This time every year, millions of Americans make their annual New Year’s resolutions. If getting healthy is at the top of your list, make a commitment to your heart by following these tips:

• Eat better. Start by knowing how many calories you should be eating and drinking to maintain your weight. Don’t eat more calories than you know you can burn up every day. Adults need fewer calories at older ages. For example, an active 31-year-old man needs about 3,000 daily calories, but an active 50-year-old man needs only about 2,800 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight. Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt. Cut back on foods high in dietary cholesterol and those containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

• Exercise. According to the latest joint guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine on physical activity, all healthy adults 18 to 65 should be getting at least 30 minutes of moderately-intense activity five days a week.

• Manage your weight. To maintain your weight, you must balance your intake of calories with the energy you burn.

• Reduce your cholesterol. Whether by diet modification, exercise, medication or a combination of the three, follow your doctor’s advice to keep your numbers in check.

It’s also important to know your heart disease risk factors and be aware of symptoms that sometimes can appear very subtle, especially in women. If you have any of these symptoms or have a sense that something just doesn’t feel ‘right,’ seek help immediately:

• Pain or tightness in the chest
• Nausea
• Shortness of breath
• Fatigue
• Pain extending to the arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach

Commit to your heart and to a healthier 2008.

How can I learn more?
To learn more about the risk factors, symptoms and treatment for heart disease, visit westernbaptist.com/heart. You can take a free, five-minute online heart risk survey and become eligible for reduced-cost cardiac screenings at Baptist Prime Care. You also may phone Baptist Health Line at (270) 575-2918.
Mailbag:  Questions from our readers

Marie Hamilton, Paducah, writes:
Can a person actually die from a broken heart?  I have known two elderly ladies who were told of their spouses’ deaths and then died of heart attacks a few days later.  Can the shock of bad news cause a heart attack?  Does grief, sadness or anxiety cause the heart to go into arrest?

Dr. Withrow answers:

Emotions like grief, sadness and anxiety can be related to heart disease. Stress resulting from traumatic events like the loss of a loved one or shocking news can cause a surge of hormones, including adrenalin and noradrenalin. These hormones can make blood pressure and heart rates soar. The increase in the force and flow of blood through arteries can cause fatty plaques in artery walls to rupture, allowing clots to form and block blood flow to the heart.
Adrenalin also can trigger potentially fatal disturbances in heart rhythm, especially in people with heart disease. And it can make platelets in the blood more likely to clot and cause spasms in arteries, causing them to narrow.

In most cases, the effect of stress or bad news alone doesn’t cause heart attacks. Usually there are underlying conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and family history that pose the greatest risk. However, when these risk factors combine with unforeseen trauma or stress, the potential for a heart attack can increase.

Send your questions!

Congratulations to Marie Hamilton, Paducah. Because her question was selected for publication, she will receive a Baptist Heart Center T-shirt.

Do you have a cardiac question tugging at your heart? Send it to heartbeat@bhsi.com or mail it to HeartBeat, 2501 Kentucky Ave., Paducah, KY  42003. If we use it in a future HeartBeat column, you will win a Baptist Heart Center T-shirt.