Say ALOHA to Heart Disease Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

LORI MOSCA, MD: An optimal blood pressure level is less than 120/80 for everyone. However, we use different cut points to determine whether or not we're going to use drug therapy in addition to lifestyle to lower blood pressure levels.

ANNOUNCER: And one of the most important goals is to control blood sugar.

LORI MOSCA, MD: As a matter of fact, as doctors we treat individuals that have diabetes as aggressively as we do patients that already have heart disease because we know that an individual with diabetes is just as likely to have a heart attack or die of heart disease in the future as somebody who has already had say bypass surgery, a stroke or a heart attack themselves.

ANNOUNCER: People at the highest risk levels may need to take an extra step.

LORI MOSCA, MD: If you are at high risk of heart attack or stroke because you have established cardiovascular disease or many risk factors for heart disease, then it's very important that you get on life-saving medications such as statin therapy, aspirin therapy, beta-blocker therapy, ACE inhibitor therapy. And this should be discussed with your doctor whether or not you're a candidate or there is some contraindication to those therapies.

ANNOUNCER: Then there are the things you should avoid.

LORI MOSCA, MD: One good example of that is hormone replacement therapy. The American Heart Association does not recommend that women use hormone therapy as a method to lower the risk of heart disease or stroke because the data clearly now show that this may actually increase the risk.

While much research has shown that individuals that eat a diet that's rich in antioxidant vitamins enjoy a protective effect from heart disease, the opposite has been shown to be true for individual's that consume antioxidant vitamins in a supplement form.

We don't yet have completed clinical trials to help make definite decisions about using aspirin therapy in our lower risk patients. But the American Heart Association suggested that in women who are at low risk of heart disease we're not recommending aspirin therapy.

ANNOUNCER: It's important to remember that these recommendations are meant as a guide, and that the best advice should come from your healthcare providers. But if you follow these guidelines the hope is that we all can say "ALOHA" to heart disease

LORI MOSCA, MD: You have the power to live a long and healthy life and we have to remember that there is a lot of people around each one of us that do want to see us be here tomorrow.

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