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5 Ways to Keep Your Heart Healthy
Dr. Karen Wiarda, a cardiologist at Carle Heart and Vascular Institute in Mattoon, IL, discusses ways to keep your heart healthy.
Featuring:
Karen Wiarda, DO
Karen Wiarda, DO is a Cardiologist at Carle Heart and Vascular Institute in Mattoon, IL. Transcription:
Caitlin Whyte: Welcome to the Holly HealthCast, the monthly wellness podcast from Holly Health, your partner in helping you live your healthiest life.
Every month on our podcast, we address a new topic important to your health, bringing in expert doctors, therapists, and specialists who offer advice and answer your most pressing questions. February is American Heart Month. So today, we're talking heart health. Here with us is Dr. Karen Wiarda, a cardiologist at Carle Heart and Vascular Institute in Mattoon, Illinois.
Welcome Dr. Wiarda. It's so nice to have you here with us today. Now, let's jump right in. We're discussing five ways to keep our hearts healthy and happy. The first is knowing our risks. Can you tell us why knowledge is a powerful tool in heart health?
Karen P. Wiarda: So I think it's very important to know that heart disease is the leading cause of death. It is the number one United States cause of death. And it is also the leading global cause of deaths. Cardiovascular disease claims more lives each year than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined.
Coronary heart disease makes up for about 13% of the US deaths. The average age of the first heart attack is 65 and a half years old for males and 72 years old for females. And an American has a heart attack every 40 seconds on average, as well as a stroke on average every 40 seconds and strokes lead to about one of every 19 deaths. So it's really important to know what your risk is so we can avoid this happening from the beginning.
There are sort of four, I'm going to say, main categories of heart disease. Heart disease is a general category. And when you think of heart disease, you think of coronary artery disease, which is blockages in your heart that can lead to heart attacks and a weak heart. And there's congestive heart failure, which can be from a weak heart or it can be from a stiff heart, or it can be from both. And so about half of heart failure is weak heart, half of heart failure is stiff heart.
The most common stiff heart tends to be as we age, and it's a little bit more difficult to treat because it's because of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, sleep apnea. And so the best way to treat it is by avoiding it and by maximizing all of these different risk factors. The other disease that we strongly worry about is atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heart rhythm that increases your risk of strokes, but can also cause you to have significant symptoms of palpitations, lightheadedness, dizziness, things like that.
Then there's heart disease because you have different issues with the valves in your heart. So that's valvular heart disease and that can be a valve that's too leaky or it can be a valve that's too tight. And again, we look at pressures and flows in the heart that cause increased symptom if they're not where we need them to be.
So I think it's really important, one, to know your family history because your family history certainly tells you what your greatest risk is in terms of heart disease. But I think it's also really important to understand that your family history is honestly about 10% of the risk, and you can impact your family history by 90% and avoid having heart disease with lifestyle management and having a good, healthy diet, exercise, weight loss, getting good sleep, reducing stress, not smoking and not being a diabetic. So that's 90% of risk of heart disease lays in your hands to help reduce the risk.
Caitlin Whyte: And number two, we also need to talk about our blood pressure and cholesterol, keeping those in check. Tell us more about those.
Karen P. Wiarda: So your blood pressure is a significant risk factor for having heart disease, as well as your cholesterol. And so you want to know what your numbers are. You want to know what your blood pressure is on a regular basis, which is best if you buy a blood pressure cuff and you actually check your blood pressures at home, once you know that that cuff is accurate. And so the lower the blood pressure you have within, of course, the parameters of which is not running too low, then that reduces your risk of heart disease.
And so when you add pressure to the heart with an elevated blood pressure, it actually strains the heart and it can cause changes in the heart structurally and it can also cause blockages she's in the heart. And so it puts you at risk for all different kinds of heart disease.
Cholesterol mostly affects your vasculature, and so it affects the blood vessels in your heart and it can clog the blood vessels throughout your entire body and actually cause you to have blockages, cause the increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. And so you want to also know what your cholesterol numbers are and how you can best impact them. And the best way to impact all of these things is with a nice healthy diet.
And so when you look at the structural changes in your heart, it's about the pressures in your heart and the flow of the blood. And you want the best amount of pressure in your heart and the best amount of flow that you can possibly get. And so when you have blockages, you worry about a stable plaque or a vulnerable plaque. And our goal with cholesterol medicine and good blood pressure control and good diet and good blood pressure medications, and exercise is to keep these plaques stable so that even if you do have blockages, which we want to avoid, but if nothing else, we want to avoid heart attacks and keeping them stable.
Caitlin Whyte: So you've mentioned things like diet and exercise, and that brings us to number three, making small lifestyle changes. What are some things we can do every day to improve our heart health?
Karen P. Wiarda: So I think, one, it's really important to have a healthy diet. The single best thing that you can do is have a healthy diet. And the second single best thing you can do is get more physical activity. So it tends to be that in order to say lose weight, you tend to need a healthy diet. To maintain weight, you want to get more physical activity and exercise. But for overall health, they're both incredibly impactful.
Not smoking and quitting smoking is essential. The prevalence of obesity in the United States is 30.5 to 38.3% and it is rising and it is not reducing. The nice thing is tobacco risk is actually reducing. Sedentary lifestyle is actually the new tobacco, because people need to start moving more. And sedentary lifestyle about one in two adults live with chronic disease and only half of the adults are getting the necessary physical activity to help reduce and prevent chronic disease and enough physical activity to prevent one in 10 premature deaths.
The other thing that physical activity can do is reduce breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. So it's very important to get moving. I think it's really important just to have a basic understanding. You need 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity activity or 75 minutes of high intensity of a week and at least two days a week of muscle strengthening.
This can be a mix of things. It can be a mix of moderate intensity and high intensity. And generally, you always want to do the muscle work. And so when we talk about intensity, we talk about how much or how hard your body is working. And when we talk about aerobic capacity, we talk about how much your heart is beating and how much you're breathing harder.
So when we talk about moderate intensity and vigorous intensity, we talk about the talk test. So if you can talk, but you can't sing, that's moderate intensity. But if you can't say more than a few words without pausing for a breath, that's high intensity.
So you really want to get out and that's the thing about exercise is you want to make it as enjoyable as possible. So make it something you enjoy. If it's torture, you're not going to do it. So you want to do something you enjoy. If you enjoy walking, walk. If you enjoy biking, bike. If you enjoy swimming or have bad joints or knees, swimming is a great option because even just walking in the pool is a wonderful exercise.
The other thing is smoking. Smoking has a significant impact on the risk of heart disease and any possible way to quit smoking, you want to try to do that. And there's multiple medications out there now and there's multiple options to help you do that, including smoking cessation class, because group therapy and group work to help reduce behaviors, change behaviors is actually been shown to be incredibly effective.
And eating healthy, the focus is on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes and seeds. You want to have at least five fruits and vegetables a day. You want to avoid any processed food of any kind. So the least amount of time that you're opening boxes, the healthier that your diet is. And the fewer legs that you're eating, the healthier your diet is. So avoid meat, dairy, eggs, processed food, and focus on a whole food diet that you're preparing yourself.
Caitlin Whyte: Now here's a big one, managing stress is also vital to heart health. But in times like these, I mean, it's pretty difficult to keep stress at bay. Tell us more about the link between stress and heart health and how we can keep those stress levels as low as possible.
Karen P. Wiarda: Stress undoubtedly affects heart health. And there is actually a syndrome called stress-induced cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo syndrome where stress can actually cause a heart attack and it affects the function of the heart and typically it's not that you have blockages in your heart and that typically occurs in women, but that's how impactful stress can be.
And so it's really important to try to find ways to reduce stress. And stress, when we think of stress, I think we always think of just sort of being anxious, but stress comes in poor sleep, stress comes in poor diet, stress comes in financial, stress comes in not having the resources and stress comes in just not having this social support that you need.
And so it's really important to understand that people are there to help you. There are therapists, there are counselors, this virtual support groups. There is, you know, cardiac rehab to come in and exercise as a group and even exercising with a friend and being on a healthy path together can help reduce stress. But it's really important to find meditation or yoga or things that's going to help you reduce stress. And typically that means reaching out and getting the help that you need. And we certainly have the resources at Carle to help you do that. And we have multiple programs to help support you.
So you just need to speak to your doctor and ensure that you're getting the help that you need because there is help out there for you. And you may not even realize all the resources available to you.
Caitlin Whyte: And last but not least number five, we should always talk to our doctors and reach out to them for advice, guidance, and expert knowledge. Why is having your doctor on your side so important?
Karen P. Wiarda: It's so important because your doctor is going to help you to get where you need to be in life. They're going to help you to feel better. They're going to help you to make decisions. And they're going to work with you to guide you with the care that is the best care for you.
And so you need to make sure that you're comfortable with your doctor and that you have that conversations because they want to know. The more information they know, the better care that they can provide to you and have the relationship that you need to feel comfortable.
So open up to your doctors because they want to help. They want to have the conversations with you. They have the knowledge you need, but you have the knowledge about you. So they need you to impart their knowledge and you need to impart your knowledge. And then it's really important to start thinking about shifting from illness to wellness. Take control of your medical regimen, take control of your life and make changes that are necessary.
Basic message, bottom line is doctors want you to talk to them. They want you to be open with them and they want you to be healthy. So work together to find the best path to health.
Caitlin Whyte: Such important information and advice. Thank you so much, Dr. Wiarda. And thanks for all that you do at the Carle Heart and Vascular Institute in Mattoon.
That concludes today's Holly HealthCast. Tune in next month for a special episode for National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. And remember, Holly Health is your partner in helping you live your healthiest life. Visit holly.com for resources, information, tips, and much more. Let us help keep you and your family healthy and well.
Thanks for listening. We hope you tune in next month.
Caitlin Whyte: Welcome to the Holly HealthCast, the monthly wellness podcast from Holly Health, your partner in helping you live your healthiest life.
Every month on our podcast, we address a new topic important to your health, bringing in expert doctors, therapists, and specialists who offer advice and answer your most pressing questions. February is American Heart Month. So today, we're talking heart health. Here with us is Dr. Karen Wiarda, a cardiologist at Carle Heart and Vascular Institute in Mattoon, Illinois.
Welcome Dr. Wiarda. It's so nice to have you here with us today. Now, let's jump right in. We're discussing five ways to keep our hearts healthy and happy. The first is knowing our risks. Can you tell us why knowledge is a powerful tool in heart health?
Karen P. Wiarda: So I think it's very important to know that heart disease is the leading cause of death. It is the number one United States cause of death. And it is also the leading global cause of deaths. Cardiovascular disease claims more lives each year than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined.
Coronary heart disease makes up for about 13% of the US deaths. The average age of the first heart attack is 65 and a half years old for males and 72 years old for females. And an American has a heart attack every 40 seconds on average, as well as a stroke on average every 40 seconds and strokes lead to about one of every 19 deaths. So it's really important to know what your risk is so we can avoid this happening from the beginning.
There are sort of four, I'm going to say, main categories of heart disease. Heart disease is a general category. And when you think of heart disease, you think of coronary artery disease, which is blockages in your heart that can lead to heart attacks and a weak heart. And there's congestive heart failure, which can be from a weak heart or it can be from a stiff heart, or it can be from both. And so about half of heart failure is weak heart, half of heart failure is stiff heart.
The most common stiff heart tends to be as we age, and it's a little bit more difficult to treat because it's because of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, sleep apnea. And so the best way to treat it is by avoiding it and by maximizing all of these different risk factors. The other disease that we strongly worry about is atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heart rhythm that increases your risk of strokes, but can also cause you to have significant symptoms of palpitations, lightheadedness, dizziness, things like that.
Then there's heart disease because you have different issues with the valves in your heart. So that's valvular heart disease and that can be a valve that's too leaky or it can be a valve that's too tight. And again, we look at pressures and flows in the heart that cause increased symptom if they're not where we need them to be.
So I think it's really important, one, to know your family history because your family history certainly tells you what your greatest risk is in terms of heart disease. But I think it's also really important to understand that your family history is honestly about 10% of the risk, and you can impact your family history by 90% and avoid having heart disease with lifestyle management and having a good, healthy diet, exercise, weight loss, getting good sleep, reducing stress, not smoking and not being a diabetic. So that's 90% of risk of heart disease lays in your hands to help reduce the risk.
Caitlin Whyte: And number two, we also need to talk about our blood pressure and cholesterol, keeping those in check. Tell us more about those.
Karen P. Wiarda: So your blood pressure is a significant risk factor for having heart disease, as well as your cholesterol. And so you want to know what your numbers are. You want to know what your blood pressure is on a regular basis, which is best if you buy a blood pressure cuff and you actually check your blood pressures at home, once you know that that cuff is accurate. And so the lower the blood pressure you have within, of course, the parameters of which is not running too low, then that reduces your risk of heart disease.
And so when you add pressure to the heart with an elevated blood pressure, it actually strains the heart and it can cause changes in the heart structurally and it can also cause blockages she's in the heart. And so it puts you at risk for all different kinds of heart disease.
Cholesterol mostly affects your vasculature, and so it affects the blood vessels in your heart and it can clog the blood vessels throughout your entire body and actually cause you to have blockages, cause the increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. And so you want to also know what your cholesterol numbers are and how you can best impact them. And the best way to impact all of these things is with a nice healthy diet.
And so when you look at the structural changes in your heart, it's about the pressures in your heart and the flow of the blood. And you want the best amount of pressure in your heart and the best amount of flow that you can possibly get. And so when you have blockages, you worry about a stable plaque or a vulnerable plaque. And our goal with cholesterol medicine and good blood pressure control and good diet and good blood pressure medications, and exercise is to keep these plaques stable so that even if you do have blockages, which we want to avoid, but if nothing else, we want to avoid heart attacks and keeping them stable.
Caitlin Whyte: So you've mentioned things like diet and exercise, and that brings us to number three, making small lifestyle changes. What are some things we can do every day to improve our heart health?
Karen P. Wiarda: So I think, one, it's really important to have a healthy diet. The single best thing that you can do is have a healthy diet. And the second single best thing you can do is get more physical activity. So it tends to be that in order to say lose weight, you tend to need a healthy diet. To maintain weight, you want to get more physical activity and exercise. But for overall health, they're both incredibly impactful.
Not smoking and quitting smoking is essential. The prevalence of obesity in the United States is 30.5 to 38.3% and it is rising and it is not reducing. The nice thing is tobacco risk is actually reducing. Sedentary lifestyle is actually the new tobacco, because people need to start moving more. And sedentary lifestyle about one in two adults live with chronic disease and only half of the adults are getting the necessary physical activity to help reduce and prevent chronic disease and enough physical activity to prevent one in 10 premature deaths.
The other thing that physical activity can do is reduce breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. So it's very important to get moving. I think it's really important just to have a basic understanding. You need 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity activity or 75 minutes of high intensity of a week and at least two days a week of muscle strengthening.
This can be a mix of things. It can be a mix of moderate intensity and high intensity. And generally, you always want to do the muscle work. And so when we talk about intensity, we talk about how much or how hard your body is working. And when we talk about aerobic capacity, we talk about how much your heart is beating and how much you're breathing harder.
So when we talk about moderate intensity and vigorous intensity, we talk about the talk test. So if you can talk, but you can't sing, that's moderate intensity. But if you can't say more than a few words without pausing for a breath, that's high intensity.
So you really want to get out and that's the thing about exercise is you want to make it as enjoyable as possible. So make it something you enjoy. If it's torture, you're not going to do it. So you want to do something you enjoy. If you enjoy walking, walk. If you enjoy biking, bike. If you enjoy swimming or have bad joints or knees, swimming is a great option because even just walking in the pool is a wonderful exercise.
The other thing is smoking. Smoking has a significant impact on the risk of heart disease and any possible way to quit smoking, you want to try to do that. And there's multiple medications out there now and there's multiple options to help you do that, including smoking cessation class, because group therapy and group work to help reduce behaviors, change behaviors is actually been shown to be incredibly effective.
And eating healthy, the focus is on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes and seeds. You want to have at least five fruits and vegetables a day. You want to avoid any processed food of any kind. So the least amount of time that you're opening boxes, the healthier that your diet is. And the fewer legs that you're eating, the healthier your diet is. So avoid meat, dairy, eggs, processed food, and focus on a whole food diet that you're preparing yourself.
Caitlin Whyte: Now here's a big one, managing stress is also vital to heart health. But in times like these, I mean, it's pretty difficult to keep stress at bay. Tell us more about the link between stress and heart health and how we can keep those stress levels as low as possible.
Karen P. Wiarda: Stress undoubtedly affects heart health. And there is actually a syndrome called stress-induced cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo syndrome where stress can actually cause a heart attack and it affects the function of the heart and typically it's not that you have blockages in your heart and that typically occurs in women, but that's how impactful stress can be.
And so it's really important to try to find ways to reduce stress. And stress, when we think of stress, I think we always think of just sort of being anxious, but stress comes in poor sleep, stress comes in poor diet, stress comes in financial, stress comes in not having the resources and stress comes in just not having this social support that you need.
And so it's really important to understand that people are there to help you. There are therapists, there are counselors, this virtual support groups. There is, you know, cardiac rehab to come in and exercise as a group and even exercising with a friend and being on a healthy path together can help reduce stress. But it's really important to find meditation or yoga or things that's going to help you reduce stress. And typically that means reaching out and getting the help that you need. And we certainly have the resources at Carle to help you do that. And we have multiple programs to help support you.
So you just need to speak to your doctor and ensure that you're getting the help that you need because there is help out there for you. And you may not even realize all the resources available to you.
Caitlin Whyte: And last but not least number five, we should always talk to our doctors and reach out to them for advice, guidance, and expert knowledge. Why is having your doctor on your side so important?
Karen P. Wiarda: It's so important because your doctor is going to help you to get where you need to be in life. They're going to help you to feel better. They're going to help you to make decisions. And they're going to work with you to guide you with the care that is the best care for you.
And so you need to make sure that you're comfortable with your doctor and that you have that conversations because they want to know. The more information they know, the better care that they can provide to you and have the relationship that you need to feel comfortable.
So open up to your doctors because they want to help. They want to have the conversations with you. They have the knowledge you need, but you have the knowledge about you. So they need you to impart their knowledge and you need to impart your knowledge. And then it's really important to start thinking about shifting from illness to wellness. Take control of your medical regimen, take control of your life and make changes that are necessary.
Basic message, bottom line is doctors want you to talk to them. They want you to be open with them and they want you to be healthy. So work together to find the best path to health.
Caitlin Whyte: Such important information and advice. Thank you so much, Dr. Wiarda. And thanks for all that you do at the Carle Heart and Vascular Institute in Mattoon.
That concludes today's Holly HealthCast. Tune in next month for a special episode for National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. And remember, Holly Health is your partner in helping you live your healthiest life. Visit holly.com for resources, information, tips, and much more. Let us help keep you and your family healthy and well.
Thanks for listening. We hope you tune in next month.