Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

heart-rehab-week-Caryn-Vale

Full Text:

It's Time To Care For Your Heart

(with photo)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

February is National Heart Month and this week is Cardiac Rehabilitation Week,

a good time to raise awareness about the nation's No. 1 killer, heart disease,

according to Caryn Vale.

Ms Vale knows well how debilitating heart disease can be. An exercise

physiologist with the Marcus Cardiac Rehabilitation Center of Danbuury

Hospital, she helps patients who have experienced a heart attack, bypass

surgery, coronary angioplasty or who have had other related cardiac

conditions. She knows the role that risk factors play in the prevention of

heart disease and the rehabilitation process.

"There are risk factors that you can't do anything about -- your age, for

example, your gender, or your family history of heart disease," Vale said. "If

you have a family history of heart disease, you must work on the risk factors

that you have the power to change or influence."

Modifiable risk factors include smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, high

cholesterol, and stress.

"Nicotine puts stress upon the heart and damages the artery walls which leads

to plaque buildup," she explained. "Carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke also

decreases the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood. The combined effect is more

stress on the heart."

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is another important risk factor

associated with coronary artery disease. A blood pressure reading of 120/80 is

considered normal; 140/90 is borderline hypertensive.

"Hypertension is a silent disease -- you just don't feel it," Caryn Vale said.

"The only way to find out if you have it is to have a blood pressure reading

done. But changes in exercise and diet, reducing the fat and cholesterol,

generally has an effect on your arteries which in turn reduces your blood

pressure."

Certain medications also can be prescribed by physicians if changes in diet

and exercise aren't enough to reduce blood pressure. Similarly, there are also

cholesterol-reducing drugs on the market now.

"Most people know now that HDL, high density lipoproteins, is called good

cholesterol, LDL (low density lipoproteins) is called bad. HDL of 35 is good;

over 40 is even better," Ms Vale said. "LDL should be below 100. Another

component, triglycerides (fats) can increase cholesterol so that level should

be below 150."

"Some doctors are getting very aggressive in treating hyper-lipidemia (high

cholesterol)," she said. "Although we say a total cholesterol of below 200 is

desirable for adults, they are looking for a ratio of less than 4.0 of total

cholesterol to HDL, or 3.0 ratio of LDL to HDL."

Exercise and diet -- eliminating a lot of red meat and other saturated fats --

help to reduce cholesterol levels, Vale said.

Obesity puts much strain on a heart, but if an individual loses weight that

usually normalizes cholesterol levels, normalizes triglicerides and normalizes

blood pressure, she said. It also lessens the likelihood of diabetes.

Diabetes, whether juvenile or adult onset, is a disorder characterized by

having high levels of glucose, a blood sugar that can damage the walls of

blood vessels. Insulin is the natural hormone that lowers blood sugar.

Juvenile diabetes, a type of diabetes that develops before age 30, is treated

primarily with injections of insulin. Adult-onset diabetes, on the other hand,

usually develops in patients over 40 years of age and can often be managed

with diet, exercise, weight control and, if necessary, oral medications.

Stress is definitely a risk factor in cardiopulmonary disease, too, Ms Vale

said.

"If you are a Type A personality, unable to relax, easily irritated, you are

at risk for a heart attack," she said. "When you get worked up, your heart

rate and blood pressure go up."

At the other extreme, "couch potatoes," who are physically inactive, also are

at risk. "The heart is a muscle and it won't work as well or be as strong if

it isn't exercised," she said.

Getting some exercise every day, even just a little, is important because it

will become a habit, she said. "Exercise works a miracle in preventing and

treating heart disease."

What is the best exercise? Anything you will do, she said.

"You should get aerobic exercise which works the big muscles -- walking,

biking, swimming -- for 20 to 30 minutes. To lose weight, you need to do 45

minutes of aerobic exercise and not increase your calorie intake.

"But you shouldn't do it seven days a week, you need to rest. Do it five days

a week, with spaced one-day breaks."

The Marcus Cardiac Rehabilitation Center helps patients who have experienced

heart attacks or surgery return to an active lifestyle and reduce the risk of

future cardiac events. In addition, it is a preventative program for

individuals who are at risk of developing cardiac heart disease.

Caryn Vale spoke in a program that was the fourth in a series sponsored by the

Parish Health Ministry at St Rose Church. For more information, call Sally

O'Neil, coordinator, at 426-2572.