Never Have a Heart Attack
Reduce your risk to almost zero by following
these six proven steps By GINA KOLATA
TAKE A GUESS:
Which of the following
people is likely to
suffer a heart attack?
Chris Conway, 54, is thin,
eats a healthy diet, takes a baby
aspirin every day, and exercises
regularly.
Howard Wainer, 66, has
diabetes. Until recently, his
blood pressure and blood
sugar were too high.
Naomi Atrubin, 79, has
already had two heart attacks.
So who’s at risk? Surprise—it’s all
three of them.
Wainer and Atrubin have obvious
risk factors, but Conway has to contend
with family history—his father had a
heart attack in his mid-40s, and died
of one at 66. All these people, however,
share a common concern about their
health: about 1. 1 million Americans will
suffer a heart attack this year, and some
500,000 will not survive it.
Despite the risks, most people don’t
understand what causes a
heart attack. The common
view is that it’s simply a
plumbing problem—
cholesterol builds up, clogging
arteries like sludge in a pipe.
When an artery supplying
blood to the heart becomes
completely obstructed, portions of the heart, deprived
of oxygen, die. The result is
a heart attack, right?
Not quite, say heart experts. Heart
disease involves the gradual buildup of
plaque. And plaque is like a pus-filled
pimple that grows within the walls of
arteries. If one of those lesions pops
open, a blood clot forms over the spot
to seal it and the clot blocks the artery.
Other things can stop your heart, but
that’s what causes a heart attack.
The bigger issue is how to stop it
from happening. There’s no way to
predict where an artery-blocking clot will originate,
so prying open a section of
an artery with a stent will
not necessarily prevent a
heart attack. Stents relieve
chest pain, but people who
have no symptoms—such
as Howard Wainer—are
better off adhering to tried-and-true measures to slow
plaque growth and prevent
About
1. 1 million
of us will
have a
heart
attack
this year.
the lesions from bursting. Those measures, says Peter Libby, M.D., chief of
cardiovascular medicine at Brigham
and Women’s Hospital in Boston, “are
things no one wants to hear: keep your
weight down, make physical activity
a part of your life, stop smoking if you
smoke.” And, of course, keep your blood
pressure and cholesterol under control,
taking medications if necessary.
Few people are following that advice.
Twenty-five percent of Americans over
age 50 have at least two risk factors,
such as high blood-pressure or cholesterol levels, or an elevated blood-sugar
level. Only 10 percent of Americans
have every risk factor under control.
“In the majority of cases when
someone has a heart attack, at least two
or three risk factors might have been
avoided,” says Valentin Fuster, M.D., a
cardiologist at Mount Sinai School of
Medicine in New York City.
