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. Just ask 44-year-old tennis pro John Mullman of Dallas. At 6 feet, 175 pounds, you’d never know this avid exerciser was at risk, yet both of his parents have heart disease.

“With my family history, my cholesterol was too high,” he says, adding that his physician on the medical staff at Baylor Medical Center at Irving has worked with him to lower his cholesterol.

Adopt a healthy diet. If you are what you eat, just what are you anyway? What changes can you make? Between February and October 2007, Vic Green began logging what he eats and controlling portion sizes. “I actually read food labels now,” says the 71-year-old Mesquite man, who has gone from 237 to 193 pounds. “I feel like I’ve been reborn since I lost this weight.”

Get moving. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), healthy adults should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week. “You will work your heart, you will increase your ‘good’ (HDL) cholesterol, and you will feel more productive,” Mullman says.

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

Control your diabetes. Green has a family history of heart disease and diabetes. In 2005, when he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he realized he had an increased risk for heart disease. That’s one reason he takes daily blood sugar readings and controls his diet. “I knew my blood sugar was running high,” he says. “Since my weight loss, it is now in an acceptable range.

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 benefi ts start almost immediately—and after a few years, your risk of heart disease is the same as non-smokers. Go to smokefree.gov* for a quitting guide for the first days and months.

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. But Mullman recommends controlling stress before it controls you. “I learned that I have to make choices about stress,” he says.

Be accountable. Green is enrolled in a research study at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas that has helped him stay on track with weight loss. “When you have to answer to someone, it helps,” he says. Who might help you stay accountable? Your spouse or a friend? “It has to be someone who will come down on you a little,” he suggests.

Get motivated. If you want a healthy heart, 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 Green, even at age 71, the determination to look and feel better was enough. “I thought, ‘I’m going to get this thing reversed.’” Just goes to prove, it really never is too late.

By Laurie Davies

For a referral to a cardiologist or primary care physician on the medical staff at a Baylor hospital near you, call 1-800-4BAYLOR or use our on-line physician directory.

*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.