Photography by Donovan Roberts Witmer
Sandy Brightbill puts her heart into her volunteer work. It is easy to understand why.
For four years, she has been a volunteer with the Lancaster Heart Ball, a fundraiser for the American Heart Association, but it is more than just a worthwhile cause for her. You might say it is a family affair.
Her father and her paternal grandfather both died of heart attacks. Her brother had a heart attack at age 37, and her sister was diagnosed in her early 40s with coronary artery disease.
“I kept thinking, “This is not going to happen to me,’ ” she says.
Then, after a regular checkup last year, she got a call from her doctor. Her cholesterol level was high.
“It was like a hit across the head,” says Brightbill, who is in her early 50s. She immediately began making changes in her diet and began exercising.
Her brother, Bill, has helped to motivate Sandy. It’s been about 10 years since Bill’s heart attack, and all of his checkups have shown him to be healthy, she says. He goes to the gym faithfully six days a week and follows a strict diet.
Now, Sandy is following her brother’s example. She goes to the gym three to four days a week, and on the other days she does a walk/jog regimen. She is also taking a statin drug for high cholesterol and has become much stricter with her diet.
No more cream sauces and very little of her favorite foods from her Lancaster County childhood: chicken pot pie and buttered noodles.
Bill and Sandy’s lifestyle changes are examples of what medical professionals suggest to prevent damage and improve cardiovascular health.
You Are What You Eat
Dr. Nicholas Mandalakas of Cardiac Consultants in Lancaster, and affiliated with Heart of Lancaster Hospital, says heart disease is more treatable than was thought when he first began his practice in Lancaster in 1991.
In the early ’90s, he says, the thought was that heart disease would almost inevitably progress to a patient having a bypass or angioplasty. “But the therapies began to be applied earlier and more effectively, and the outcomes improved. So the thinking has changed.” In the ’90s, when Mandalakas saw a patient do well enough to avoid having a heart attack or angioplasty, he was pleasantly surprised. “Now, we expect that,” he says.
And a big part of treatment is diet. “The younger a person incorporates good diet choices, exercise and relaxation into everyday life the better,” says Cynthia Yingling, a registered nurse with Cardiac Rehabilitation and Women’s Heart Program at WellSpan Health, York Hospital.
“However, positive changes made at any age have the ability to slow down the progression of heart disease. Cutting out fast foods, switching to skim milk instead of whole, walking up the steps instead of using the elevator and learning to [do deep breathing] all can make a major difference. Small changes are easier to continue and can be built on over time,” says Yingling.
There are many things we can do to keep our hearts healthy, says Dr. Mubashir Mumtaz, cardiothoracic surgeon at Pinnacle Health System, Harrisburg.
“Eating fruits, vegetables, whole grain, fish and limiting the intake of sweets like cake, cookies and doughnuts. There is a lot of truth to the saying, ‘You are what you eat.’ Physical activity keeps the heart, which is a muscle, strong and healthy. Avoiding smoking, managing your weight, controlling your blood pressure, maintaining a normal cholesterol level and decreasing your stress will improve and prevent cardiovascular disease,” says Mumtaz.
And diet can do more than was once thought possible. “Both limiting dietary fat and increasing intake of fruits and vegetables will prevent heart disease. Once you have developed coronary artery disease, it is clearly more difficult to reverse the problem with diet, but the Dr. Dean Ornish program, for example, has shown that this, too, is possible,” says Mandalakas.
Lifestyle Triggers
Exercise is another key to heart health. “Just 30 minutes a day of physical activity will improve your heart health. Walking is [something] that most people can do. Every hour of walking you do may increase your life expectancy by two hours, according to the American Heart Association,” says Mumtaz.
The ideal amount of exercise each day is 60 minutes, says Yingling. But busy schedules make that hard, so splitting it up is effective, also. “For instance, walking the dog 20 minutes three times per day works,” she says.
There is a saying, says Mumtaz: “Genes load the gun, but your lifestyle pulls the trigger.”
Sandy and her family are working hard to keep the safety on that trigger by making lifestyle changes in hopes of preventing what happened to their father and grandfather.
“I don’t want to sound like I’ve conquered it. … It’s a daily battle, a daily struggle,” says Sandy.
But she gets inspiration from her brother, who says he wouldn’t be alive today if he hadn’t changed his lifestyle.
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THE SKINNY ON FATS
Polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats are unsaturated fats and are a better choice if you are going to eat a food with fat in it. Omega 3 fatty acid is very healthy for your heart and is found in many fish. Salmon is one of the best sources for Omega 3. Saturated and trans fat are the worst fats to consume.
DIET, NUTRITION & COOKING CLASSES
PinnacleHealth has dieticians that will help create a heart-healthy eating plan. They also offer tours in the grocery store explaining what foods are best and how to understand the food labels. Cooking courses can also be taken through PinnacleHealth. For more information call 717-231-8900.
Wellspan supports an outpatient cardiovascular dietician, Laura White. She does a monthly class, “Healthy Heart Express.” This class is free to the public but requires registration. For dates and times, call 717-741-8280. White also meets with individuals who have issues with high cholesterol and/or weight loss. The Community Education Department offers a class called “A Healthy You,” which is geared not only toward weight loss, but also toward learning to live a healthy life. Call 717- 851-3500 for information on these classes.
ALL ABOUT CHOLESTEROL
Over many years, cholesterol builds up in the walls of the arteries. Basically, the wall becomes narrowed and scarred over time, which is called atherosclerosis. When an artery blocks off with a blood clot, a heart attack occurs. Low-density lipoprotein, LDL (low, lousy) or bad cholesterol, is the main source of cholesterol that can build up in your arteries. Your LDL should be less than 130mg/dL, even lower if you have diabetes. Decreasing the amount of total fat and cholesterol you eat can help lower your LDL. High-density lipoprotein, HDL (happy, healthy) or good cholesterol, protects the heart from blockages by slowing the build-up of the bad cholesterol. It removes the bad cholesterol from your blood and keeps those fats from building up in your arteries. For women, the HDL should be 50mg/dL or higher, and for men, 40mg/dL or higher. Exercise is a great way to increase your HDL. Cholesterol is produced by the liver at night while we sleep. It plays an important role in the regeneration of tissues and cells. We inherit the way our liver produces cholesterol.
Grilled Mahi Mahi Marinade
¾ cup olive oil ¼ cup soy sauce 1 lime 1 orange 1 lemon 2 bay leaves 6 cloves garlic, sliced thinly 4 boneless mahi-mahi fillets 1½ bulb fennel, sliced thinly ½ red onion, sliced thinly 12 black peppercorns, toasted & crushed 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled & sliced
Take a large bowl and pour olive oil along with the soy sauce in it. Squeeze the orange juice with lemon and lime. Then add the remaining ingredients into the bowl. Mix it well. Meanwhile, prepare the grill. Place the mahi mahi fish fillets in marinade and set it aside for 10 minutes. Cover both sides of the fish in the marinade. Remove fillets and grill for 4 minutes on both sides.
— Courtesy Dr. Mubashir Mumtaz, Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeon, Pinnacle Health
