KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
Men's Health Awareness Month: Keeping your heart healthy
The month of June is “Men's Health Month,” to encourage more men to get medical checkup's and focus about their long-term health. On Father's Day, KTVU's “Mornings on 2” interviewed Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center cardiologist and Physician-in-Chief, Rita Ng, to better understand how the men in our lives can improve their heart health.
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The importance of looking after your health and making sure your heart is healthy. Heart disease is reportedly the leading cause of death for men of most racial and ethnic groups here in the US . And here to talk us more about that and why it's so important to have your heart checked and your health checked. It's Kaiser Permanente, Oakland Medical Center cardiologist and physician in chief, Dr. Rita Ning. Good to have you with us. Good morning. Good morning. Good to see you. We were just talking out of the gate. I had a physical this week, but men are less apt to go to the doctor than women. How come, Frank? I'm so glad to hear that. And you know it can be sometimes a mystery. I can't tell you how many times I've had patients come in because their loved ones or their partners or their wives or girlfriends have told them to come in. And so I'm glad you're being proactive. Men are not invincible. They're just too busy, I guess. I don't know. It's I'll be all right. But you got to go in. Well, let's talk about heart disease, because one person in America dies every 33 seconds from heart disease. That's surprised me. Yes. The statistics are actually staggering. The American Heart Association says that by 2035, 42% of men will have some type of cardio vascular disease, and it's going to result in more than $1.1 trillion in health care expenses for our country. Not not to even talk about the emotional loss right. What are some of the signs that you may not be heart healthy, so to speak? So some of the classic symptoms of heart disease and heart pain, particularly for men, are those things you've probably heard about in magazines or television shows. Classic is left sided chest pain , elephant sitting on your chest. Sometimes it's radiates down your left arm up to your neck. It can also be things like nausea, vomiting, dizziness and just generally not feeling well . And what can we do to get a healthy heart? What are some of the steps? Daily, I'm sure diet, exercise and all that kind of thing. I'm so glad you are asking all these questions. So the first thing I always tell people is know your numbers. So what are those numbers that are really important? Hypertension is one of the leading causes of heart disease in the nation, and we often call it the silent killer because you don't even realize that it's harming you. I describe the heart a lot, like a house with a plumbing system. So if you have really high pressures in your plumbing system, it's going to cause some damage. So high tension, blood sugars, knowing if you are a diabetic or not, another leading cause of heart disease as well as cholesterol levels. And then just the other things like knowing your weight. So in general, I recommend to my patients check your blood pressure heart rate and weight every day. If you have high blood pressure, how do you bring it down? And can you you absolutely can. And these are where we move into those preventative measures to make your heart healthier. It's not rocket science. So some of the things that I always tell my patients is number one, eat healthy. So what is that? Trying to stay away from foods with a lot of trans fats, trying to stick to fruits and vegetables. Number two, if you're smoking, quit it. Now, it's hard to believe, but one in every five men in the United States today is still smoking. That is hard to believe. It's hard to believe, especially if you know that it's causing damage to your heart and things like lung cancer. Right I grew up with two smoking parents and I'd be in the back of the station wagon. Please, Mom. Dad, give us a break. Yes. We didn't ever went down that road. We didn't know back then. Right But we know better now. So you can make those changes and then exercise as best as you can. And you don't need to become a gym rat. So if you like to do things like gardening or going out and kicking the soccer ball around with some of the kids 30 minutes every day for five days a week can have tremendous benefits in 10s we do colonoscopy for the colon. Why don't we do something for the heart to find out if you have plaque or that kind of thing. So there are actually a lot of studies that we can do, whether it is a treadmill where we get you on an exercise machine and have you run and monitor your heart. We have things called echocardiograms where we can actually visualize your heart. And then we have more sophisticated things like calcium scores that we do with cardiac CT to assess. So we have all those things. All right. Never too late to reverse the trend as well. Okay. Well, if you feel something, go in and see your doctor. Absolutely
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Thanks to women and lousy boss.