Ten Ways To Prevent A Heart Attack

By Kaaren Valenta

Danbury Hospital’s new Regional Heart and Vascular Center brought its message out into the surrounding communities recently when it held an evening Medical Town Meeting, “Ten Ways to Prevent a Heart Attack,” at its health center in the Southbury Medical Building.

Speakers included Kevin Bill, program director of the Marcus Cardiac Rehabilitation Center at Danbury Hospital, and Michael M. Frymus, MD, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the Regional Heart and Vascular Center, which began its open heart surgery program in January.

After conducting a free blood pressure screening, Kevin Bill presented the ten steps everyone should follow to avoid having a heart attack:

1. Be physically active. Try to get at least 30 minutes of a vigorous type of exercise every day, or at least three or four times a week. This might include walking, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, gardening, bicycling, swimming, or cross-country skiing.

“Jogging is okay but it is hard on the hips and knees,” Mr Bill cautioned. “Weights are okay, but you don’t need anything fancy. Grab a can of peas from the cupboard and use it. Get out of a chair by using your legs, not your arms, to lift you.”

2. Eat a healthy diet with foods that are low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Limit saturated fat to no more than 25 to 30 percent of daily calories. Include six to eight servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Eat 25 to 40 grams of fiber; choose whole grains and beans. Include lean meats, poultry, fish. Eat low-fat dairy products to get 1,000–1,500 mg of calcium a day depending on age and gender.

“Calcium supplements are okay but it is better to get it from a food source,” Mr Bill said.

3. Maintain an acceptable weight. “If you are overweight, a weight loss of even five to ten pounds can help you start to feel better. You can also reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease,” Mr Bill said. “But you must cut your diet by 3,500 calories to lose one pound., so a safe weight loss is no more than one-half to one pound a week.”

4. Quite smoking. Smoking is the number one most modifiable risk factor for heart disease. Smoking raises blood pressure and heart rate and makes the blood clot more readily.

“The best way to stop smoking is whatever method works for you,” Mr Bill said.

5. Get your blood pressure checked regularly. Having blood pressure that is too high increases the workload of the heart and increases the risk of stroke, congestive heart failure, kidney disease, eye disease, and damage to the vessels in the body.

“Blood pressure of 120/80 is ideal as long as you aren’t woozy or lightheaded,” Mr Bill said. “A reading of 130/40 is prehypertensive, a reading that we try to get down with lifestyle changes. If lifestyle changes don’t work, we start with medications, such as diuretics — water pills — and others.”

6. Check your cholesterol. Having an abnormal cholesterol level increases the risk of heart disease.

“Lower is better,” Mr Bill said. “In an average person, a total cholesterol reading of 200 or lower is recommended. Triglycerides, fats in the blood, should be below 150. HDL, good cholesterol, should be 40 or more, and LDL of 130 or 120 is better. Someone with a heart condition should have an LDL of 70 or below.”

“One glass of red wine a day is good, if you drink, but don’t start if you don’t drink,” Mr Bill said. “And if you are overweight, lose weight.”

7. Recognize and treat diabetes, because people with diabetes are more likely to develop heart disease. People who are overweight, sedentary, and have elevated cholesterol are at increased risk for diabetes.

“We now call it Type II diabetes instead of adult diabetes because children are starting to get it in alarming proportions,” Mr Bill said. “Blood sugar should be 110 or below.”

8. Learn healthy ways to manage stress. The body responds to stress by increasing blood pressure and heart rate, releasing glucose into the blood stream, increasing muscle tension, and making the blood able to clot more readily. Anger, hostility, depression, and anxiety increase the stress response.

 “Be able to recognize stress and know what pushes your buttons,” Mr Bill said. “Take deep breaths, walk — ideally 20 to 30 minutes — and try things like yoga, meditation, and prayer.”

9. Have regular medical checkups.

10. Recognize the signs and symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. For men, pressure in the chest, pain radiating down an arm or back, and a feeling of nausea and clammy, are common. “Women are less likely to have chest pressure and pain; many more say they feel like they have the flu,” Mr Bill said.

Stroke is often characterized by weakness on one side of the body, or sometimes an intense headache. “Call 911 immediately if any of these symptoms appear,” Mr Bill advised.

A heart attack is a clot in an artery, Dr Frymus told the participants of the medical town meeting. “The proper term is myocardial infarction. If the heart muscle doesn’t get enough oxygen, it starts to die.”

A stress test is the best way to identify problems because often coronary problems are silent, he said. “The first symptom can be a heart attack,” he explained.

Dr Frymus said that more than 80 open heart surgeries, including coronary artery bypass and heart valve procedures, have been performed at Danbury Hospital since January. Beginning this summer, the hospital also will implement angioplasty, the standard for treating heart attacks.

“More than 40 percent of the surgery is done on patients who are over 80 years old,” Dr Frymus said. “The oldest patient was 96 but looked like 76.”

Dr Frymus is leading the development of the cardiothoracic surgical program with more than 15 years of experience and interests in adult cardiac surgery that include valve repair and replacement, off pump coronary revascularization, radial arterial graft conduits, minimally invasive approaches and mechanical circulatory support devices. He is joined by Dr Eugene Fernandes, also an experienced cardiothoracic surgeon. Andrew Keller, MD, is the chief of cardiology at the hospital.

For information about Danbury Hospital, visit danburyhospital.org or call 797-7247.