Northern California e-news

Be good to your heart

“You can help prevent heart disease,” says Eleanor Levin, MD, a cardiologist at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, regional director of cardiac rehabilitation, and a clinical professor of cardiology at Stanford University.

Here are Dr. Levin’s top five preventive tips.

1. If you smoke, quit. Kaiser Permanente offers support for quitting smoking if you need help. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. Even one cigarette is harmful.
2. Exercise for 30 minutes every day. Brisk walking does the trick, and you can break it up into three 10-minute increments if you want, Dr. Levin says. Exercise can also help you manage stress, another heart disease risk factor.
3. Lose weight if you’re carrying too much. Dropping 10 percent of your weight can reduce your risk for many diseases.
4. Eat a healthy diet. Two eating plans Dr. Levin recommends are the Mediterranean diet — which features fruits and vegetables, healthy fats like olive oil, whole grains, and fish — and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet.
5. Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol under control. Have them checked at least once a year or as recommended by your doctor. For most people, a healthy blood pressure is less than 140/90 but ideally closer to 120/80 and total cholesterol should be under 200 mg/dL with LDL-C (the “bad” cholesterol) less than 130 mg/dL.

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