Is your heart healthy — or a ticking time bomb in your chest?

The simple truth is, everyone alive is at risk for a heart attack. Some of us are genetically predisposed to heart attacks, with a family history of early heart disease. Others have made lifestyle decisions that increase their risk — by not maintaining a healthy weight, by living sedentary lifestyles, or by using tobacco or not eating like we should.

Whatever your age, it’s never too late to start reducing your risk for a heart attack.

Know Your Numbers — And Do Something About Them

What’s your blood pressure? Blood glucose? Total cholesterol? LDL? (And what is “LDL,” while we’re at it?)

Knowing these figures is essential to gauge your risk for a heart attack — and to empower yourself to take action to lower that risk.

Your blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of your blood vessels, both while your heart is contracting (systolic, or the top number when you take your blood pressure) and between heartbeats (diastolic, or the bottom number of a blood pressure reading). Persistently high blood pressure can damage your arteries. Also, if you have diabetes, high levels of blood sugar can damage arteries (as well as other organs, such as your kidneys and even your eyes). Total cholesterol is a reading of how much cholesterol you have in your blood. Cholesterol is essentially fat that travels through the blood. If you have too much of it, it can collect in the walls of the arteries, becoming plaque and narrowing the passage through which blood flows.

In recent years, medical providers have begun differentiating between low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. High levels of LDL cholesterol and low levels of HDL cholesterol have been shown to increase your risk for a heart attack. Exercise, a healthy diet — and, when necessary, medication — can be instrumental in controlling LDL and HDL cholesterol.

Another important number to know is your coronary calcium score. Calcium is deposited in the heart arteries early in the development of heart disease. It is a marker we can measure to evaluate if you have heart disease, and if so, how much. At Tanner, you can receive a coronary CT for calcium scoring screening in Carrollton, Villa Rica, Bremen or Wedowee, Alabama, for just $99. The diagnostic imaging screening is noninvasive, painless and takes only about 10 minutes (no IV, no contrast). With the screening, physicians can look for calcified plaque in the arteries around your heart, which is a marker for heart disease and heart attack risk. Results from coronary calcium CT scoring scans can allow your physician to determine if lifestyle or medical interventions are necessary, thus reducing your risk for a heart attack before one can happen.

To determine if a coronary CT for calcium scoring scan is right for you, learn more at tanner-heartcare.org/healthyheart or call 678-509-6428.

Quit Using Tobacco

You’d think doctors would get tired of saying this (and we do), but the single best thing you can do for your health is quitting tobacco.

Along with being a cause for a host of dangerous cancers, tobacco has been shown to cause your blood to become “stickier,” leaving you at a higher risk for a blood clot. This can lead to a blocked artery and prevent oxygen-rich blood from going to your heart or brain, resulting in a heart attack or stroke. Tobacco can also cause the arteries themselves to grow thicker and narrower, further increasing the risk for a heart attack or stroke.

You’re never too young or too old to quit using tobacco.

Get Active

Exercise not only helps keep your weight and blood glucose in check and your heart strong, it also causes your arteries to expand and contract. This keeps them stretchy and pliable, reducing your risk for coronary disease.

Just 30 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week, can make a difference in your heart health and lower your risk for a heart attack.

Exercise doesn’t have to mean logging time on a treadmill, either — go for a walk around the neighborhood, work in your garden, go for a swim or go for a bicycle ride — whatever you enjoy that gets your blood pumping. A general rule of thumb for adequate exercise intensity is that it makes you breath hard enough where you can speak a brief sentence or two between breaths. You don’t need to be panting and gasping for air to get a benefit.

These are just three ways you can start lowering your risk for a heart attack on your own. It’s important you speak with your physician to ensure you’re healthy enough to begin an exercise program or to learn more ways you can take control of your heart attack risk.