KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Early intervention is crucial: You should start prioritizing heart health as early as possible, ideally around age twenty, to establish a baseline and gain long-term benefits.
• Lifestyle changes reduce risk: Adopting a heart-healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, and maintaining a regular exercise routine are the most effective ways to lower your risk of heart disease.
• Know your numbers: Regular screenings for cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar allow you and your provider to monitor your risk and intervene before serious issues arise.
SUMMARY:
Maintaining cardiovascular wellness requires proactive steps at every stage of life. A cardiologist outlines essential screenings and preventative measures for maintaining cardiovascular wellness at every stage of life. Learn about critical baseline tests young adults should schedule, including cholesterol and blood pressure screenings, and the power preventative lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise and a heart-healthy diet, have in reducing disease risk. It is also important to recognize heart attack symptoms, understand the role of wearable technology in monitoring health, and maintain open communication with healthcare providers regarding medication and risk management.
Keeping your heart healthy is crucial for a long and healthy life. From baseline tests to diet changes and regular monitoring tips, our heart health checklist will empower you to improve your heart health.
It is never too early to develop a heart-healthy lifestyle. “Starting as early as possible is important, especially for people with a family history of heart disease,” says Alexander Aldrich, MD, a cardiologist at OhioHealth.
Heart health baseline tests
Starting around age 20, there are a few tests that should be done to assess your risk of developing heart disease.
Dr. Aldrich says your testing program might involve the following:
- Cholesterol screening: Measuring your cholesterol is an important and easy way to assess your risk of developing heart disease. Also known as a lipid panel, your test will measure your total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol), LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) and triglycerides. Most healthy young adults should have their cholesterol checked every four to six years. Your provider will determine if you need the test more often.
- Specialized cholesterol screening: Regarding coronary heart disease, LDL is not the only bad player. There are other lipoproteins capable of carrying cholesterol into the walls of your arteries, and it turns out that the number of these particles is super important for predicting heart disease. Since each of these lipoproteins contains one copy of a protein called apolipoprotein B (ApoB), checking ApoB levels can determine the number of these heart disease-causing particles in the bloodstream. In addition, checking the level of a particularly risky cholesterol-carrying lipoprotein called lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a) can be beneficial. Lp(a) is the most common genetic cholesterol abnormality and can play a significant role in the development of heart disease.
- Blood pressure and waist circumference: Your blood pressure and waist circumference should also be monitored. High blood pressure often does not cause symptoms and can significantly increase your risk of heart disease. An increased waist circumference suggests a higher amount of visceral fat (fat that builds up around internal organs), which is strongly associated with heart disease.
- Blood sugar testing: Because diabetes can increase your risk for many chronic health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, annual screening for diabetes should be performed.
- Coronary artery score (CAC score): “For older patients, a CAC score can be helpful in understanding personalized risk a little better,” Dr. Aldrich explains. A CAC score is a non-invasive test that looks at the amount of calcium build-up in the coronary arteries, which can indicate the presence of plaque and the risk of heart disease.
Preventive heart care
How often you see your provider for cardiac health screenings depends on the health of your heart. In general, healthy people with no personal or family history of heart disease can see their primary care provider once a year for routine risk assessment. Those with a higher risk for heart disease will likely need more frequent check-ins or will need to see a cardiologist for regular cardiac testing and preventative treatments.
In addition to regular screening for cardiovascular disease, it is important to understand the warning signs and symptoms of serious heart issues. Seek medical evaluation if you experience any of the following symptoms: new onset of shortness of breath, pain, burning or tightness in the chest with exertion that resolves at rest. Unrelenting symptoms at rest require emergency evaluation.
Dr. Aldrich emphasizes that these signs can vary significantly. “Symptoms that are brought on by exertion and relieved by rest are the main thing we worry about,” he says. “Certain patients don’t present with classic chest pain or heaviness symptoms. More often, women and patients with conditions like diabetes may present with atypical symptoms like nausea or stomach issues.”
Heart healthy lifestyle changes
A healthy lifestyle is crucial to keeping your heart, body and mind healthy. An optimal heart health strategy includes regular exercise, a heart-healthy diet, plenty of sleep and methods to reduce stress levels.
“Exercise and a healthy diet are the most important things you can do to reduce your risk for heart disease,” says Dr. Aldrich. “Diet and exercise have so many benefits to almost every disease state, not just heart disease. They make you feel better and improve your mood.” Excluding high-risk genetic disorders, most heart attacks are preventable if you make a heart-healthy lifestyle a priority in life.
In addition to cardiovascular benefits, regular exercise can boost your mental health and reduce your risk of dementia. Dr. Aldrich notes that aerobic exercise (cardio or any exercise that gets your heart rate up for a sustained period of time) and strength training are both vital components of a healthy routine. Adopting a new exercise routine is not always easy. Try to set realistic goals, so you can achieve early wins, or find a partner to join you on your journey to cardiovascular fitness.
A heart-healthy diet not only reduces your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but also helps you shed excess weight. Along with limiting saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, sugar and processed food, a heart-healthy diet includes:
- Plenty of fruits, vegetables and other high-fiber foods.
- Lean protein from fish, chicken and turkey.
- Legumes such as beans, chickpeas and lentils.
- Whole grains like brown rice, quinoa and farro
- Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats from olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds and fish
- Limiting alcohol and caffeine.
“The Mediterranean diet probably has the best evidence behind it as a set of foods that can reduce the risk for heart disease,” says Dr. Aldrich.
Stress is also a well-known risk factor for a heart attack or stroke. But regular exercise, a healthy diet and plenty of sleep can help reduce your stress and anxiety levels, in addition to improving your heart health. Meditation, journaling and breathing exercises can also help you manage your stress levels.
Wearable devices like smartwatches and rings can help you monitor your heart health, especially for people with conditions like atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat) who need to track their heart rate. “Smartwatches can help you monitor things, but just wearing a smartwatch doesn’t make you healthier,” Dr. Aldrich clarifies.
Work with your doctor
While there are many ways to reduce your risk of developing heart disease, there are some risk factors that cannot be controlled with lifestyle modification alone. Some people are resistant to taking cholesterol-lowering medications, but an open-minded discussion with your doctor regarding the risks and benefits is essential.
“Unfortunately, our risk for heart disease only gets higher as we get older, but the point is that medications and lifestyle changes help reduce risks,” says Dr. Aldrich. “It doesn’t make me feel any better to have a patient on a medicine. It makes me feel better to know we’re reducing their risks.”
Early intervention is what matters most. We often do not think about this until we are older, but being proactive is key. As Dr. Aldrich reminds us, “You may be developing heart disease for a very long time before you actually have symptoms of it or have a heart attack. That’s why it’s so important to focus on these things early.”
Want to learn more about how to keep your family heart healthy? Listen to a recent episode of The Wellness Conversation about this topic here.
