{"id":158057,"date":"2020-02-03T15:34:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T20:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=158057"},"modified":"2020-02-03T15:34:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T20:34:27","slug":"7-steps-cardiovascular-health-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/02\/7-steps-cardiovascular-health-life\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Steps for Cardiovascular Health for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The majority of cardiovascular disease is preventable. That\u2019s why it\u2019s vital for each of us to take steps to modify our risk factors to avoid experiencing a heart attack or stroke in our lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrevention of cardiovascular disease is really key,\u201d says Dr. Peter Robinson of the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at UConn Health, an assistant professor of medicine and an interventional cardiologist in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at UConn Health, where he is on the frontlines treating heart attack patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut finding the time to eat healthy and exercise often seems like a luxury,\u201d admits Robinson. \u201cAs we lead busier and busier lives, unhealthy food is easier to grab while on the go, healthy food options are more expensive and time-consuming to prepare, and our daily stress levels are on the rise leading to less than optimal lifestyle choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while it\u2019s difficult, with less than 1% of men and 5% of women over 45 years of age meeting the definition of ideal cardiovascular health, Robinson stresses that it\u2019s not impossible to obtain ideal cardiovascular health for life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to keep a healthy lifestyle and modify our risk factors as early in our lives as possible. We should all strive daily to do better when it comes to protecting our heart health from the ravages of heart disease,\u201d says Robinson. \u201cWe do need to stay vigilant about our heart health but also need to remain realistic and keep in mind that we can only control what we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Robinson research shows that nearly everyone already has the beginning stages of heart disease with initial fatty deposit streaks lining our cardiovascular system\u2019s arteries as early as in our adolescent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe start of cardiovascular disease is in essentially all of us to some degree, so it\u2019s up to each of us to make good lifestyle choices and take proactive steps to not have it progress further and become manifest,\u201d says Robinson. \u201cWe must keep performing maintenance on our heart health from young adulthood and stay proactive as we age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson stresses that there are 7 simple steps<\/strong> that he and the American Heart Association highly recommends for each of us to obtain ideal cardiovascular health. These ideal lifestyle and health factors to focus on are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do not smoke. <\/strong><\/b><\/li>\n
  2. Keep a healthy body mass index <\/strong><\/b><\/strong><\/b>(BMI should be less than 25).<\/li>\n
  3. Be physically active <\/strong>(Moderate exercise should occur 3-5 days a week even if just 30-40 minutes of brisk walking).<\/li>\n
  4. Maintain an optimal diet.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Control your total cholesterol <\/strong>(Less than 200 is ideal).<\/li>\n
  6. Control your blood glucose<\/strong> (To prevent or manage diabetes a fasting glucose level of less than 100 is ideal).<\/li>\n
  7. Control your blood pressure<\/strong> (Less than 120\/80).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Additionally, Robinson notes that while it\u2019s a challenge to avoid any exposure to stress in our daily lives, it\u2019s important to keep it as low as possible. Elevated stress hormones and chronic emotional stress have been shown to play a role in increasing one\u2019s risk of developing cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n

    Robinson has a take-home message for everyone. If you think you are having a heart attack the number one step you can take is – don\u2019t wait it out.<\/p>\n

    \u201cNo one is born knowing what it feels like to have a heart attack,\u201d says Robinson. \u201cDon\u2019t write off your possible heart attack symptoms and seek medical attention right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Heart attack warning signs may include<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Sudden chest discomfort<\/li>\n
    • Chest heaviness or tightness.<\/li>\n
    • Shortness of breath or constricted breathing.<\/li>\n
    • Sweatiness or lightheadedness.<\/li>\n
    • Nausea.<\/li>\n
    • Indigestion, heartburn, or an esophageal burning sensation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Robinson is concerned that not everyone in the U.S. isn\u2019t paying close enough attention to the warning signs of heart attack or heeding the advice to lower their risk of heart disease by modifying their cardiovascular disease risk factors.<\/p>\n

      \u201cWe are seeing across the nation an uptick in acute coronary artery disease, heart attack, and heart disease symptoms in younger and younger patients,\u201d says Robinson. \u201cThis increasing trend is mirroring the rising rates of obesity and type II diabetes.\u201d He notes, diabetes and heart attack risk coincide with doctors working to manage diabetes closely to prevent a patient\u2019s first heart attack.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The majority of cardiovascular disease is preventable. That\u2019s why it\u2019s vital for each of us to take steps to modify our risk factors to avoid experiencing a heart attack or stroke in our lifetime. \u201cPrevention of cardiovascular disease is really key,\u201d says Dr. Peter Robinson of the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at UConn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":158067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-158057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-27 09:02:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158068,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158057\/revisions\/158068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/158067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158057"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=158057"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=158057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}