Good morning! How’s your March Maddness bracket this morning? Plenty of great basketball yesterday and certainly more to come today. On the way home from the office Wednesday, I stopped by our neighborhood IGA grocery store. I wanted to pick up some fresh produce for good, crisp, March Madness snacking. The cashier was Joe Inglehoff, our neighbor’s son. Joe asked if I had a second to help with his senior class health project.
The store was quiet and I saw there wasn’t anyone standing behind me in line. A couple of other cashiers were talking to each other 10 feet away.
He noted my apprehension at holding up the line.
“I just have to find a doctor and ask them 2 questions. It’ll be quick”
“Sure, Joe. Whaddya got?”
He reached under the cash register drawer and pulled out a white paper with only sparse black type read directly from it.
“Can you please share why staying on top of your heart health is so important, especially as you age?” Interesting question from a 17-year-old, but no worries.
“Well, Joe, what is so great about taking care of our hearts is that, as patients, we are really in control. With standard American diets, we know that fatty streaks start developing in our teen years and may continue to do so every day of our lives. But, if we are armed with the right knowledge, and make some simple easy decisions, every day, we are almost entirely in charge of our destiny. That is a wonderful opportunity for us all.”
Joe is glad to check the box, but that is a lot of writing.
“Ok, Can you please also share 10 of your best tips to keep the heart young?” He looks up at me. “Do you mind if I record this with my phone?”
“Of course.
It’s hard to narrow it down to just ten, but there is solace in knowing how very powerful these ten are.
1. Try and do at least one more step than yesterday. Just like we can’t build Rome in a day, we can’t expect everyone to walk 6,000 to 8,000 or more steps daily, but we can all do one better than yesterday. Or rolling. If you roll, roll just a little bit further. I recommend getting a pedometer so you can have some real fun with it.
2. Don’t smoke. If you do, stopping is the single best thing you can do for your health. Its importance cannot be overestimated. I believe in you
3. Know your blood pressure – this is of paramount importance. I love getting updates on my patient’s blood pressure when they check at their home. There are so many ways we can fix it.
4. Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables. You can see we’re trying (pointing to the bags sitting on the belt). Only 10% of us get enough of these in our daily diet. They are delicious and oh boy are they good for us. Pick your favorites – as a cardiologist, or even not as one, gosh I love avocados.
5. Maintain a proper weight – carrying a little excess weight can lead to a whole bunch of other stuff we don’t want to deal with. If you don’t know a good weight for your size, please check with your doc. There was a recent survey sharing 93% of us believe it is very or somewhat important to plan for a healthy life through good nutrition, but only half (50%) of us value health and are consistently following through on maintaining healthy eating habits four to seven days a week.
6. If you snore, get headaches or you’re tired at all in the afternoon? Crazily enough, sleep apnea causes significant heart problems. If you have it, we have multiple ways to treat it. Important to make sure our loved ones don’t have it. It’s dangerous.
7. Hang out with a friend (or two). The data surrounding social connection is so powerful – even for our hearts!
8. Hang out with Will Ferrell, or your favorite comedian, there is a bit of truth in ‘laughter being the best medicine’
9. Oh my gosh, get outside. Our moms were right! And now there is more and more data backing up our gut feeling that being outside is so good for us.
10. Have something (big or small) to look forward to. Maybe you’re looking forward to a quick getaway trip or maybe you’re like me and just looking forward to the smoothie you’re having for lunch tomorrow. Having something exciting around the corner is one of the three components of happiness!
It’s all good. Hopefully, you can see at least a couple of the reasons I love being a cardiologist. Taking care of your heart involves laughing, being outside, delicious food, and friends – what’s better than that?
He hit stop on his phone. “Phew, glad I recorded instead of writing that”.
There was now someone behind me unloading their produce onto the belt.
“See you around, Joe. Hope you get to watch some basketball this week.”
David
