February is American Heart Month but doctors say making sure your heart is healthy is a year-round goal.
SAN ANTONIO — The month of February is all about Valentine’s Day and making sure your sweetheart’s heart is in good emotional health. But what about your actual physical heart? Making sure that vital organ is in tip-top shape is a big focus during this time of the year.
Every February is American Heart Month, a time to focus on heart health. And with rates of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure rising nationwide, the importance of this month of awareness can not be stressed enough.
“There are so many factors when it comes to controlling heart disease,” said Shelly Gallini, a physician associate with MinuteClinic told us. “Some of them you can’t control things like your age or your family history and genetics. But some of the major risk factors and contributors to heart disease are things that you can control.”
Some of the risk factors you can control are blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, obesity, diet and physical activity. Taking control of your heart health at home is one thing. Making sure a professional checks you out is another.
“So we can catch these things early and do the interventions both lifestyle and medications if needed, to prevent them from progressing and and triggering things like heart disease and other complications,” said Gallini.
That is done through a heart screening where doctors may check vital signs like blood pressure, weight and height, review medical history and potentially order lab tests to check other numbers like blood sugar or cholesterol.
“Then reviewing these numbers with the patient to make sure they really understand what they mean, to empower them, to make the best decisions about their health,” said Gallini.