Slidell Memorial Hospital Cardiology Services Heart Health Series: Part 1

Living in Louisiana, your chances of getting heart disease are high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 7.8% of Louisianans have heart disease. That makes our state third in the nation, and a "hot spot” for this deadly condition that claims the lives of one in four Americans every year.

At Slidell Memorial Hospital, we are dedicated to keeping you healthy, and improving the odds for Louisiana in the fight against heart disease. This is the first in a three part series of articles we’ve written to give you information about how our state-of-the-art cardiology services coupled with common sense lifestyle changes you can make on your own will help you prevent, detect, and if necessary, treat heart disease.

Part I: Heart Disease Prevention

"An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure.” – Benjamin Franklin

When it comes to preventing heart disease, Mr. Franklin’s words ring so true. That’s because heart disease is largely preventable, to the point where some might even call it a "lifestyle” disease brought about because of choices we make rather than because of hereditary predisposition or simple "bad luck.”

Being overweight and sedentary, smoking, and eating a diet high in sugar, saturated and trans-fats can put you at high-risk for heart disease even if no one in your family ever had it.

At the same time, some risk factors or other conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, could be hereditary, or the result of those other lifestyle choices. Regardless, how you manage them is a choice in itself. Following doctors’ orders about diet, exercise and taking your medication can go a long way towards preventing heart disease.

Know Your Risks

The following are the top three risk factors to consider in your own life. The CDC reports that about half of Americans(49%) have at least one of these three risk factors:

· High blood pressure,

· High LDL cholesterol

· Smoking

Other than the top three, there are several medical conditions and lifestyle choices you need to consider:

· Diabetes

· Overweight or obesity

· Poor diet

· Physical inactivity

· Excessive alcohol use

Take Preventive Measures Now

Once you know your risk factors, it’s vital that you take steps to reduce their number or impact immediately. Every day counts, especially when it comes to things like quitting smoking, or treating your high cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes. Don’t think that just because you’ve been an overweight smoker who loves to eat fatty food that it’s too late - it’s not.

The damage caused by smoking is cumulative

, and the longer you smoke, the greater your risk for heart disease and other life-threatening conditions. But quitting smoking at any age will benefit your health.

"Your health will improve even if you quit at 70," says Norman H. Edelman, MD, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, dispelling some commonly-believed myths associated with smoking,

The benefits of quitting start the day you stop. "Within a month, you will feel like you have more air, because you do. Within a year, your risk of having a heart attack will be cut by 50%, says Michael C. Fiore, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin.

According to the American Cancer Society, smokers who quit before age 35 prevent 90% of the risk of health problems from smoking. A smoker who quits before age 50 halves his/her risk of dying within the next 15 years compared to someone who continues to smoke.

The same is true for weight loss. The good news is that no matter what your weight loss goal is, even a loss of 5 - 10 percent of your total body weight, can improve blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugars. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, a 5 percent weight loss equals 10 pounds, bringing your weight down to 190 pounds. While this weight may still be in the "overweight" or "obese" range, this modest weight loss can still lower your risk factors for heart disease.

The other good news is that even modest success in the areas of weight loss and smoking can lead to continued success and easier maintenance over time. Once you see results from your weight loss efforts, you’re going to be inspired to keep up with them. Once you realize how much easier it is to breathe, how much less often you get sick, or feel worn out when you start smoking less, or quit altogether, you’re going to want to resist any cravings that much more.

Get the Support You Need, Any Way You Can

We don’t mean to suggest it’s easy, or that you can succeed overnight in changing ingrained habits that are part of your identity, or that seem to make your life more enjoyable in the near term. We know it’s hard, and encourage you to get as much support as you can from friends, family, doctors, even support groups of others who share the same risks.

Tell everyone in your life what you are trying to do. Perhaps they need to embark on the same journey and will be inspired to join you!

If you don’t personally know anyone, or are too busy to get "real life” support, consider one of the many new online support forums, or apps. Here is a list of some of the best out there to try:

Quit Smoking

Reddit Stop Smoking Forum - This encouraging community is a place for members who seek motivation to quit, and is filled with stories, words of encouragement and advice. A yellow badge appears next to your username with a number, signifying the number of days since quitting.

Quit It - The app is geared toward information as motivation. You plug in the number of cigarettes you smoke, cost per pack and the time you quit smoking. The app does the math and delivers information based on your specifics.

The status screen tracks the amount of time since you quit, the money you've saved, cigarettes not smoked and the tar associated with that number. The app also includes a number of health goals, which monitors your progress as time continues.

One smoker reported that he keeps the app in his phone even though he successfully quit just to check back and see how much money he saved over the past year—a number that keeps him from even thinking about lighting up again.

Kwit - Uses game techniques to encourage quitting. Some people like the challenge of "winning” to keep them motivated.

Lose Weight

Believe it or not, some studies have shown that people trying to lose weight lose more when they use the Internet for support. But even if you won’t lose more in terms of pounds, support you can get from online forums and apps will boost your motivation and make you more likely to succeed in reaching even modest goals. Here are a few to try:

MyFitnessPal - My Fitness Pal provides calorie counts for more than 3.5 million foods and 300 exercises, a goal and calorie tracking tool, and a barcode scanner. Unlike other diet apps, all the features are free and built-in.

It's hard to ignore the convenience of Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker. Data is backed up in the cloud so it's easily accessible through your computer or the app itself. You can customize your goals and receive reports based on your progress and the food you have logged in.

Fitocracy – Like Kwit for smoking, Fitocracy treats weight loss almost like a game: Start at level 1 and move up by completing certain activities, training, and interacting with other "Fitocrats." Along the way, you also earn badges; so-called "heroes" can "duel" a fellow Fitocrat.

Fitocracy offers a "hero account" for $4.99 a month that gives you access to weekly reports on your activity, private messaging, and dueling rights that let you challenge other users.

Lose It! – This app features a barcode scanner, a food and exercise tracking function, and exercises. It includes a "budgeting" feature for future calories. Lose It!'s paid features ($39.99/year) include meal and workout planning, a pedometer, notepad, specified goals, and integration with other devices and apps such as Nike+ and Jawbone Up. Its free features only allow for tracking weight loss goals and linking with Facebook, Twitter, and Nike Fuelband.

Nike+ Training Club - Rather than keeping track of calories, this weight-loss app focuses on exercise and working out. Nike+ Training Club provides exercise videos with voice guidance for clarity, and much like Fitocracy, a motivation/rewards system; this one unlocks videos featuring various trainers. There is integration with Facebook and Twitter, targeted and full-body workouts, and best of all, music to accompany those workouts.

Finally, if you have several risk factors for heart disease, see your doctor for a referral to one of our excellent cardiologists. Knowledge about where you stand now can be a powerful ally in terms of providing motivation to reach your health goals, and in terms of getting you on the right medication and non-invasive treatment plan to prevent further heart damage.

Conclusion

In 2004, SMH became thefirst facility in East St. Tammany Parish to offer multi-slice CT scanning, which provides highly detailed images of the circulatory system and internal organs.With this information, our cardiology specialists can help you tailor a preventive plan to suit your specific needs.

Then, be sure to follow your doctor’s instructions and stay on your medications.

Most important, remember it’s never too late to start reducing your risk of death from heart disease. Slidell Memorial Hospital Cardiology Services are here to help you every step of the way.

As a 229-bed acute care hospital located in the heart of Slidell, LA, Slidell Memorial Hospital provides access to cardiology services, as well as the latest treatments, technology and expert physicians.