Prevention

Preventive care is an important part of managing heart disease. At Emerson Cardiovascular Associates, we emphasize preventive strategies that are designed to avoid a cardiac event, such as a heart attack, from ever happening. Individuals who are willing to make lifestyle changes can lower their risk for developing heart disease, even if they have a family history. Here are some basic guidelines:

• eat a healthy diet that is low in saturated fats and salt
• stay active: get at least a half-hour of exercise 3-4 times a week
• monitor your blood pressure and cholesterol to keep them at healthy levels

When it comes heart disease, preventive strategies are either primary prevention or secondary prevention

Primary prevention

This is aimed at preventing a cardiac event from ever happening to individuals with risk factors for coronary artery disease who may need testing and treatment. Prevention strategies may include managing blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, quitting smoking and exercising.

Secondary prevention

For the person who has already had a significant cardiac event, such as a heart attack or open-heart surgery, the focus is secondary prevention—aimed at reducing the risk factors that can lead to further problems. For this individual, the prevention strategy will be more stringent—tighter control of blood pressure and cholesterol, adherence to a low-fat diet, exercise and frequent checkups, including stress testing or echocardiograms to monitor their cardiac health.

We often refer patients to Emerson Hospital’s popular Cardiac Rehabilitation Program, which combines supervised exercise with education, including individual nutritional counseling, and support in order to speed your rehabilitation after a heart attack, bypass surgery or episodes of angina. You do not need to be an Emerson Hospital patient to take advantage of the cardiac rehabilitation program.

The good news is that prevention strategies often work well. Motivated patients who are willing to make the necessary lifestyle changes often experience many years of good health, even after a heart attack or open-heart surgery.