how you can manage with a heart healthy diet, exercise and you may need medication to help with that, too," says Deb Taylor.
Judy did everything right, ate heart healthy, worked out and even took statins, but her cholesterol just didn't cooperate. "I am blessed and fortunate that I have no restrictions at all because I was proactive. If you don't know, get a baseline and get it checked and if you do have a family history, follow up with it and stay on top of it," says Judy.
Knowing your body and listening to it could mean the difference between a healthy heart, damage to your heart, or worse. It's important to keep in mind that heart attack symptoms for men and women are different. Only 43% of women report having chest pain, but 95% of women agree they began feeling different a month before their cardiac complications. That is just another reason to get to the heart of the matter right away.
Fit City - How Healthy Is Your Heart? hospitals in nassau county | |
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| Science & Technology | Upload TimePublished on 13 Feb 2015 |
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