Dr. Richard Lewis is a cardiologist in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is also medical Director of the Mary Washington Health Alliance. When he is not busy being a cardiologist and proponent of heart health, he is busy with his music career with his band, Rick and the Arrhythmics.
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The AHA’s “Life’s Simple 7”
The American Heart Association is a non-profit organization that fosters appropriate cardiac care to reduce death and disability related to cardiovascular disease and stroke. One of the ways they do this is to educate the public on how best to live. They came up with a program they call “Life’s Simple Seven” which I summarize below. Rome wasn’t built in a day and no one expects you to do a great job on all seven overnight. But I think we can all do TWO things right away. And given the problems we have in this country with obesity and sedentary lifestyles, that would be enough for many of us and, over time, would favorably impact on all seven. And those two are: MOVE MORE, EAT LESS. As my song says:
“Move more, Eat less,
Load up on the water cress,
While you’re running hill and dale
Think about a side of kale.
If you laze and lie around
Calories will turn to pounds.
More in that out will make you fatter –
You must obey the laws of matter.
Come on, Mabel, get up from that table.
Push away’ s an exercise that helps your thighs get down to size.
It don’t take much to analyze, you eat more than you realize.
You’re the one who’s in control, when you eat and when you stroll.
Listen to those voices reminding you to make good choices.”
Life’s Simple Seven:
1,2,3: Know three numbers: (1) Your Blood pressure (should be 120/80 or lower). (2) Your total blood cholesterol (should be lower than 200). (3) Your Blood Sugar (fasting blood sugar for people without diabetes should be 70 – 100). Visit your doctor to get these numbers checked and to have a discussion about a heart-healthy lifestyle which should cover the following (4, 5, 6 and 7):
4: Get Active (Daily physical activity increases your length and quality of life). We’re not talking about strenuous exercise. Even a leisurely walk helps.
5: Eat Better (more fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, whole grains; less saturated fat, red meat, and dairy products)
6: Lose Weight (unless you’re already at goal; your ideal body weight varies with your height; the best way to account for this is to calculate your Body Mass Index, or BMI (Step 1: Multiply your height in inches by itself; Step 2: Divide your weight in pounds by the Step 1 result; Step 3: Multiply the result from Step 2 by 703. Normal BMI is 18.5 – 25)
7: No Tobacco products. If you smoke cigarettes, Quit! If you don’t smoke or chew tobacco, Never Start! And No Vaping!
If we all followed this advice, we could prevent close to 80% of heart attacks, strokes and limb loss from vascular disease. And we could cut our nation’s health care bill by more than half. Just think of all the good things we could do with that extra money (like providing free health care for every American who gets sick).
