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Issue Date: June 16-20, 2008
Your heart
Think an aspirin will save you? Or that women have less risk? Heed these potentially life-saving facts.
Dr. Daniel W. Jones is president of the American Heart Association as well as vice chancellor for health affairs, dean of the School of Medicine and the Herbert G. Langford Professor of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
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Nearly 81 million people -- about one in three U.S. adults -- have cardiovascular disease. Of those, 73 million have high blood pressure, 16 million have coronary heart disease, 5.3 million have heart failure, and 5.8 million have had a stroke, according to the American Heart Association. We asked Dr. Daniel W. Jones, president of the American Heart Association (americanheart.org), to debunk some of the most commonly believed heart myths.
Myth: Stress causes high blood pressure.
Reality: That's a very common misconception. Although the word "hypertension" originally came from the connection between stress and elevated blood pressure, we now know that high blood pressure is caused by a complex set of genetic and environmental interactions such as the things we eat, lack of exercise and so forth.
Stress, although it does have a temporary effect on our blood pressure, likely does not have any major long-term effect on blood pressure. That's why relaxing is not an appropriate treatment for elevated blood pressure. People need to visit their health care professional, have an evaluation and consider changing their lifestyle, including their exercise habits and the food they eat.
Myth: Heart disease isn't common in women.
Reality: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women -- more common than breast cancer or any other form of cancer in women. Ask women what the leading cause of death in women is and you'll get many answers, but heart disease usually won't be one of them. The American Heart Association has been fighting this misconception for years with our "Go Red for Women" program to raise awareness of heart disease in women. It's important that women realize that their risk of dying from heart disease is higher than anything else because they could begin taking action early in their life to prevent heart disease. How early? I believe that healthful eating and exercise habits should begin in childhood. But, at any age, women need to pay attention to a healthful diet and balancing calories with physical activity to make their lives healthy and to help prevent heart disease and stroke. Even if you're middle-aged and your lifestyle hasn't been healthful for years, it's never too late to start living well.
Myth: If you feel like you're having a heart attack, then the first thing you should do is chew an aspirin.
Reality: That should not be the first action you take. If you think you're having a heart attack, call 911 before you do anything else. The 911 operator should be trained to ask a certain set of questions that determine whether it's safe for the individual who is having chest pain or other symptoms of heart attack to take an aspirin.
Myth: It's OK to be overweight as long as you're fit.
Reality: There's some evidence that if you are overweight, then it's better to be overweight and fit than overweight and not fit. But the ideal thing, of course, is to be fit and in a normal body-weight range. Being fit does not overcome all the risks associated with being overweight. It is not OK to be overweight, and we need to work toward getting our weight into a normal range.
Myth: Men and women experience different heart attack symptoms.
Reality: Chest pain or chest discomfort or pressure is common in women, just as it is in men. Women may report or perceive symptoms a little bit differently than men do, but they have the same "symptom complex" that men do. The basic concept is that having those telltale symptoms -- pressure in the chest, in the jaw or down the arm; shortness of breath; or sweating inappropriately -- should alert a man or a woman to call 911 for help.
Myth: Drinking wine is good for your heart.
Reality: Doesn't everyone want that to be true? We do know there is a positive association between drinking alcohol of any kind and HDL (the good cholesterol) level. But we do not know that drinking alcohol, including wine, on a daily basis is going to reduce the risk of heart attack. That's why the American Heart Association's advice to people who choose to drink is to limit alcohol to one drink a day for a woman or a man of low body weight, and to no more than two drinks a day for men who are average or above-average body weight. As appealing as it sounds, we cannot substitute a glass of wine (or any other form of alcohol) for exercise.
Myth: Eggs are bad for you.
Reality: An occasional egg is fine. The important thing is the overall quality of your diet, not avoiding certain foods. It's true that eggs have a higher level of cholesterol than some foods and that one egg can provide as much as 70% of the recommended daily allowance for dietary cholesterol, but eggs can be a part of an overall healthful diet. The American Heart Association recommends paying attention to the cholesterol in food and making sure your diet is balanced in relation to cholesterol, saturated fat and total calories. Like everything else in life, balance is key.
Bottom Line: Eat a balanced diet that provides an adequate (not excessive) amount of calories and is low in saturated fat and high in fresh fruits and vegetables. Get 20 to 40 minutes of exercise, such as vigorous walking, each day. These simple things are critically important to keeping your heart healthy.
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