How healthy is your heart? There are 2.4 million Canadians affected by heart disease and since it’s Heart Month, what better time to learn about the risk factors and make some changes in our lives?
A healthy heart starts with a healthy lifestyle. If you improve the health of your heart, everything else improves, too. You boost your immune system and are more likely to successfully fight infections. While you can’t change some risk factors — such as your family history or age — there are many ways you can reduce your risk of developing heart disease or improve an existing heart condition.
Nita Sharda, a registered dietitian, recommends adding heart-healthy foods to your diet.
Being physically active
The evidence is clear — daily physical activity can lower your risk of heart disease and reduce your chances of developing other conditions that may put a strain on your heart, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type 2 diabetes.
According to the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines, to achieve health benefits, adults aged 18-64 years should get moving for at least 150 minutes per week. Even short bouts of exercise offer heart benefits — just 10 to 15 minutes of moving will do your body some good. You don’t have to exercise strenuously to achieve benefits, but you can see bigger benefits by increasing the intensity, duration and frequency of your workouts.
Working out is important — and necessary — but the hours when you’re not in the gym or doing formal exercise are vital as well. Gardening, housekeeping, taking the stairs and walking the dog — whatever you do, keep moving throughout the day. All that movement adds up to better heart health.
For those who have coronary artery disease, a congenital heart condition, a valve disease or have had a heart attack or heart failure, you may qualify for the WRHA cardiac rehabilitation program, which is delivered at both the Reh-Fit Centre, 1390 Taylor Ave., and the Wellness Institute at Seven Oaks General Hospital. Gord Fogg, a clinical exercise physiologist and leader of the cardiac rehabilitation at Reh-Fit, says the program’s goal is to help increase or resume exercise following cardiac events.
“We aim to build self-efficacy and confidence around engaging in physical activity,” Fogg says. “Goals are tailored with each individual and depend on their individual preferences and priorities.”
For the first six weeks, participants meet twice weekly for supervised exercise and group discussions. The remaining 10 weeks feature more independent exercise with check-ins every two weeks.
“People often regain confidence and enjoyment of physical activities,” Fogg says. “Cardiac rehabilitation also reduces the likelihood of future heart attacks, can help to reduce hospitalizations and improve people’s quality of life.”
Get good quality sleep
If you’re one of the many people who toss and turn at night, you may already know that regular sleepless nights can hamper your productivity and quality of life. But the ramifications of poor sleep extend far beyond a cranky mood. Research shows that an ongoing sleep deficit can ultimately endanger your heart health.
Almonds are a good source of monounsaturated fats.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, not getting enough sleep can increase your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and coronary artery disease, as well as increase stress, anxiety and depression. And people who don’t get enough sleep have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular disease.
So, do yourself a favour and start going to bed earlier. Make sleep a priority in your life. Experts recommend seven to nine hours of good quality sleep each night to stay in good health. Set a sleep schedule and stick to it by going to bed and waking up at the same times each day. Keep your bedroom dark and quiet, which can also make it easier to sleep.
Manage stress
Keep stress at bay because too much of it may increase your blood pressure. And research suggests that the way in which you manage your stress is equally as important. Avoid unhealthy stress coping mechanisms such as smoking, alcohol use, poor food choices and inactivity. Instead, find relief in other ways such as physical activity, going for a walk, socializing, laughing, relaxation exercises and meditation.
Get regular health screenings
Both high blood pressure and high cholesterol are detrimental and can damage your heart and blood vessels. If you’re not testing for them, you may not know if you have either of them. Work with your health-care team to manage these conditions. Regular screenings can tell you what your numbers are and whether you need to take action.
A heart-healthy diet
Certain foods can help protect your heart, improve your blood pressure and cholesterol, and reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes. A heart-healthy diet also generally means reducing saturated fats, increasing fibre intake and reducing salt. Each of these choices can have a direct impact on your heart health.
Saturated fats are typically found in animal products, such as dairy and meats. Excess intake of saturated fat has been linked to development of atherosclerosis, a disease in which plaque builds up inside and potentially clogs the arteries. Saturated fats can also increase harmful LDL cholesterol (low-density lipoproteins) found in your bloodstream.
Nita Sharda, a registered dietitian in Winnipeg, recommends you do your best to reduce saturated-fat intake or choose foods with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Good sources of monounsaturated fats are olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, avocados and most nuts.
There are two main types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent and even treat heart disease and stroke, in addition to reducing blood pressure, raising HDL (which is good cholesterol) and lowering triglycerides. Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines, as well as flaxseeds, walnuts and canola oil.
“I’m a huge fan of canola oil,” Sharda says. “I’m a proud Canadian and we live in Manitoba. It’s so nice that a lot of the canola is produced here.”
The Canadian Digestive Health Foundation says women need 25 grams of fibre per day, while men require 38 grams per day. Most Canadians get only about half that much. Dietary fibre can help reduce cholesterol levels, is important for digestive health, helps you feel fuller for longer and can help prevent diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Plant proteins — legumes, beans, lentils, seeds, tofu, nuts and oats — are especially beneficial because they’re also rich in fibre.
“Look at your bread — often many of them contain a lot of sodium,” Sharda says. “Try and purchase a sprouted-wheat product. It tends to be higher in iron, protein and fibre. Try to find a product that has three grams of fibre per slice.”
Sharda says people struggles with vegetables. She recommends trying a new veggie prepared three different ways before you decide it’s not for you.
“Let’s take kale. If you just wash it, it’s not very satisfying or tasty. But if you massage some olive oil into it, you automatically soften it and it can be more palatable,” she says. “Or try baking it and making kale chips, or throw some into a stew. That way, at least you’ve tried it a few different ways.
“If kale doesn’t suit you, try spinach. It’s not quite as bitter and tastes great in an omelette or thrown into a smoothie.”
Sharda says many of her clients are trying to move toward more plants in their diet.
“People are making a large effort to include more plant-based proteins like chickpeas, beans and lentils,” she says. “I find a big challenge around that is food skill — people just aren’t used to it. I take it for granted because, growing up Indian, we always had beans and lentils. Nowadays, I’m finding clients are expressing a desire to experiment more.”
The newest version of Canada’s Food Guide, released in January 2019, recommends Canadians consume plant-based proteins more often and reduce their intake of processed meats and saturated fats.
Sharda’s advises gradual changes when adding plant-based foods to your diet.
“Try to find ways of adapting your existing recipes to include some plant-based options, rather than doing a complete 180,” she says. “If you’re making a bolognese sauce, use your ground beef or chicken but then add in a quarter cup of lentils. Or if you’re making chili, add in an extra can of beans.”
Also, she recommends choosing ingredients and flavours you know your family will enjoy. Experiment with a meatless meal once a week, then add more days as you get used to it.
Sharda has some take-home advice if you’re trying to incorporate more heart-healthy foods into your diet.
“Think back to your meals and ask yourself, did you optimize your intake of fruits and vegetables? Often, the protein part of the meal is a priority — make fruits and vegetables a priority, too,” she says. “Start small and build on that. The power of a one per cent change is incredible.”
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Sabrina Carnevale Columnist
Sabrina Carnevale is a freelance writer and communications specialist, and former reporter and broadcaster who is a health enthusiast. She writes a twice-monthly column focusing on wellness and fitness.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.
There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.
The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.
Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.
Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.
“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.
But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.
That includes his own teenage daughter.
“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.
It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.
“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”
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AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
How a sperm and egg fuse together has long been a mystery.
New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.
“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.
Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.
It wasn’t previously known how the proteins “worked together as a team in order to allow sperm and egg to recognize each other,” Pauli said.
Scientists still don’t know how the sperm actually gets inside the egg after it attaches and hope to delve into that next.
Eventually, Pauli said, such work could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods.
The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives in particular, said David Greenstein, a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.
The latest study “also underscores the importance of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry,” he said in an email.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Patients who are older, don’t speak English, and don’t have a high school education are more likely to experience harm during a hospital stay in Canada, according to new research.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information measured preventableharmful events from 2023 to 2024, such as bed sores and medication errors,experienced by patients who received acute care in hospital.
The research published Thursday shows patients who don’t speak English or French are 30 per cent more likely to experience harm. Patients without a high school education are 20 per cent more likely to endure harm compared to those with higher education levels.
The report also found that patients 85 and older are five times more likely to experience harm during a hospital stay compared to those under 20.
“The goal of this report is to get folks thinking about equity as being a key dimension of the patient safety effort within a hospital,” says Dana Riley, an author of the report and a program lead on CIHI’s population health team.
When a health-care provider and a patient don’t speak the same language, that can result in the administration of a wrong test or procedure, research shows. Similarly, Riley says a lower level of education is associated with a lower level of health literacy, which can result in increased vulnerability to communication errors.
“It’s fairly costly to the patient and it’s costly to the system,” says Riley, noting the average hospital stay for a patient who experiences harm is four times more expensive than the cost of a hospital stay without a harmful event – $42,558 compared to $9,072.
“I think there are a variety of different reasons why we might start to think about patient safety, think about equity, as key interconnected dimensions of health-care quality,” says Riley.
The analysis doesn’t include data on racialized patients because Riley says pan-Canadian data was not available for their research. Data from Quebec and some mental health patients was also excluded due to differences in data collection.
Efforts to reduce patient injuries at one Ontario hospital network appears to have resulted in less harm. Patient falls at Mackenzie Health causing injury are down 40 per cent, pressure injuries have decreased 51 per cent, and central line-associated bloodstream infections, such as IV therapy, have been reduced 34 per cent.
The hospital created a “zero harm” plan in 2019 to reduce errors after a hospital survey revealed low safety scores. They integrated principles used in aviation and nuclear industries, which prioritize safety in complex high-risk environments.
“The premise is first driven by a cultural shift where people feel comfortable actually calling out these events,” says Mackenzie Health President and Chief Executive Officer Altaf Stationwala.
They introduced harm reduction training and daily meetings to discuss risks in the hospital. Mackenzie partnered with virtual interpreters that speak 240 languages and understand medical jargon. Geriatric care nurses serve the nearly 70 per cent of patients over the age of 75, and staff are encouraged to communicate as frequently as possible, and in plain language, says Stationwala.
“What we do in health care is we take control away from patients and families, and what we know is we need to empower patients and families and that ultimately results in better health care.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
