OPINION: What is my risk of heart disease?

Heart disease costs many lives, but it also costs billions of dollars a year in health care costs and lost productivity; in fact, the CDC says that in 2010, over $400 billion was lost to heart disease. That’s one year of losses — imagine the cost over the last decade.

February is American Heart Month, which makes it a good time to think about your risk of heart disease and how you can reduce this risk. Heart disease is something that we are all at risk for, but there are definitely actions that we can take to reduce the risk.

First, determine if you have any risk factors for heart disease. Some risk factors are not preventable, like getting older, family history, and, for women, being post menopausal. But there are many risk factors that are preventable, including obesity, high cholesterol or triglycerides, uncontrolled diabetes, smoking, uncontrolled high blood pressure and being inactive.

If you have not seen a doctor or other healthcare provider in awhile, you may not even be aware of some of your risk factors. For example, high blood pressure is called “the silent killer” because most people do not have symptoms until their blood pressure is extremely high, in the danger zone for stroke or heart attack. Those with diabetes may have symptoms before they are diagnosed, but these symptoms may come on slowly, and many people attribute them to other issues. There are no symptoms of high cholesterol. Therefore, it is extremely important that you have an evaluation by your healthcare provider, who can easily check your blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Knowing these levels will provide you with tools you need to reduce your risk.

If you have one risk factor, you need to think about what you can do to prevent your risk of heart disease from increasing and address those risks if possible. But if you have two or more, you need to be especially diligent, because your risk of heart disease goes up significantly.

Focus on preventable risk factors. If you smoke, quitting will make a huge difference in lowering your risk of heart disease. In fact, nothing you could do will lower your risk more. If you are overweight, losing weight by eating a healthy diet and increasing your physical activity is very important. Increasing your physical activity has other benefits besides weight loss- it can lower blood pressure, build strength, reduce stress, and increase your heart’s overall health.

Regular readers of this column know that I am a big advocate for making small, manageable changes to improve your health. If making all of these changes seems overwhelming, start with small changes. As you succeed, add more healthy behaviors-before you know it, you will have a healthier heart.

We offer free blood pressure screenings at the health department. We also offer low cost cholesterol and blood sugar testing- just $10 for both. This low cost screening is available to everyone, regardless of income or insurance status. If you haven’t had these checked in awhile, see your doctor, or come see us, to have these important tests done.

Beth Heath is the county nurse manager for the Madison County Health Department.