When we talk about the importance of looking after your cardiovascular health, we’ve certainly got some compelling numbers to back us up. To start, nearly half of adults — more than 121 million — in the United States have cardiovascular disease. But the more frightening statistic is the fact that heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the US.
To help these numbers move in the opposite direction, Dr. Ariel Soffer and the team at Soffer Health Institute emphasize preventive cardiology.
With that in mind, we will briefly review the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease and how you can take steps today to minimize them.
One of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease is carrying too much weight, and a good number of Americans do — more than two out of five adults in the US have obesity. The solution, however, is far more challenging than the two words — lose weight — imply.
The good news is that we offer medical weight loss services, including the relatively new class of GLP-1 weight loss drugs. These medications are helping millions of people to finally lose meaningful weight, and we make them available here.
So, a great step toward protecting your heart health is to call us today to schedule an appointment with one of our weight loss specialists.
The modern diet has become calorie-rich and nutrient-poor, so we recommend that you slowly reverse this. While weight loss drugs can tackle the extra pounds by curbing your appetite and slowing digestion, it’s more important than ever that you pay more attention to what you’re eating.
A great practice is to slowly chip away at unhealthy eating habits and replace them with healthier ones. For example, you can:
Pick one of these and start today so that you can slowly build toward transitioning your eating habits to healthier ones that encourage better cardiovascular health.
A sedentary lifestyle is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, so we encourage you to find ways to stay active. You can try:
There are almost limitless ways to add more movement into your day, which greatly benefits your heart and vascular health.
If you still smoke or vape, please know that this is one of the biggest risk factors for a wide range of health issues that range from heart disease to lung cancer.
We understand that quitting smoking is a huge challenge, but we’re here to help, and we can point you in the right direction for some great resources and tools.
So, let’s plant that seed today — perhaps you can call us to make an appointment to learn more about quitting, or you can check out these resources from the CDC.
While we’ve covered some big changes in your life, if you chip away at them on a daily basis, you will be amazed at how much (and how quickly) your overall health will improve.
For more information on how to prevent heart disease and manage existing cardiovascular disease, we invite you to contact one of our offices in Weston or Hollywood, Florida, to schedule an appointment.
