Four Numbers to Know for Heart Health

(CBS)  In our "Early Show" series, "Heart Score" we will look at ways to avoid the No. 1 killer in the U.S.: cardiac disease. CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton discussed on Wednesday how you can "keep score" on your cardiac health by knowing four numbers: your cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI and waist circumference.

Ashton suggested these guidelines on the broadcast:

CHOLESTEROL
GOAL: Less than 200 mg/dL
HIGH RISK: OVER 240 mg/dL

As you know, there can be both "good" - HDL - and "bad," your LDL. How much you exercise and what you eat contribute to your levels. Too much or too little of one type can put you at risk for coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke.

Your target total cholesterol should be less than 200 mg/dL. You are at high risk with anything over 240 -- and you have twice the risk of heart disease than people at the optimal level.

To check your cholesterol, you should see a doctor for a blood test.

BLOOD PRESSURE
GOAL: 120 SYSTOLIC, 80 DIASTOLIC

The top number is the systolic reading. It should be the higher of the two numbers and tells you the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats. The bottom number is the diastolic reading, which measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart is resting between beats and refilling with blood. The key goal here is to have anything less than 120 over 80. Having anything over does damage to the walls of your arteries. If you're not aware of your readings and it's high and uncontrolled you can be at high risk for a stroke.

WEIGHT: Check Body Mass Index (BMI)
BMI: less than 25

Weight is another vital number for the heart -- excess weight increases the heart's work and raises blood pressure and cholesterol. For weight, it's important to look at your body mass index - which is a value of your weight and height.

From the American Heart Association:
BMIs under 25 are considered healthy, while higher BMIs are associated with significantly increased health risks. People with BMIs of 25 or higher are more likely to develop heart disease and stroke even if they have no other risk factors. For people in the highest BMI category, they were about two times more likely to have a stroke.

WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE
Women: less than 35 inches
Men: less than 40 inches

Measuring BMI alone won't give you a full picture -- people can have normal BMIs and have abdominal fat. A larger waist measurement can be a predictor of the risk of high blood pressure.

According to the American Heart Association, woman's waist should be less than 35 inches; for men, it should be less than 40 inches.

The risk of stroke increases about four times compared to individuals with normal waistline measures.

[gjxepvaf]

This is a great summation. The purpose is to simplify the massive health-bases for personal use. Four numbers is about right. And the topic such as this bears repetition.

[Paul123z]

The Framingham study evidence underlying the ?lipid hypothesis? was never strong to start with. Since then a massive lipid lowering campaign has shown no effect on heart disease rates. While an elegant and seemingly intuitive hypothesis, more and more openly people are rightly questioning the wisdom of the cholesterol lowering campaign.

Cholesterol is an essential component of every cell membrane and important for myriad physiologic functions. When Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD looked at the medical literature he found something quite surprising had been documented there. On average people with higher cholesterol live longer. Cholesterol is a mediator in heart disease but blood cholesterol levels have next to no effect on heart disease rates again heart disease rates mostly unchanged since the advent of the massive cholesterol lowering campaign. Here is something else to consider, as any chemist will tell you, cholesterol is a single molecule. How then are there "good" and "bad" cholesterol molecules. It is at best scientifically imprecise and at worst a crass marketing ploy to talk about the levels of high and low denisty lipoprotein (say it again lipoprotein i.e. a protein - they are carrier proteins) as implying different cholesterol molecules. Then again the statin cholesterol lowering drug class alone is a 30 billion dollar a year industry. Of course none of this starts to address the frequent and serious side effects seen with statins. This latest attempt to expand cholesterol lowering "medication" to healthy individuals with normal cholesterol is both absurd and offensive.

Paul Maher, MD MPH
http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/

[MackenzieWarren]

Heart disease is the number one killer of women. Watch this video to see how Southern Methodist University in Dallas is raising awareness about heart health! http://www.smudailymustang.com/?p=21233

[Tigralady]

I found this report sorely lacking - particularly on the cholesterol. More time should have been spent on this discussing total, good, bad, triglycerides.

A question that I've not found a satisfactory answer to is how can your individual LDL and HDL's fall within the "acceptable" ranges but the Total does not? How can your total cholesterol be close to the specified range, but the triglycerides be off the chart? And what does that say about eating vs life style changes to be made?

When should one suspect that an error in the testing, analysis or lab report have occurred?

Why aren't test results reported exactly the same from clinic to clinic, physician to physician, lab to lab? Why isn't this standardized?

How do the results vary when there is fasting vs not? Why do some physicians require fasting and others do not? Why isn't this standardized?

The biggest question - Why should a report by the news media on this be necessary at all - in other words, why hasn't the health care industry standardized all of this already and made it a routine part of our care rather than each individual having to know What and When things should be tested? And then agreed on how it should be reported and on the recommended treatment plan?