YOU AR E P ROBAB LY
well aware that eating a healthy
diet and exercising regularly can help reduce your risk
of heart disease. It’s also important to maintain an
appropriate weight, keep your blood pressure low, and
have healthy cholesterol levels.
But it may surprise you to learn about some other—
perhaps less known—things you can do to help keep your
heart beating at a strong and steady pace:
1. Don’t ignore the snore.
Have you been accused
of rattling the windows with your snores? If so, you may
have a potentially dangerous condition called obstructive
sleep apnea in which you repeatedly stop breathing and
essentially are suffocating for brief periods while you sleep.
This can interrupt your sleep—even if doesn’t fully wake
you up—and make you drowsy during the day.
It’s important to get help for sleep apnea because it can
raise your risk for heart disease and stroke. A common
treatment for the condition is to wear a special mask that
blows air into your throat, which helps keep your airway
open while you sleep.
2. Practice diabetes damage control.
If you have
diabetes, managing the disease is crucial to help prevent a
long list of serious complications—including heart disease.
Diabetes increases your chances for getting heart
disease at a younger age and for developing more severe
forms of heart disease.
The news isn’t all doom and gloom, however. Many of
the same lifestyle changes that can help prevent heart
disease in people without diabetes can also help you—
including exercising, eating lots of fruits and vegetables,
decreasing the amount of added sugars you eat, and
shedding extra pounds. Working closely with your provider
and following the diabetes treatment plan to keep good
control of your blood sugars will make a big difference.
3. Ditch the cigarettes—for good.
“When people
think about the health risks of smoking, lung cancer
usually comes to mind. But they may not realize that
smoking also seriously hurts the heart,” says Pulla
Raghuram Reddy, MD, MCR, FACC, of PeaceHealth
Medical Group and OHSU.
The more you smoke, the greater your risk of having a
heart attack. Studies show, however, that you can cut your
risk of heart attack in half within a year after quitting.
Talk with your provider about products and programs that
can help make it easier to permanently break the habit.
Sources: American Academy of Family Physicians; National Institutes of Health
Laugh a little—or
a lot
Too much stress can make your blood pressure go up—along with your risk for a heart attack. One
way to de-stress is to laugh. Find something that tickles your funny bone and have a good belly laugh
that goes straight to your heart.
Sources: American Heart Association; National Institutes of Health
Pulla Raghuram Reddy,
MD, MCR, FACC
PeaceHealth Medical
Group and OHSU
St. John–Specialty Medicine
1615 Delaware St.
Longview, WA 98632
360-414-2730
Michael Ziegler, DDS
PeaceHealth St. John
Sleep Disorders Center
1615 Delaware St.
Longview, WA 98632
360-414-7827
When:
Thursday, Jan. 23,
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Where:
Women’s Health
Pavilion, 1660 Delaware St.,
Longview
Info:
Learn how oral
appliances may be the
solution for a good
night’s sleep. If you have
been unsuccessful with
CPAP, oral appliances
may be the answer you
have been dreaming
about. Register online at
www.peacehealth.org/
st-john
or call
360-501-3701
.
YOU MAY NOT THINK ABOUT THESE RISK FACTORS FOR
HEART DISEASE, BUT THEY DESERVE YOUR ATTENTION
Heart
disease
TALK WITH A DOC
4
House
call
Sleep 101:
An Alternative
to CPAP
