"We've seen an increase in patients complaining about heart palpitations, anxiety and stress over the past months," Karol Watson, an associate professor of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, said in a news release issued by the school. "Much of heart disease can be prevented. That's why it is so important to follow a healthy lifestyle and to control your cardiovascular risk factors."
UCLA cardiologists offer these tips for adults and children in these tough economic times:
- Eat better; exercise more. Eat a healthy diet, including five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. By cooking simple fresh foods at home, rather than indulging in restaurant fare or fast foods, you can save money and your health. Maintaining a good diet and exercise program -- even if it's just 30 minutes of walking around the neighborhood -- helps you prevent obesity, which adds to the risk of heart attacks, heart failure and diabetes.
- Don't skimp on health care. Putting off doctor visits, especially when you have symptoms, hurts your health more in the long run, as does skipping medications or splitting pills to cut costs. Maintain regular checkups. Look at pharmaceutical company prescription programs if medication costs are a concern for you.
- Stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke. Smoking is an expensive habit that greatly increases your risk of cardiovascular problems. Quitting smoking quickly reduces the risk to your heart.
- Reduce stress. Find a positive outlet -- such as exercise, meditation or the company of others -- to ease stress and improve your health.
- Maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Get your levels checked and talk to your physician about the best plan of action to keep your LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels low and your HDL ("good") cholesterol levels high.
- Check your blood pressure. Hypertension is called the "silent killer," because it exhibits few warning signs. Today, several effective treatments are available for high blood pressure. If your blood pressure is normal, maintain it with a healthy lifestyle.
The American Heart Association has more about maintaining a heart healthy lifestyle.
1 comment:
Exercise has been really a very important factor for the people of today’s generation. And especially exercise really helps heart patient more than anything. I have got an enlarged heart because of inability of pumping. I was also having a defective valve, which led me to be a sinus tachycardia patient. I got to know at my medical checkup at my campus. And being very young to face all this, I was really frightened regarding all these health issues. I need someone to monitor my health and keep an eye on my health as well as daily health issues. Getting an internist hired was just not the solution to the problem. I got to know about some kind of wellness program from elite health (www.elitehealth.com) Medical Service Provider Company. I got enrolled in it, as they were providing me 24/7 access to the doctors. Especially, I got one unexpected and quite a surprising opinion from their health executive who used to monitor my health and guide me the appropriate dietary solutions. He told me to have a regular exercise daily. I thought he is really mad, or planning to kill me. Ha Ha. .. But my regular exercise! Not so heavy, the results came out to be positive. I was really feeling better and healthier as compared to previous conditions. So, indirectly, exercise has really helped me suppress my health issues, especially the problems we generally face while having heart failure.
Post a Comment