Getting Heart Healthy One Simple Step at a Time

A few good choices can help you feel better and stay healthier!

Getting diagnosed with health problems such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol is a wake-up call that it’s time to make major lifestyle changes.

The good news is, a few simple changes can help you avoid such a diagnosis in the first place.

By focusing on seven key health factors and behaviors – what the American Heart Association calls Life’s Simple 7^TM – you can keep your heart healthy, lower your risks of heart disease and stroke, and improve your quality of life. This is the first in a series on Life’s Simple 7.  The series will cover each one of  Life’s Simple 7 keys to prevention with steps you can take to live a healthier lifestyle.

“We’re all born with a large stock of good health; it’s up to us to protect it with good choices about our health,” said Donald M Lloyd-Jones, M.D., professor of Preventive Medicine and Medicine-Cardiology, chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Life’s Simple 7 focuses on the seven factors and behaviors that have the biggest impact on your heart health, both on their own and taken together. They are:

• Get active
• Eat better
• Lose weight/maintain healthy weight
• Control cholesterol
• Manage blood pressure
• Reduce blood sugar
• Stop smoking

Making positive changes in any one of these areas can make a difference in your health, said Dr. Lloyd-Jones, a volunteer with the American Heart Association.  And emerging research shows the results are much more dramatic when the seven factors work together. 

“Small changes matter,” he said. “If you can lose weight, or maintain a healthy weight, you can reduce your risk of diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.”

Making changes before you develop a chronic condition such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol is critical. While medication may reduce your risk for a heart attack or stroke, it can’t eliminate the risk.

“There’s a price to pay for having developed the condition,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones said. “We can reduce your risk, but we can never restore you to low-risk.”

By focusing on Life’s Simple 7, people may be able increase the number of years they feel healthy, rather than managing chronic disease, Dr. Lloyd-Jones said.

“A stroke can be absolutely devastating and take a toll on a person’s quality of life,” he said. “In addition to avoiding those, we want to preserve a person’s healthy longevity.”

 Read More at : http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Getting-Heart-Healthy-One-Simple-Step-at-a-Time_UCM_447728_Article.jsp

Pump buys time on heart transplant list

By Natalie Allison Janicello / Times-News

During a trip to the hospital for double pneumonia in 2006, Tonya Moore’s life was dramatically changed.

While on a ventilator, doctors discovered Moore had a heart attack at some point that year — she never knew when — and it was too late to insert stents or conduct bypass surgery. After being diagnosed with congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle, Moore is left to wait until she can receive a heart transplant.

But in the meantime, she’s getting help from a ventricular assist device — a mechanical pump — that will keep blood flowing to her heart as it should. The surgery, which was conducted May 29, was the first of its kind at Greensboro’s Moses Cone Memorial Hospital and makes the facility the first non-transplant hospital in North Carolina to provide the procedure.

“I was getting progressively worse,” said Moore, 44, of her heart condition and associated symptoms of fatigue and shortness of breath.

She and her family managed to fit in another cruise in early April before her scheduled surgery for the heart pump, which was originally going to be performed at Duke University Medical Center. Before the surgery, Moore got a call from her surgeon at Moses Cone, Dr. Peter Van Trigt, who said after conferring with her cardiologist and a surgeon at Duke, there was a possibility the procedure could be performed in Greensboro.

“I’m more comfortable at Cone and I know more people there,” she said.

Moore was told she would have to stay at Moses Cone for about 25 days after the May 29 surgery, but ended up recovering much faster and leaving June 12.

Now, she’ s adjusting to life with a heart pump, wearing battery packs on her side during the day and connecting directly to a power source at night when she sleeps. But once Moore fully recovers from the surgery and adapts to life with a heart pump, she’ll be able to live a fairly normal life.

“I should be able to do anything I want to do, with the exception of swimming and roller coasters,” she said.

While she’s wearing the battery packs and equipment for the heart pump, Moore can’t submerge her chest in water. Dr. Van Trigt said patients who wear the assist devices have to wear a special wrap over their side and put the battery in a waterproof satchel.

“I have three people put me to bed every night,” Moore said, joking about how her husband, Neil; 22-year-old daughter, Beverly; and 17-year-old son, Chris, have had to tend to her much more now that she wears the heart pump equipment.

Van Trigt, who also helped start the transplant program at Duke, said he first inserted a heart pump in a patient about nine years ago. The devices, developed by Thoratec, are supposed to last for 10 years.

There are two types of patients who receive the heart pumps, he said. The first — bridge-to-transplant patients — are those on the waiting list for a new heart, while other patients receive them as a form of destination therapy, when they are too old to qualify for a transplant or have some type of medical problem prohibiting them from receiving one.

Moore received the heart pump as a bridge to her future transplant, however her doctors have told her she has a 15-percent chance of ever finding a match. She said her chances are low because there is a high level of antibodies in her blood, causing issues with her immune system.

“It’s a pretty low percentage, but it’s a 15-percent chance they can,” Neil said. “That’s the way we have to look at it.”

Until she finds a match, Moore plans to continue getting back to enjoying life and her favorite hobbies, including making stained glass, which she’s done for about 15 years.

“I’m ready to get back out there and do the things I really liked to do before,” she said. “I might even get back into my roller skates.”

– http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/pump-buys-time-on-heart-transplant-list-1.163242

10 Heart Healthy Exercise Tips Activities as Exercise Can Help Your Heart

 

According to Jennifer Mieres, M.D., American Heart Association (AHA), “to get heart-healthy benefits, you need to get your heart rate up” there are dozens of activities you can do to help your heart. Whether it is a structured exercise program or just part of your daily routine, all physical activity adds up. It’s easy to follow these exercise tips at home, at work, and at play to increase the amount of physical activity in your life.

Tips to help you start a heart healthy exercise plan.

1. Aerobic exercises done 30 minutes a day is excellent for increasing your heart rate. Climbing the stairs, a brisk walk, orbital exercise machine or treadmill, anything to get your heart rate up.  Wii has several fun games such as Wii Sports or Wii Fit Step Aerobics – and its great exercise you can do with your kids. Make it a family affair
2. Any moderate-intensity exercise like swimming, jogging, Pilates and yoga is good. Exercising your heart muscle means exercising your body. You don’t need a gym, just a bit of motivation and a good pair of walking shoes.
3. If you “don’t have time” then fit shorter but more frequent periods of time, like 5-10 minutes several times a day throughout your day. Take the stairs, park your car further away from the door, and definitely count in those house chores such as mowing the lawn, vacuuming, or a short brisk walk around the block at lunch or for a break.
4. If you already do a vigorous aerobic routine or enrolled in an exercise class, then three days a week for 20 minutes a day is good.
5. For adults that are 65 and older or anyone with chronic conditions or limited mobility, you need the same amount of exercise as younger people – the activity can be less intense. Use good judgment and follow your doctor’s advice. See tip #1 and plan to gradually increase activities.
6. Strength training is a great complement to aerobic training and helps to prevent age-related bone and muscle-mass losses. Keep in mind that strength training doesn’t’t increase heart rate but does increase stamina. Use it to target areas where muscle-tone is needed and don’t forget the other muscle groups.
7. With any plan, start strength training slowly and build up to heavier weights and repetitions especially if you are new or out of shape. The old adage “no pain, no gain” is more often inappropriate and can be dangerous.
8. Practice balance exercises to help prevent falls and injuries. Balance techniques are used frequently as exercises in yoga or more simple forms of balancing exercises such as walking heal-to-toe, standing on one foot, or standing up and sitting down without using your hands.
9. Stretching exercises done twice a week helps keep flexibility, which is very important. Consider 10 minutes of stretching twice a week to improve your flexibility
   

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With any exercise program, it’s good to start slowly by warming up, then increasing the pace. A good cooling down afterwards is also equally important. With any new exercise plan, check with your doctor if you are at risk and follow the advice of qualified professionals.

See Heart Healthy – Exercise Tips for busy people for more ideas

Search for more information on Exercise and Fitness

 

Physical Activity & Public Health Guidelines are the most current recommendations created together by the ACSM and AHA.

 

Basic recommendations from ACSM and AHA:
Guidelines for healthy adults under age 65

Do moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week
— Or —
Do vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week
— And —
Do eight to 10 strength-training exercises, eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise twice a week.

 

Moderate-intensity physical activity means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still being able to carry on a conversation. It should be noted that to lose weight or maintain weight loss, 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary. The 30-minute recommendation is for the average healthy adult to maintain health and reduce the risk for chronic disease.

 

Guidelines for adults over age 65
(or adults 50-64 with chronic conditions, such as arthritis)

Do moderately intense aerobic exercise 30 minutes a day, five days a week
— Or —
Do vigorously intense aerobic exercise 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week
— And —
Do eight to 10 strength-training exercises, 10-15 repetitions of each exercise twice to three times per week
— And —
If you are at risk of falling, perform balance exercises
— And —
Have a physical activity plan.

http://www.heart.com/10-heart-healthy-exercise-tips.html