Heart Disease: Minimize Your Risk to Maximize Your Life
2/8/08
Heart health is a hot topic these days. And with heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States, it is no wonder.
At the RWJ Hamilton Cardiac Catheterization Lab, our cardiology team, with the help of advancements in medicine and technology,
is saving lives every day.
Jay Patel, MD, FACC, FACP, FSACI, director of interventional cardiology at RWJ Hamilton, recommends a preventative
approach to heart health so that emergency cardiac care doesn't become the only option.
Know Your Risk Factors
There are two categories of heart disease risk factors, modifiable and nonmodifiable.
Non-modifiable risk factors are those that cannot be controlled, while modifiable risk factors are those that can be monitored and/or modified with lifestyle changes.
How Does Smoking Cause My Arteries to Become Blocked?
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| Dr. Jay Patel, director of interventional cardiology, advises patients to enroll in a
smoking cessation program to decrease damage to the heart.
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Dr. Patel offers this analogy: Imagine you are in a room with walls of drywall covered with plaster.
The room represents your artery, the sheet rock is the arterial wall, and the plaster represents a group of cells that work to
provide a clean, protective layer along your arterial walls.
Smoking, says Dr. Patel, is like a chisel that cuts away at the plaster. It prevents those cells from doing their job.
As a result, the walls begin to chip away leaving areas of vulnerability along the wall. Cholesterol then builds up in those
weak spots causing a blockage. "The fewer weak areas there are along the arterial walls, the less likely it is that cholesterol
will build up," explains Dr. Patel.
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Modifiable Risk Factors
- Hypertension/High Blood Pressure
- Elevated Cholesterol
- Diabetes
- Obesity and Overweight
- Smoking
- Physical Inactivity
Non-modifiable Risk Factors
- Increasing Age
- Male
- Family History of Heart Disease
"Our goal is to minimize a person's risk factors with primary prevention, or prevention of a first heart attack," says Dr. Patel. "For those patients who have already had a heart attack, our goal is to prevent subsequent attacks." Dr. Patel encourages patients who exhibit one or more risk factors to make lifestyle changes including regular exercise, adopting a healthier diet and quitting smoking.
Blood Pressure and Cholesterol
High blood pressure and elevated cholesterol are risk factors that may go unnoticed if not checked regularly. These two risk factors often go hand-in-hand with others such as diabetes and advanced age.
"The higher number of risks, the lower we want the cholesterol and blood pressure to be," says Dr. Patel. Total cholesterol is the combination of the HDL cholesterol level (good cholesterol) and the LDL cholesterol level (bad cholesterol). The total, he explains, should be below 200 in the average person. "We generally want to see the good cholesterol above 40. The bad cholesterol level shouldn't go above 100 in a person with other risk factors," he says.
As recently as 2003, the ideal normal resting blood pressure was defined as below 120/80 in a report from the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Those with blood pressure consistently 140/90 or higher are defined as hypertensive.
If your reading falls between the two levels, you are in the pre-hypertensive category, according to the new guidelines. "Make the appropriate lifestyle changes early because blood pressure will only increase with age," says Dr. Patel.
Smoke Signals
Studies have shown smoking contributes to a host of medical problems, including heart disease. Nonetheless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 21 percent of Americans 18 and older continue to smoke. Dr. Patel says, "There is no magic method to stop smoking. We encourage people to try any healthy approach to quit. This includes smoking cessation classes, support groups, and even acupuncture."
There is No Better Time to Quit Smoking - Let Us Help!
More About RWJ Hamilton
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton (RWJ Hamilton) is the only New Jersey hospital to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Located in Hamilton Township, NJ, the hospital is part of the RWJ Health System and Network and is affiliated with the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey-RWJ Medical School and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
The RWJ Hamilton Health Care Corporation serves communities within a five-county area and includes an acute care hospital, the Cancer Institute of New Jersey Hamilton, three affiliated medical groups, seven Lakeview Child Centers, and the RWJ Hamilton Center for Health & Wellness, home of a medically-based fitness center and the hospital's extensive community education program. Over 1,900 hospital employees and 650 medical staff physicians share RWJ Hamilton's passion for Excellence Through Service.
For more information, visit www.rwjhamilton.org.
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