Simple steps to a healthier heart

Are you at risk of a heart attack?

While factors beyond your control exist that can increase your risk such as a family history of heart disease, there are choices you can make that may prevent serious problems later.

The experts you can trust at Adena Heart and Vascular Institute offer the following tips to help you take control of your heart health.

• Take steps to control your stress and anxiety. When your body is under constant stress, it releases a hormone known as cortisol designed to aid in the body’s short-term response to stress and danger. Over long periods of stress and anxiety, however, it can lead to high blood pressure and high cholesterol, both contributing factors to heart disease. Identifying and attempting to eliminate stressors, breathing exercises, and meditation can all naturally help with stress and anxiety control.
• Take your nutrition seriously. By controlling portion sizes, reducing unhealthy fats and processed meats, and eating more fruits, vegetables, and fiber, you can improve your overall health, control your weight, and reduce your risk of developing heart disease.
• Get moving. Taking even a short time away from the stresses of everyday life for moderate exercise such as a brisk walk or swimming can pay huge dividends. The American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes each week of such exercise, or just 30 minutes a day at least five days a week.
• Don’t light up. If you smoke, you increase your risk of developing heart disease. If you are having trouble quitting and wish to do so, speak with your primary care physician about how the Adena Quit Clinic may be able to help.

Not everyone experiences heart attack symptoms in the same way. Common signs to watch for, however, include pressure in the chest that may radiate down the left arm, extreme shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, and sharp pain in the back, arm, neck or jaw area. Some of those symptoms may mimic other conditions such as indigestion.

“If you are having symptoms you are worried about that are out of the ordinary for you, you should get checked out, particularly if you have risk factors for a heart attack like a family history, diabetes, high cholesterol, or smoking,” said Adena cardiologist Binnie Desai, MD. “The only way to truly know is to be evaluated.”

Offering screenings that are easier on the patient and more capable of detecting signs of heart disease at an earlier stage, Adena Heart and Vascular Institute provides advantaged levels of technology that doesn’t require patients driving to the big cities. By choosing to get a coronary CT scan or cardiac MRI, you can help your care team find any areas of concern in your heart health so action can be taken sooner rather than later.

The team at Adena Heart and Vascular Institute wants to be a partner in your heart health. To learn more visit Adena.org/heart, or to make an appointment call 740-779-4570.