Heart Care for Life
February is American Heart Month, a time to promote awareness of the risks, causes and ways to reduce the chance of developing heart disease, which is currently the leading cause of death in the United States.
More than 70 million Americans have some form of heart disease. It is important for each person suffering from this deadly illness to obtain up-to-date information about the many treatment options to find which program can best meet their needs.
Yale University Press has recently released a paperback edition of Heart Care for Life, by cardiologist Dr. Barry L. Zaret and Genell Subak-Sharpe, which offers an innovative approach to the best currently available treatments and specific directions for establishing an individual heart care program.
“Dr. Zaret’s ability to take his years of experience and provide the reader an easy to understand book on the prevention and treatment of heart disease is invaluable,” says Larry King, CNN Talk Show Host and Founder of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation. “Anyone concerned about their heart should read this today.”
Chest or arm pain or discomfort can be a symptom of heart disease and a warning sign of a heart attack. Shortness of breath (feeling like you can’t get enough air), dizziness, nausea (feeling sick to your stomach), abnormal heartbeats, or feeling very tired also are signs. Chest pain or discomfort (angina ) is the most common symptom. You feel this pain when the heart is not getting enough blood or oxygen.
The most cost-effective methods of reducing risk among an entire population are population-wide interventions, combining effective policies and broad health promotion policies. These should be the first to be considered in all settings. In many countries, too much focus is being placed on one-on-one interventions among people at medium risk for CVD. A better use of resources would be to focus on those at elevated risk and to use other resources to introduce population-wide efforts to reduce risk factors through multiple economic and educational policies and programs. These risk factors include diet and physical activity. The dietary intake of fats, especially their quality, strongly influences the risk of CVD like coronary heart disease and stroke, through effects on blood lipids, thrombosis, blood pressure, arterial function, arrythogenesis and inflammation. Excess salt has a significant impact on blood pressure levels.