Right on Time

It’s never too early—or too late—to start preventing heart disease.

So, you’re young, healthy and you “don’t need” to think about your heart yet. Or, maybe you’re much older and you wonder if heart-healthy steps will even help at this point.

What if you turned this thinking on its head? What if you could see your heart muscle strengthening with exercise or watch a potentially life-threatening blockage loosen up because you’ve lowered your cholesterol?

Whether you’re 18 or 85, the time to reduce your risk for heart disease is now. Here are 10 steps.

Know your family history. Family history can put even those who seem healthy at risk. Exercising, maintaining a healthy weight and eating the right foods can help, but if both your parents had heart disease in their 40s or 50s, you might need to take additional steps to stave off problems.

Adopt a healthy diet. If you are what you eat, just what are you anyway? What changes can you make? Raymond and Linda Johnson of Sulphur Springs made heart-healthy changes to their diets back in 1991, when Linda’s doctor explained that she could manage her high cholesterol and high blood pressure without medication if she made better food choices.

Get moving. According to the American Heart Association, healthy adults should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week. The Johnsons walk together, and Ray trims their lawn with a push mower. “Back in the ’70s and ’80s, I could mow the front yard and back yard in 50 or 60 minutes. Now I do it in the same time, without breaking a sweat,” says Ray, now age 69.

Control your blood pressure. Nearly one in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure, according to the AHA. Do you? Are you sure? Nearly one-third of adults with high blood pressure don’t know it. Have your blood pressure checked by your doctor.

Control your diabetes. Know if you have a family history of diabetes and if you’re at risk yourself, since diabetes increases your risk for heart disease. Watching your diet and maintaining a healthy weight can help prevent diabetes or keep symptoms in check.

Control your cholesterol. The third in the silent-killer trio of blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol, the latter should be checked once every five years beginning at age 20, according to the AHA.

Stop smoking. When you quit smoking, the health benefits start almost immediately— and after a few years, your risk of coronary artery disease is the same as non-smokers. For an online quitting guide for the first days and months, visit smokefree.gov*.

Lower your stress. The jury is out on whether stress is a stand-alone risk factor for heart disease or whether it simply worsens other risk factors, such as blood pressure, overeating and smoking.

Be accountable. Ray and Linda changed their lifestyles together and had each other for support. “When you make a commitment to change your lifestyle, it benefits the whole family,” says Linda, 61. Ray agrees. “I missed some foods at the beginning—I was addicted to butter and cream, and I loved a good hamburger. But the kind of cooking Linda started doing was very appealing and very filling. Now when I eat out, everything tastes too salty,” he says.

Get motivated. If you’ve read the first nine steps and nodded knowingly, it’s time to act. What motivates you? Would hanging your favorite dress—the one that no longer fits—on the door help you lose weight? For the Johnsons, their determination to stay healthy was enough.

By Laurie Davies

For a referral to a cardiologist or primary care physician on the medical staff at Memorial Hospital, call (903) 439-4062 or visit hcmh.com.

*Websites referenced are provided solely for the convenience of the reader. Neither Baylor Health Care System nor its subsidiaries, affi liates or community medical centers own these websites or control their content or privacy, and reference to these websites should not be construed as an endorsement of the entities that own the websites or the information, products or services offered by them.