Say ALOHA to Heart Disease Video Transcript

Participants

, Sharonne N. Hayes MD, Lori Mosca MD, MPH, P, Sumit Verma MD

Summary

Heart disease risk is something you have or don't have. But how do you know? Learn how you can set yourself on the path to a heart healthy life. And say aloha to heart disease.

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: The United States is fighting a war. A war on heart disease. It claims one life every 34 seconds. While we have made some progress in this war, doctors are now seeing a disturbing trend.

LORI MOSCA, MD: We're seeing that there is really a leveling off now of that decline in the rate of heart disease. So we're concerned now that we're going back up again.

ANNOUNCER: Doctors use risk factors to see who has the greatest chance of having a heart attack or dying of heart disease.

LORI MOSCA, MD: And those include family history, having diabetes, being a male, increasing age levels, having high blood pressure, cholesterol, having an elevated blood sugar level even if you're not diabetic, being overweight, smoking, physical inactivity or a diet that is high in saturated fat.

ANNOUNCER: National health organizations have developed guidelines to help people achieve a heart-healthy life and reduce their chances of dying. The goal? To say "ALOHA" to heart disease.

LORI MOSCA, MD: And we like to start off with "A" which is the very fundamental "assess your risk."

ANNOUNCER: Certain people clearly rank high.

LORI MOSCA, MD: First of all, anyone who has already had a heart attack or have other evidence of cardiovascular disease such as having had a stroke, an abdominal aortic aneurysm, having peripheral arterial disease -- that means blockages in the lower extremities.

In addition, anyone who has diabetes individuals with chronic kidney disease or very poor kidney function.

ANNOUNCER: But for others determining risk requires a bit of detective work. So how do you know which category you fall into?

LORI MOSCA, MD: Well, it turns out that it's pretty easy because we have something called the Framingham Risk Calculator where you can actually just plug in your numbers, your cholesterol numbers, your blood pressure, your age, what your gender is, whether or not you smoke, and out pops a number. And this number gets converted into the percent likelihood that you will have a heart attack or die of heart disease in the next ten years.

ANNOUNCER: But there is one thing everyone should be doing. Whether you are at high, intermediate or low risk.

LORI MOSCA, MD: "L" is the second letter in ALOHA, and it stands for "lifestyle." It is without a doubt something that is within the control of each one of us and if we eat heart healthy, we get regular physical activity, we don't smoke and we maintain a nice healthy weight. We also know that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, high in fiber, low in saturated fat goes a long way to prevent heart disease.

ANNOUNCER: Such lifestyle changes can help you maintain a healthy weight.

LORI MOSCA, MD: It's not body fat in general that increases our risk for heart disease, but where we deposit the fat. And when fat is deposited in the midsection and the waist size is thickened, that is when we see the risk for heart disease going up.

The "O" in ALOHA stands for "other interventions." There are certain medications that we recommend to protect individuals. And we recommend these depending on their level of risk.

ANNOUNCER: One objective is to lower your cholesterol.

LORI MOSCA, MD: So it's very important when we think about methods to lower cholesterol we have to think about reducing it in the diet, but we also, in some situations, need to reduce the amount that our body makes. And this can only be done through drug therapy.

ANNOUNCER: Another goal is to keep your blood pressure at optimal levels.