Despite pleas to exercise more, move more frequently, and eat a healthy diet, heart disease is still the number one killer in the United States. Every 34 seconds, somebody in the U.S. dies from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although five out of six CVD deaths occur in women and men over age 65, the problems can start decades before that.
If you’ve recently turned 50, it’s time to think about heart health, even if you think you’re healthy. Simply aging can deteriorate the tissues that keep your cardiovascular system strong, including your blood vessels. The sooner you assess your cardiovascular health, the sooner you can make changes to improve it or, if you’re already healthy, optimize it.
Dr. Ola Akinboboye, an expert cardiologist, recommends checking in with your heart when you turn 50, so any problems can be addressed early. He and our team recommend a series of heart-health tests at our office in Rosedale, Queens, New York.
What do you need to know about your heart health as you pass the half-century mark? Here’s a checklist to help you understand your risk for CVD and take the steps you need to avoid it.
High blood pressure is called the “silent killer” because it has no symptoms. If you don’t already know that your blood pressure is normal, you could be walking around with a ticking time bomb.
Luckily, every time you go to your doctor, they take your blood pressure. If you donate blood, the nurse takes your blood pressure, too.
If your blood pressure is high, your cardiologist may prescribe lifestyle changes and medications, too. To keep track of your pressure, buy a home monitor and adopt the heart-healthy habits you need — such as walking more and exercising regularly — to protect your heart.
When you’re under stress, does your heart have to struggle to keep you oxygenated? A stress test is a simple way to evaluate how well your heart functions under stress, and how healthy your entire cardiovascular system is.
Dr. Akinboboye administers stress tests in our office. He evaluates your heart function at rest and then after it’s stressed by either exercise or a medication that raises your heart rate. If your heart doesn’t handle stress well, Dr. Akinboboye may recommend lifestyle changes and medications.
One of the most important things you can do to improve your heart health is to shed excess body fat. Fat adds stress to your heart and to your blood vessels, too.
The most dangerous type of fat can’t even be seen. It’s called visceral fat, and it’s a pro-inflammatory tissue that can wrap around your heart and other organs. Even if you’re thin, you may have visceral fat.
Talk to Dr. Okinboboye if you’ve had trouble losing excess fat on your own. He may recommend a medically supervised fat-loss program that helps you preserve muscle while attaining a healthy weight.
Although your body produces and needs cholesterol to form healthy cells, too much of the wrong kind of cholesterol could endanger your heart health. In the setting of inflammation in your body, cholesterol can adhere to the walls of your blood vessels and form plaques, making your vessels stiff and narrow.
Dr. Okinboboye can administer blood tests to determine if you have a dangerous type of low-density, atherogenic lipoprotein called apolipoprotein B (apB). Based on your results, he may prescribe medications in addition to lifestyle changes.
Hard, narrow arteries (i.e., atherosclerosis) can’t pump blood efficiently and raise your risk for heart attack and stroke. Every 3-5 years, assess your risk with a coronary artery calcium (CAC) score, a CT scan that measures calcium buildup in your coronary arteries. A high CAC score dramatically increases your risk of heart disease.
However, a CAC only identifies calcified plaque, which doesn’t appear until age 50 in men and 55 in women. A low score earlier than that could lull you into a false sense of security. Also, if you take statins, your CAC score could be high, because they harden plaque on your arteries to reduce the risk of rupture.
If you have diabetes, you’re at risk for atherosclerosis, which also raises your risk for CVD. Make sure you eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and manage your blood sugar to keep your cardiovascular system strong.
