Dale Burg is a comedy writer, but, one thing she takes very seriously is her heart health. “My grandparents had all died of heart disease. My brother had a heart scare and had a stent and so that kind of drove it home for me as well to be cautious,” says Dale.
She wasted no time getting on a heart health regimen after consulting with her cardiologist. “I exercise four times a week. I take two of the baby aspirin a day,” says Dale. Dale is definitely on the right track.
“The big part about being proactive about your own health is prevention, prevention is the major weapon,” says cardiologist, Dr. Nieca Goldberg.
According to a landmark study conducted by “Partnership for Prevention,” The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, if more people, like Dale, participated in preventive healthcare, more than half a million lives could be saved.
“It costs us billions of dollars a year to take care of heart disease because of medications, loss of work, on the part of people who have heart disease. It also costs money in terms of procedures like stents and bypass surgery and days in the hospital,” says Dr. Goldberg.
The study identified 25 preventive services that are most valuable…with heart disease prevention taking the number one slot, childhood immunization, tobacco use, colorectal cancer screening and hypertension follow in ranking. “The big message is colon cancer screenings are effective, colonosopies are a very effective tool, 50 is when we start. For decreasing your risk for hypertension and also management of hypertension, certainly exercise, low sodium diet and cholesterol are really important, saturated fats,” explains Dr. Helga Ehrlich, Medical Director of the William F. Ryan Community Health Center.
When it comes to aspirin, research has shown that it reduces the risk of heart attack in healthy men over the age of 45 and it reduces the risk of stroke in healthy women over the age of 45. Before starting any type of drug therapy, always consult with your doctor first.
You can access the entire list of preventive services by visiting the Partnership for Prevention website, at prevent.org. Some of the remaining top services include cervical and breast cancer screening, and influenza immunization.