Prevent heart disease!
Advice from a DEBORAH cardiologist

The most common cause of death in the United States, resulting in nearly 900,000 deaths each year, is cardiovascular disease, which includes heart attack, stroke and heart failure. Atherosclerotic vascular disease (hardening of the arteries)—a type of coronary heart disease—is a common side effect of aging. For many, the plaque that causes atherosclerosis (composed of cholesterol, calcium and inflammatory cells) gradually builds up silently inside our arterial blood vessels. This plaque can grow to harden and narrow the blood vessel, causing chest pain (called angina pectoris). A plaque deposit inside an artery can also rupture suddenly, triggering the formation of a blood clot and stopping the flow of blood to heart muscle—a heart attack.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Robert James Schott, M.D., Deborah Heart and Lung Center’s Chair of Cardiology, notes that while these heart disease statistics are sobering, coronary artery disease (the most common type of heart disease) is almost completely preventable with a healthy lifestyle. He offers the following simple and straightforward—but sometimes hard to follow—advice to help you escape heart disease:

• Avoid tobacco. The relationship between smoking and heart disease was confirmed in the 1950s, and the number of smokers has dropped dramatically since then. It’s common knowledge that smoking causes cardiovascular disease, yet more than 20 percent of the adult population of the United States still smoke.
• Stay lean and active. About two-thirds of the adult population in the United States are overweight. Being overweight significantly increases your chance of developing type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes. In fact, about 90 percent of adults with diabetes are overweight or obese. Other complications of obesity and inactivity include high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Although diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure can all be managed with medication, they can largely be avoided by staying lean and fit. While it’s generally healthy to weigh the same as we did in our early 20s, on average we tend to gain 10 pounds a decade as we age. Avoid at least part of that weight gain and you’ll have a good chance of avoiding diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure medications.

Walk your way to health!

To learn about Deborah’s Healthy Hearts Club walking programs at Cherry Hill and Ocean County Malls, call 1-800-555-1990 or visit www.deborah.org.