 | Joseph P. Galichia, MD is the founder and Medical Director of the Galichia Medical Group, PA. He is an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of interventional cardiology. In the 70's, Dr. Galichia studied in Zurich, Switzerland with the inventors of the balloon angioplasty technique for treating heart disease. As a result of his experience, he was able to bring this historic technique back to the United States where he was one of the first physicians to perform coronary angioplasty here. A noted medical spokesman, he appears on a weekly Newstalk segment on KWCH Channel 12 and has a weekly syndicated radio talk show on KNSS 1330 AM every Saturday live from 11:00 am to noon. Dr. Galichia may be contacted by sending an e-mail to service@galichia.com |
Health & Medicine
2002-02-01 16:18:00
Diet and exercise... how important are they?
Question: How important is diet and exercise to the avoidance of cardiovascular problems. I've read about and have known those who do so and have a heart attack at a young age anyway. Of course there are the other cases too. It just seems like it's so much to give up when you never know for sure.
Answer: Cardiologists around the world have long felt that diet and exercise were important in preventing heart disease and stroke. Furthermore, emerging evidence would tell us that maintaining a normal body weight and doing adequate exercise daily helps in the prevention of diabetes, a common precursor to heart attack and stroke. Of course, maintaining a normal blood pressure, not smoking, and trying to manage stress in your life are important, as well as management of cholesterol abnormalities. These abnormalities can occur even in the setting of a good diet and exercise program and must be followed. There are many studies that demonstrate the value of exercise in preventing coronary heart disease. One of the earliest studies showed that dock workers who moved about carrying heavy objects all day doing their job had a lesser incidence of heart attacks than office workers in a direct comparative study. The body of evidence has continued to grow that exercise not only helps prevent heart attack but also helps one maintain a normal body weight and helps somewhat in the prevention of hypertension or high blood pressure. Furthermore, we know that patients who have had heart attacks do better if they are placed on an exercise program. Despite the advantages of exercise, we do know that for heart patients periods of heavy intense exercise put them at the greatest risk of having a heart attack. For that reason, we recommend that patients who have been sedentary and who have risk factors for coronary heart disease, including family history, should have a treadmill test prior to beginning an exercise program. Patients are always asking, "How much is enough exercise?" My response generally is to keep it very simple and to simply walk briskly 45 minutes, five days per week. Almost all studies have shown that this amount of exercise and this intensity of exercise will give you all of the risk reduction, all the benefits of exercise, and not subject you to the risk of sudden death or heart attack while doing intense exercise activities. Of course, swimming, biking and other dynamic activities can play the very same role. Aside from that, I do recommend light to moderate weight lifting three to four times per week. We also remain convinced that diet is an important part of any program to prevent heart attack. Certainly monitoring the quantity of food we eat is important because no matter what sort of fat-free diet we may ascribe to, too much food leads to weight gain and puts us at risk of heart disease. However, there is a good correlation between the amount of fat consumed, one's body weight, and the degree of cholesterol elevation. Thus, maintaining a low-fat diet is important in maintaining a normal serum cholesterol level. Still in all, there are individuals who simply have a high cholesterol despite being on what seems to be a good diet. My best recommendation for an appropriate diet is to be on a very well balanced diet with five servings of fruits and vegetables daily and to restrict the portion size considerably. The amount of food that we should eat should be just adequate to keep our body weight within the normal range. Interestingly, all studies that look at ageing in the human body have shown us that people who eat less food tend to live longer no matter what other dynamics come in to play. In other words, people who are somewhat underweight and who have restricted their caloric intake age less quickly and live longer. Maintaining a healthy diet and exercise program will likely lead to a longer lifetime, but also for most individuals creates more enjoyment and satisfaction, and adds to the joy of living.By Dr. Joseph Galichia
