There’s a lot of conflicting information out there when it comes to improving heart health, even among the medical community. Not a week goes by without someone telling me they’re so confused they end up doing nothing, or that they believed they were making healthy decisions only to later find out they weren’t.
We live in a noisy world. That’s beneficial at times, but it also makes it incredibly easy to get overwhelmed.
The media tells you one thing on Monday and the opposite on Thursday. Your friends and family all gladly tell you “the best thing you can do is…”. And social media will have you trying every diet variation under the sun: veganism, carnivore, paleo, keto, low fat, or throwing out real food entirely and knocking back a powdered drink a couple of times a day.
It’s impossible to get clarity with so much conflicting information coming at us every day. Instead, it’s often better to have the conversation with a trained professional.
So if you want to increase heart health and stay fit and healthy for as long as possible, here are three questions that I recommend asking your cardiologist either in person or through an online consultation:
Can heart disease be prevented?
In many, if not most, cases, the answer is yes – and you don’t have to give up butter!
For years, saturated fat and high cholesterol have been blamed for heart attacks and heart disease. And when statins became available, many people simply stopped worrying about preventing heart disease because they could just take a pill and reduce their cholesterol.
The truth is that focusing on cholesterol is a fool’s errand. Many victims of heart disease do not have high cholesterol, and many people with high cholesterol never develop heart disease.
Heart disease prevention begins with your lifestyle and improving your metabolic health. Eat real foods: things that grow in the ground or eat what grows in the ground. Avoid foods made in a factory – yes, even that box of cereal promising you that it’s “heart healthy” (it isn’t). This simple decision will help to reduce inflammation in your body, you’ll feel more satisfied and not always hungry, and if you’re overweight you’ll find that your body naturally starts to shed the pounds.
Exercise is also essential. Anything is better than nothing so don’t obsess too much about the type of exercise, just do it regularly and have fun doing it. But if you want my recommendation, I’m a fan of HIIT-style workouts and strength training.
What are the symptoms of heart disease?
Your cardiologist should be able to answer this, and if their only answer is “high cholesterol” then it’s time to find a new one.
There are multiple types of heart disease and the symptoms can vary widely. Unlike something like the flu, which has very obvious symptoms, it’s often very easy to overlook symptoms of heart disease because they can be mild or dismissed as something else:
- Swollen ankles and feet
- Shortness of breath
- Fainting
- Fatigue
- Irregular heartbeat
- Chest Pain
- Dizziness
If you have any of these, particularly on a recurring basis, it’s worth visiting your cardiologist for a check-up.
Sometimes there may not be any symptoms at all, which is why taking steps to reduce the risks in the first place is so important.
Are there tests to check my heart health?
There are a couple of ways you could approach this. One option is to undergo the tests that diagnose heart disease, which can range from scans to blood tests that can show if you’ve previously had a heart attack.
This may not be necessary if you just want to see your current health levels though, in which case I recommend a blood panel to check your:
- Fasting glucose level
- Triglyceride:HDL cholesterol ratio
- Insulin level
There are additional markers that can be observed from a blood test too, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), which will indicate stress on the heart.
Improving heart health can be simple
Lifestyle is the single most powerful way to increase heart health. Of the top 10 causes of death in America, more than half are from metabolic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, so it stands to reason that making lifestyle changes to enhance your metabolic health is the best thing you can do.
How can you do this?
Start with a baseline assessment to find out how metabolically healthy you currently are. Don’t assume that just because you’re slim you are metabolically healthy.
With a baseline assessment completed, your steps to becoming healthier are:
- Eat an appropriate diet
- Exercise regularly
- Don’t smoke, and drink alcohol in moderation
It can take up to a decade for poor metabolic health to show itself through disease, which means it’s essential to take steps while you feel healthy – don’t wait for illness to appear!
The good news is that once you do start making changes, your health markers can improve quickly. My patients often see improvements in as little as one month, and significant changes by the 90-day follow-up.
If you don’t yet know your metabolic health markers, take my free quiz to find out – then you can start to take appropriate action for increasing your heart health.