Heart Health Part III: Leisure time Physical Activity

Continuing with the “American Hearth Month” theme for February I continue with heart disease issues on this and my other blog NewMexicoRD.blogspot.com. Here continues the discussion of modifiable risk factors for heart disease.

Physical inactivity is a risk factor for heart disease. If you are not a smoker and eat healthy, but don’t engage in regular physical activity, you are putting yourself at risk. If you choose the parking lot or parking space closest to your office or the entrance to the store, the thought of going for a walk is misery, or riding a bike is a childhood memory, your are putting yourself at risk.

I’ve mentioned it before, and it will likely be mentioned again, your leisure time physical activity:

• needs to be consistent. It should not last for a few days or a few weeks and then be forgotten until next New Years or health scare.
• needs to be moderate-vigorous. It should not be a stroll around the mall or sauntering around the park while your dog is running around sniffing everything. The more vigorous, the better.

Now, this is not saying to go from couch potato to hot potato, but work on becoming a moderate to vigorous exerciser. It does take time, several weeks to several months, to work up to the vigorous activity. If you start out vigorous, you will very likely end up back on the couch and vow to never return to activity again.

Even if you never get to “vigorous” but remain at “moderate” just go at it regularly and forever. Vow to be that person at the assisted living facility who is the first person to sign up for the guided walks and other activities and beat out the other folks on the 1-mile walk, because if you are one of the Americans who starts engaging if leisure time physical activity you can prevent or control your personal risk of high blood cholesterol, diabetes and most likely will lose weight and prevent or reduce your risk of becoming obese.

Don’t want to run or ride a bike? No one said you needed to. Just get outside and walk. Walk for 15 minutes at least 4 days a week. Do this for 2 weeks; the following week work towards 20 minutes on each of those 4 days. As you feel comfortable with it, keep moving up by 5-10 minutes each week or two until you have reached a minimum of 30 minutes, 5 days a week and ideally 60 minutes, 5 days a week. This is consistent with the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans that I blogged about back in November 2008.

This is so good for your heart, good for your weight, good for your blood pressure, good for your cholesterol, good for your blood sugar control, good for your bones, good for your joints, good for your stress levels, and great family time or alone time depending on which you choose.

If it is cold, bundle up. If it is hot, go early in the morning or in the evening and wear a hat. Either way, take water if you are going out more than 30 minutes.

NO EXCUSES! Heart disease has painful consequences if you wait too long, so get moving now.

Heart Health Part II: Are You Obese?

Continuing with the “American Hearth Month” theme for February I continue with heart disease issues on this and my other blog NewMexicoRD.blogspot.com. Here continues the discussion of modifiable risk factors for heart disease.

A major independent risk factor for heart disease is obesity. Simply put, obesity is defined as too much body fat, which unfortunately about a third of the country is classified as obese and another third of the country is overweight – making fully two-thirds of the nation with a risk factor for heart disease that they can do something about. And NO most of these people are not big boned or very muscular.

Previously I mentioned that you should know your numbers – blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose – and take some steps to improve those numbers. Being overweight or obese can increase blood pressure, increase total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, lower HDL cholesterol, and increase blood glucose. So the first step to improve those numbers: Lose Weight…

Even if these numbers are in “normal” ranges, obesity is still a risk factor for heart disease. The heart has to work harder every minute of every day to circulate the blood to the entire body.

How do you know if you are in the obese or overweight category? Generally speaking people who are in this category can do one of two things: calculate their BMI (aka Body Mass Index) or measure their waist circumference.

BMI measures and calculated a number based on your weight to your height and does not distinguish between men and women or lean body mass (bones, muscle, and water weight for example) and fat mass. It is your weight in kg divided by height in meters squared (kg/m2). There are many places on the web that can calculate it for you and tell you what it means. My favorite is the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, but you can “google” BMI to find one. A BMI value between 25.0 and 29.9 is overweight, and a BMI value of 30.0 or greater is considered obese.

Waist circumference is another way to measure your risk. Measure at your belly button, just so you know for next time where to measure again. Do not measure where you wear your pants, especially if you are a man, since many people wear their pants way below their fat/waist! IF you measure greater than 35 inches as a woman or greater than 40 inches as a man – you have a fat problem and need to do some work…Oh and if you want to suck it in when you measure, go ahead, but you are only sucking in air, not fat.

Do you need to lose weight? First thing, know you can reduce your risk by losing just 7-10% of your current body weight initially. That may not seem to daunting!

How do you lose the weight? Step 1: Don't do a silly crash diet. Step 2: Cut down on calories – don’t worry about cutting carbs, bread, white foods, blah, blah, blah…You HAVE to cut down on calories, so cut those portions down!

Step 3: Next post…will tell you another big key to help you with your weight/fat loss goal.

Heart Health Part I: Know Your Numbers

As January comes to a close I remind people to review the goals they set earlier this month and remember them as we roll into February, and the sweets begin to make a come-back: heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States.

Since 1963 congress has required the president to proclaim February as “American Heart Month.”

On both this and my other blog NewMexicoRD.blogspot.com, I will be dedicating the rest of January and all of February to heart disease issues.

From the Wellness perspective, there are modifiable risk factors for heart disease and non-modifiable risk factors. The non-modifiable risk factors, genetic, gender, and age you are just stuck with and as much as you may want to deny them, change them, and/or lie about them you can’t. So let’s discuss the ones you can change or modify.

The first one is your blood. Not your blood type, but the things about you and your risk for heart disease your blood can tell us.

Here is the first thing you need to do to lower you risk for heart disease: Know your numbers – and do something about those numbers.

1. Blood pressure – two numbers – the systolic and diastolic – current recommendations say that you want it to be less than 120/80 mm Hg.
2. Cholesterol numbers (aka lipid panel) taken after a 12 hour fast and you want ALL four numbers – and don’t accept any less than the four! You want to know the values of your:
   a. Total cholesterol – currently less than 200 mg/dl is desirable
   b. LDL (low density lipoprotein) – currently less than 100 mg/dl is optimal
   c. HDL (high density lipoprotein) – less than 40 mg/dl is not good, greater than 60 mg/dl is protective
   d. Triglycerides – less than 150 mg/dl is normal
3. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) taken after a 12 hour fast and you get – one number which should be anywhere between 70 – 100 mg/dl.

Each of these numbers being high, except HDL, is a risk factor for heart disease. A low HDL is a risk. The more numbers that are high, the more you are at risk. High blood glucose is also a risk for diabetes.

When you go to your health care provider for a check up, you should always have your blood pressure checked. When they do that, ask them to tell you or write down the numbers for you!

During your check-up each year or two you should be getting blood work done and it should include the lipid panel/profile and the glucose. About a week to ten days after the test is done, you should get a call from your provider with the results. Ask for the numbers, the results. Or better yet, ask them to mail or fax you a copy of the results or offer to go by and pick them up. These are your results and your records, so there is no reason why you shouldn't have a copy. This way you don’t have to worry about writing the numbers down wrong.

Keep track of these numbers and see how they are changing each year or two. You don’t want them to get worse/higher. You want them to get better (or stay the same if they are already good).

What to do to improve those numbers? Just keep checking in all through February…