By Helen Cone

Redberg

There’s no magical solution to preventing heart disease other than implementing the basics: take a walk, eat right and don’t smoke.

So says Dr. Rita Redberg, professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Redberg, who spoke to the Los Altos Morning Forum on Nov. 1, is also the director of Cardiovascular Women’s Services for the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health.

There has been a paradigm shift in the last 15 years in understanding that studies made only on men did not necessarily pertain to women, too. On average, women are 10 years older than men when diagnosed with heart disease and it was therefore thought that estrogen was helping to prevent it. That has been disproved.

Risk factors for heart disease are obesity, smoking (and second-hand smoke) and lack of exercise. There is too much emphasis on pills, Redberg said, whereas the real preventative is a change in lifestyle: alter one’s diet to eat more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, oils instead of trans fats (fat that is solid at room temperature) and smaller portions, stop smoking and start exercising.

Exercise is the “fountain of youth” for heart health, Redberg said, reducing the risk for an attack by 50 percent. It also helps in the prevention of other problems of aging, such as high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s disease and depression. She suggested forum attendees dial the phone number of the American Heart Association to request a guide to exercising, l-888-my heart (694-3278).

Redberg did not support supplements with Vitamin E or vitamins in general as preventatives. Studies have not shown any reduction in heart disease with their use. Aspirin therapy seems to be helpful to women over 65, but not for younger women. It should not be daily, but weekly, when there are risk factors including parents who suffered heart attacks prematurely, she said.

Redberg also addressed the problem of childhood obesity. She said it is extremely difficult to overcome lifelong obesity. Factors that are making it worse are the reduction in physical education in school and school vending machines, which make soda and junk food readily available. She predicts the current generation will be the first that will not live as long as their parents.

She spoke about heart scans and other high-tech tests, but dismissed them as not being of much value. They may give false information unrelated to healthy hearts, Redberg said.

In response to a question regarding social support, she emphasized that it was crucial to recovery from a heart attack and to a healthy lifestyle in general.

In summary, Redberg quoted the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Morning Forum is a lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. For more information write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.