Over the past 20 years, the number of people aged 65 and older who are hospitalized for heart failure has risen roughly 30%, which is putting a tremendous strain on the current Medicare system. In 1998, the system paid $3.7 billion for costs related to failure of the heart. The American Heart Association says that the burden on individual families is even worse. In 2002, Americans paid a whopping $21.4 billion in direct costs and an additional $1.8 billion in indirect costs associated with failure of the heart. Given those statistics, maybe preventative methods of cholesterol lowering and monitoring heart health aren’t so bad after all!

How do you know if you are at risk for heart failure? Smoking, eating diets high in fatty foods or cholesterol-rich foods and not exercising enough are lifestyle causes that may contribute to heart disease. You have probably heard that genetics can play a part as well, but health experts stress the importance of minimizing risk through smart lifestyle choices. If you’re not sure what you should be eating, then a simple trip to the dietician or logging onto a website like sparkspeople.com can help get you on track, alerting you to problems in your existing diet. It helps to have a motivational exercise buddy too, so find one and get to the gym or take daily walks around the block just to keep yourself in tip-top shape. Staying healthy doesn’t have to be a hassle or a compromise.

To check if you may have heart health problems, your general practitioner can run several tests to be sure. Many people avoid getting tested in advance because they fear invasive pokes and prods, but most of these screening tests are very non-invasive. For instance, one test, which is a “stress test,” has you walking on a treadmill for a specific interval of time through several intensity levels, while an IV-injected tracer moves through the blood, indicating possible obstructions or strain.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Health & Beauty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.