What better day to talk about the Heart than Valentine’s Day?

More science is showing the benefit of starting early with habits that promote heart health.  Treatments already available & scientifically proven are UNDERUTILIZED: would you think 20% was a good score?! No. But 80% of people eligible for cardiac rehab DON’T take part in this essential treatment / program.

This post covers TWO topics for Women’s Heart Health:

• A recent study showing the impact of 20 years of healthy choices for young women 
• A NEW program to promote the established, effective heart treatment Cardiac Rehab.

Heart month is a great time to bring attention to what we know about preventing heart disease as well as what opportunities are available for managing heart risk.

• A recent study showing the impact of 20 years of healthy choices for young women 

In 2015 we have learned about healthy habits or behaviors that impact RISK for developing heart disease with PRIMARY prevention. A paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) in January reports the impact of 6 habits on the risk of heart disease for women. This study,

Healthy Lifestyle in the Primordial Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Among Young Women

looked at a group of young women ages 27-44 years old and followed them over 20 years. Can you think of what the 6 healthy behaviors might be? We have covered them here on HeartHealthDoctors – like a lot of heart healthy changes they are available to us NOW. So pick one and START living a healthy lifestyle:

A healthy lifestyle was defined as not smoking, a normal body mass index, physical activity ≥ 2.5 h/week, television viewing ≤ 7 h/week, diet in the top 40% of the Alternative Healthy Eating Index–2010, and 0.1 to 14.9 g/day of alcohol.

1) Not smoking

2) Get to GOAL weight which is a normal Body Mass Index (BMI)

3) Move your body through space; physical activity at least 2 1/2 hours per week

4) TV viewing < or equal to 7 hours per week

5) Follow a heart healthy diet 

6) If a woman chooses to drink alcohol, amount of 1 drink per day or 12 oz beer, 4 oz wine, or 1.5 oz liquor correlates to ~14gm

Marlene Busko writes for Medscape about the JACC paper that ” Adoption of six healthy lifestyle behaviors could avert about 73% of coronary heart disease (CHD) cases among women over 20 years, as well as 46% of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, conclude researchers, based on their analysis of about 69 000 participants …”

Key to know with the Nurse’s Health Study findings is that Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) risk was lower for women without AND with heart disease risk factors – BOTH groups showed decreased events with more healthy lifestyle habits/behaviors.

• A NEW program to promote the established, effective heart treatment Cardiac Rehab.

At OhioHealth we have launched a cardiac rehab program for women to help give every opportunity to succeed at SECONDARY prevention and prevent or slow disease progression. To improve the ‘ low test score of 20%’ participation in Cardiac Rehab the OhioHealth Women’s Heart and Vascular Program launched a program for cardiac rehab designed for women. Education and exercise in the company of other women with heart disease offers a new way to help women who have had a heart event (Chest Pain, Heart Attack, Coronary artery Stent, Heart Valve surgery, Coronary artery bypass surgery) and are starting on their SECONDARY prevention journey.

Read more about Cardiac Rehab here; 10TV News did a great story / coverage of the Women’s Cardiac Rehab program (click text to view story and video).