Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease For Dummies. James M. Rippe

of American teenagers get no regular physical activity.

      ✔ Approximately 17 percent of children and youths, ages 2 to 19, are obese, another risk factor for heart disease.

      To find out how you can teach your children heart-healthy habits that will last a lifetime, head to Chapter 7.

       If you’re older

      Unfortunately, many Americans expect heart trouble to be part of their older years. That need not be so. And if you are older and, for that matter, even if you already have heart disease, you can do plenty to avoid being part of these statistics:

      ✔ Approximately 80 percent of deaths from heart disease occur in people older than 65.

      ✔ More than 70 percent of men and women aged 60 to 79 have cardiovascular disease. For people age 80 and older, the percentage having heart disease rises to 83 percent of men and 87 percent of women.

      ✔ After age 55, the incidence of stroke doubles with each decade of life.

      ✔ Two of the most frequent causes of hospitalization for older adults are coronary atherosclerosis and congestive heart failure.

       Reversing the Risks for Heart Disease

      No matter what your overall health now – even if you already have heart disease or have had a heart attack – clinical research shows that working to reduce your risk factors for heart disease can greatly reduce your risks of developing heart disease, help you to halt the progression of atherosclerosis, and, if you have had a heart event, greatly reduce the risk of a second event. Take a look at what research reveals about how you can improve your health:

      ✔ If you have a diagnosis of atherosclerosis or symptoms of coronary heart disease, modifying risk factors such as high blood pressure, blood cholesterol problems, physical inactivity, and being overweight can reduce your risk of a future heart attack or the need for coronary artery angioplasty or bypass surgery, and add years to your life. With lifestyle modifications and appropriate medical therapies, many individuals can bring all these risks back into the healthy range.

      ✔ Appropriate physical activity or exercise improves the ability to perform activities comfortably for people with angina and people who’ve had heart attacks or even coronary surgery.

      ✔ Weight loss can help control cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and diabetes – conditions that contribute to the continued progress of heart disease.

      ✔ If you smoke and have had a heart attack, quitting smoking significantly reduces your risk of having a second heart attack or experiencing sudden death.

      ✔ Over the last 30 years, a number of studies examining the possibility of reversing atherosclerosis, the narrowing of the coronary arteries, suggest that rigorous lifestyle modifications supported by appropriate medications can halt the progression of atherosclerosis and may lead to a degree of regression of atherosclerosis for many individuals.

      You can find strategies for tackling several of these risk factors in Part II.

       Reversing Heart Disease – Hope or Hype?

      When Thomas Wolfe’s famous novel You Can’t Go Home Again came out in 1940, most people thought his title had hit on one true thing. For many years, cardiologists believed that same truth applied to coronary heart disease: Once you had this progressive, relentless condition, you might be able to slow down the process, but you couldn’t actually reverse it – you couldn’t go home again.

      But in medicine, as in life, the quest to go home again continues. Cardiologists now know that yes, you can control a number of contributing risk factors to heart disease and thus, for many people, halt the progression of CHD in its tracks. If you have coronary heart disease and want to make this happen, however, you’re going to have to stop cold and make major changes in how you eat, exercise, work, and generally live your life. You usually have to take lipid-lowering (cholesterol and other fats) medicines, too. But as long as you’re willing to do your part and adopt these strict measures, you can look forward to more hope than hype in the promise that you can stop your CHD where it is. In some cases, you may even be able to reduce the lesions, called plaque, that grow in the artery walls and that result in narrowed arteries and ruptures and clots that cause heart disease and heart attacks.

      

Before going any further, I want to emphasize two points. If you’re thinking that, given the good news, you can live a life of sin (sloth and gluttony of the seven deadly sins come to mind) and then later repent and turn the negative health effects around, forget about it! Preventing heart disease is always better than to trying to stop it or reverse it. Likewise, this book is not a do-it-yourself manual if you have symptoms of heart disease or have been diagnosed with it. You need to work with your cardiologist.

      

Can coronary artery disease regress? There isn’t a simple answer to this question. But a number of studies in animals and humans show promise. The goal of reversing heart disease doesn’t just require reducing the amount and size of the narrowings in coronary arteries; it also requires that the lining of the arteries, called the endothelium, be restored to its normal function, that inflammation be controlled, and that many of the physiological entities that contribute to the progression of heart disease be returned to their proper function. You can see how complicated this process is going to be. (You can read more about how coronary heart disease develops in Chapter 2.)

      

The lifestyle strategies this book details will typically help you prevent heart disease and manage and even reverse any risk factors for heart disease that you have. However, many people will require not only significant lifestyle modifications but also the appropriate medications to lower their risks. That’s why you should always work with your doctor to have regular checkups. Then, if you are diagnosed with risks for heart disease or with heart disease itself, you and your doctor can work as partners to plan the best therapeutic program for you. Research is bringing new insights all the time, and your cardiologist will be your best source of up-to-date strategies. Head to Part IV for information about medications, surgical options, and complementary therapies used for heart disease.

       Taking Charge of Your Heart Health

      Without question, heart disease is a serious enemy. In fact, it’s the biggest enemy. But you can take charge of your heart health, whatever its present state.

      

As I often like to say: Ipsa scientia potestas est, or knowledge is power. For that reason, the remainder of this book is full of information that can empower you to understand the basics about heart health and heart disease and partner with your physician in putting the power of simple lifestyle practices and medical technology to work for you. Taking control of your heart health offers other wonderful upsides for living well that include the following:

      ✔ Improving your overall health: Many of the steps that benefit your heart health also improve your total health and fitness, to say nothing of your good looks.

      ✔ Increasing functionality: Use it or lose it, goes the old saying. The healthier your heart, the greater the probability that you can stay active, mobile, and engaged in pursuits that interest you for a long, long time.

      ✔ Increasing economic benefits: The healthier you are, the lower your healthcare costs, and the more money in your pocket for fun things.

      ✔ Increasing longevity: Keeping your heart healthy is not an iron-clad guarantee that you’ll live longer, but considering the mortality rates of people with heart disease (reviewed earlier in this chapter), even card-carrying “Dummies” can figure out that keeping your heart as healthy as possible can keep the