Advances in medicine and
technology have given people with heart
disease a new lease on life, but an aging heart requires more than a few
pills to keep it chugging along. Of
course you can do everything right and still develop heart disease, but there
is no use trying to speed things a long.
Your heart has been beating
nonstop since before you were born. Hopefully
you have been rewarding it by taking good care of yourself, but don’t be
ashamed to it admit it if you have not. A healthy
lifestyle is a lifelong process, but be cheered by the fact that it is never
too late to start. By living a
healthier life, you could delay heart disease for years.
Whether you are healthy, at
risk for heart disease, or have already had a heart attack the advice is the
same. Exercise, a healthy diet,
and taking recommended medications
are always sound advice. Exercise
improves heart function, lowers blood pressure and keeps cholesterol levels as
they should be. It isn’t exercise but
excessive weight that forces your heart to work harder. People make a lot of
excuses for not exercising. You might
say that you are too busy, too tired, or too stressed out to make the
effort. What would you say if your
heart decided that it was too tired, too lazy, or too stressed to beat?
When the CDC put out a list
of risk factors for heart disease,
it was interesting to note that “age” alone was not on that list. Many of the risk factors (smoking, lack of
exercise, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diagnosed heart disease) are
associated with age, but they are usually due more to lifestyle choices than to
age alone.
Protecting your heart doesn’t necessarily
require expensive medications or surgical intervention. You have two choices: You can ask what you can do to make life easier
for your heart, or you can sit back and wait for something catastrophic to
happenWatch your diet, start an exercise program and take your medications
properly. It is not unusual for people to mismanage medications: They do
not take them properly because they can’t afford them, they don’t trust them,
or they start feeling better and think they don’t need them anymore.
High blood pressure and high cholesterol make
your heart work harder and it already has enough to do. People are often casual about heart disease
because they are dealing with something that they can’t see. Only a health care professional can diagnose
and treat something that to you is invisible.
Talk to your doctor. Do the
math. Understand your numbers (on the
scale, on the blood pressure monitor, and on the laboratory findings). Find out what you can do to control them, and
then follow through. Try to be sensible. If your heart stops, where will you live?
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