How’d you do on Valentines Day? Did someone touch your heart? Was it, perhaps, your doctor? If so, it might have been the best Valentines Day gift you received. You know, it’s usually your physician the one who knows more about the proverbial ‘matters of the heart’ than anyone else. By comparison, Cupid isn’t even close.
If you are of a certain age or ‘cursed’ with a genetic predisposition to heart illness, it’s never a bad time to be reminded of the scourge that heart disease has over this country.
While Pueblo has, in its own right, been known as a city with ‘big shoulders,’ it is no different than every other town in America when it comes to heart health. And heart health remains a long shadow across America.
Not to scare but, according to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in America. Also, heart disease cuts a straight line across every racial and ethnic group in the country.
Each year, heart or cardiovascular disease kills nearly a million Americans, about 1 in 3 deaths in the U.S. It’s also the costliest disease. Every year our national health care bill for this disease—also our biggest medical expenditure—averages something north of $170 billion dollars.
At Pueblo Community College’s nursing program, this is the time of year when students focus on heart health. “Students,” said PCC’s Shanna Rickler, Director of Nursing Education, “learn about heart and vascular health.” Cardiac care is where, after graduation and long after, many will be spending a good share of their time. They will be sharing a lot of what they’re learning right now with people they’ll be treating down the road.
One of the things stressed in nurse-patient care is that there are a lot of things—big and little—a person can do to remain heart healthy. “You can exercise, watch what you eat,” and read labels when you shop, said Rickler. “You can make small changes,” she said, that provide some big health dividends.
Reading labels may be the easiest thing you can do for your heart and quality of life. Remember, said Rickler, when you’re looking (at labels) in the grocery store, “you’re looking at marketing.” Food giants are not so much focused on your health as much as they are on the goods they move.
A few quick tips on reading the labels include checking calories per serving. Calories per serving means just that. Two servings mean you’ve just doubled your calorie intake. You don’t have to ‘clean your plate.’
Also, learn about saturated and trans fats, limit the former, eliminate the latter. Limit sugar intake both natural and added. Also, lower sodium intake. But beyond just reading labels, read more about a healthy lifestyle. Walk more, exercise more, eat right, eat less, live longer, advises Rickler.
Heart specialists, along with Rickler, advise knowing your cholesterol numbers, especially learning the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is bad,’ and is blamed for the buildup of plaque in arteries. HDL, the ‘good’ is the cholesterol that sweeps it away.
“The biggest thing we focus on is prevention,” said veteran PCC health specialist Rickler. “Have a conversation (with a doctor) before problems start.”
Still, labels, exercise, information, are all made meaningless when you’re living in a food desert, said Rickler. “You’re stuck with what’s available,” when you don’t have a good grocery store or without the transportation to get you to one. Try and learn your community resources, she advises, including agencies like Meals on Wheels. “Try and close those gaps.”
Living a heart healthy lifestyle, said PCC’s Rickler, doesn’t mean sacrificing. Actually, it may be just the opposite. Good health, she said, is an investment in quality of life.
