health & wellness >> on the cover
Heartfelt from page 9
70 percent in men and 50
percent in women:'
Marc Sakwa, M.D., is
chief of cardiovascular
surgery at Beaumont
Hospital, Royal Oak,
and a professor of car-
A-8
diovascular surgery at
Marc Sakwa,
the Oakland University
M.D.
William Beaumont School
of Medicine. Surgery is
his specialty, but he's also keen on the belief
that it's best to avoid the operating room, if
possible.
"While cardiac surgical procedures have
become less invasive and very safe," Sakwa
said, "the number of patients requiring sur-
gery has decreased over the past 10 years.
There is good evidence that proper diet,
regular exercise, and cholesterol- and lipid-
lowering medications have had their impact
on reducing and delaying the need for these
procedures:'
What To Do
If your family history indicates premature
heart disease, drive down the risk by eat-
ing better, moving more and not smoking.
Specifically, Franklin advises keeping body
mass in the normal range although slightly
overweight is OK. Also:
• Eat healthy (more fish, fruits, veggies,
low-fat diary products, selected oils and
water, and remember: You have to walk the
full length of a football field, end zone to end
zone, to burn off one small M&M);
• Avoid smoking and secondhand smoke;
• And be aware of major risk factors and
what your ideal values should be relative to
cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose,
weight and physical activity. Each 40-point
Dr. Franklin and Beaumont Health Center's Kristen Bernacik track patient workouts.
"Thirty-five years ago, I should have
started controlling my weight and
should have started cardiovascular
exercising."
Richard Racusin
—
reduction in total blood cholesterol cuts the
relative risk of an initial or recurrent heart
attack by 50 percent.
Strive for at least 30 minutes of moderate
exercise, such as brisk walking, at least five
days a week, generally rating your intensity
between "fairly light" and "somewhat hard:'
"New research shows that long exercise
sessions can be broken into shorter peri-
ods of activity — for example, three 10- to
15-minute exercise bouts," Franklin says.
"This will yield comparable improvements
as long as the total energy expenditure is
similar."
Keying off Richard Racusin's snowstorm
wakeup call, Franklin urges heart patients
to avoid high-risk activities such as moving
snow, hunting deer, water skiing and com-
petitive racquet sports. Increasing your heart
rate alone doesn't improve fitness; the bonus
derives from increased oxygen consump-
tion and energy expenditure during aerobic
exercise.
Franklin's new book, One Heart, Two Feet,
co-authored with Robert Sweetgall, the walk-
ing guru and president of Creative Walking
Inc., promotes exercise, diet, cardioprotective
medications, walking programs and behav-
ioral strategies. It includes personal stories,
motivational quotes and informative charts.
The premise: If we fail to use our feet, our
hearts begin to fail.
The book describes "The Ten
Commandments of Active Living":
• Cherish physical activity.
• Don't procrastinate: do something.
• Enjoy your activities.
• Do safe and sustainable activities.
• Build up gradually.
• Move in all four seasons.
• Cross-train with different activities.
• Be physically active 3 percent of the day.
• Keep a physical activity log.
• Spread the word on active living.
Franklin, a longtime Beaumont volun-
teer to the American Heart Association,
tells cardiac rehab patients: "Who you
see in the mirror every day has the single
greatest impact on your health outcomes.
Why? Behavioral choices are the No. 1 fac-
tor influencing premature mortality, not
genetics or even access to quality health
care'
That's why, he says, being positive and
focused, and not resigning yourself "to
the development of chronic disease" is so
pivotal.
❑
The 14 Healthy Habits To Successful Aging
• Physical activity: People who remain physically
active through their lives have stronger endurance,
bones, muscles, circulatory and immune systems and
sharper minds.
• Nutrition: Long-living folks are frugal eaters. They
eat to live, not live to eat.
• Sleep: Early to bed, early to rise with consistent
sleeping patterns is good for longevity.
• Safety: You can be very fit, but if you're a risk taker,
chances are you may die fit and young.
• Family and friends: This is all about your social
support network — the social safety net you can count
on to get you through tough times.
• Coping with loss: Those who can pay their respects
at a funeral and get on with their own lives, maintaining
a strong will to live, turn out to be better survivors.
• Resiliency: The ability to adapt to changing times,
views and situations is so much healthier than being
rigid and non-compromising.
• Coping with stress: Stress affects all cells and bio-
logical systems in the body. So be happy and try not to
worry so much, especially about things you can't control.
10 February 28 • 2013
Barry Franklin, P/,
& Robert Sweetgall
Enhancing Heart
One Step at a Time
• Positive attitude: Waking up each morning and
looking forward to the new day is healthier than ris-
ing with an attitude of, "Oh, gee, how am I going to get
through today?"
• Job satisfaction and happiness. It's an advantage to
love your work, or at least to look forward to it.
• Lifelong learning: Learning keeps life interesting.
It also keeps your brain in shape. When you stop using
your brain, it shrivels and dies; and so does the rest of
you.
Source: One Heart, Two Feet
—
• Humor: Healthy people have a talent for finding the
funny side of life and laughing at it.
• Humanitarianism: Longevity is aided by random
acts of kindness. People who act kindly, doing good
deeds, acting honestly and fairly with greater under-
standing seem to get rewarded with more time to keep
doing good things.
• Spirituality and faith: Having faith in a higher
power seems to correlate with longer, healthier lives.
How To Order
The new book One Heart, Two Feet, by Barry
Franklin, Ph.D., and walking guru Robert
Sweetgall, the publisher, retails for $12.95 and
is available from Creative Walking Inc.: P.O. Box
50296, Clayton, MO 63105; (800) 762-9255 toll
free; or www.creativewalking.com and click on
"Purchase Resources."