Exercise
Exercise has an effect on every other risk factor for heart disease except smoking. When you exercise regularly, your heart, which is muscle, gets stronger. Stronger hearts require fewer beats to pump blood and oxygen throughout your body. Your blood pressure can be reduced as you become more physically fit. And if you burn more calories than you eat, you’ll lose body fat and weight, too.
Exercise also affects the blood itself, increasing circulation, producing more HDL (the “good” cholesterol) lowering blood sugar levels, helping prevent the formation of harmful blood clots and lowering the amount of adrenaline that your body needs.
Best of all, exercise makes you feel better. Walking is one of the best ways to control stress and prevent depression — for heart patients and everyone else, too.
One of the best forms of exercise is walking. It’s simple, free and easy. And best of all, you already know how to do it. Most healthy people can hop off the couch and start walking with few problems. If you don’t enjoy walking alone, check for a walking group in your area, such as a mall walkers’ group at a nearby shopping mall.
If you’re middle aged, have had some health problems, and aren’t used to regular exercise, check with your healthcare provider before launching your walking program.
Just to be sure, the American Heart Association recommends that you ask yourself these ten questions:
- Has your doctor ever said you have heart disease or lung trouble?
- Do you ever have pains or pressure in your heart or chest during physical activity?
- Do you often feel faint, or do you have dizzy spells or shortness of breath during physical activity?
- Has your doctor ever said your blood pressure is too high?
- Do you smoke cigarettes or have diabetes?
- Does heart disease run in your family?
- Has your doctor ever said you have a bone or joint problem, like arthritis, that has been aggravated by exercise, or might be made worse by exercise?
- Is there a good physical reason, like having gout or some other health problem that’s not mentioned here, why you should not follow an activity program, even if you want to?
- Are you taking medicines for your heart or lungs?
If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, talk to your doctor before increasing your physical activity or starting a walking program.
Medications
Generally speaking, medication is prescribed by your physician to reduce the potential for blood clots and to minimize your symptoms of heart disease.
- Beta-blockers reduce the effects of adrenaline-related hormones on your heart and other organs by slowing heart rate and the body’s associated need for oxygen.
- Nitrates, such as nitroglycerin, dilate the walls of the blood vessels and improve blood flow. Beta-blockers and nitrates have been shown to reduce heart attacks and sudden death, improving the long-term outcome of people who have coronary artery disease.
- Calcium channel blockers prevent blood vessels from constricting, and can counteract spasm in the coronary arteries. Some calcium channel blockers slow the heart rate and can prevent episodes of tachycardia (excessively fast heartbeat).
- Antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin, are prescribed to “thin” the blood.
- Inotropic medications increase the heart’s ability to pump blood by increasing the strength of the heart muscle’s contractions. Digitalis is an inotropic drug.
- Vasodilators help to dilate, or widen, the arteries, enabling the arteries to carry more blood, reducing the strain on the pumping chambers of the heart. Vasodilators are also used to treat high blood pressure.
- Diuretics help the body get rid of excess fluid by promoting urine production in the kidneys, and are used to relieve the fluid retention and associated swelling that occurs in patients with heart failure. By reducing fluid in the lungs, diuretics can relieve shortness of breath; they also provide relief quickly.
