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Announcer: From Louisiana's home team, this is Fox 8 Morning Edition at 6 a.m.
Anchor: Alright Chris, thanks so much. Our time now 7:23 and this month, February, is
American Heart Month. Heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. killing more than
600,000 men and women and Dr. Scott Simeon, with Peoples Health joins us now with more.
Thanks so much for being here. Dr. Simeon: Thanks for having me.
Anchor: And we were just talking, you're a Primary Care doctor. You treat people and
try to prevent them from having to go to the cardiologist and sometime it's too late or
things are already happening. Dr. Simeon: Well, one of the focuses I have
about heart disease is to try to prevent something that is somewhat preventable. I mean, we don't
want to wait until we're having crushing chest pains and head to the ER and then we find
out, oh well, you've got three blockages in your heart and that type of thing. Heart disease
is a very serious matter, as you just said. It's responsible for about 600,000 or more
deaths in the U.S. every year. And so, we want to make sure we prevent heart disease
before it ever really becomes a major problem. We want to, we encourage everybody to get
to their doctor and just get some routine blood tests, cholesterol, check your blood
pressure, these types of things. I see far too many patients who come in to see me after
not seeing a doctor for 10 years or more and then they come in and their blood pressure
has been high and sometimes the damage is already done. So, the important thing to remember
is to try to prevent these things from happening and start early. Because everybody will develop
some degree of heart disease or cholesterol buildup in their arteries so the important
thing is to make sure you eat healthy, exercise. I can't emphasize the importance of exercise
enough, just some sort of regular exercise, every week, every month, every day.
Anchor: And obviously if heart disease runs in your family, you know you've got a family
history, those people should go see, but if you don't have any history, at what age should
you start going to a doctor to get all of those check-ups that you mentioned like the
cholesterol. Dr. Simeon: Usually it's recommended that
even in your thirties you should start getting check-ups, maybe not every year, but certainly
when you hit 40 and definitely 50 and older you want to get annual check-ups, annual blood
work for these types of things. But the important thing, again, to note, is just the things
you can do, eating healthy, don't smoke. Smoking is just really one of the worst things you
can do to your body and people always think about the effects it has on your lungs or
possibly association with lung cancer and chronic lung disease, but many people don't
even put an association between smoking and heart disease, but I can guarantee you, if
you smoke, you will have some degree of heart disease and cardiovascular disease.
Anchor: And what does the smoking do to the body. How does it cause the heart disease?
Dr. Simeon: Well, it many ways the chemicals that are in cigarettes make the arteries a
little more, I like to tell patients, it makes it a little more sticky for cholesterol, it
makes it more, the lining of the arteries inside, makes it more fragile, more brittle,
that type of thing. But it's just Anchor: So the blood flow, it's not an easy
flow through the body? Dr. Simeon: Right, well, I mean what causes,
when we think of heart disease, I mean there's a lot of different types of heart conditions,
but heart disease that I'm referring to really is more the coronary heart disease or coronary
artery disease. Keep in mind, the heart is an organ itself and it, itself, needs a blood
supply and oxygen and nutrients. And the coronary arteries surround the heart and when those
arteries get blocked, that's what we think of as coronary heart disease and that's what
we're talking about today. So, again, smoking, obesity, all these things are risk factors,
eating unhealthy. So obviously, the things you want to do to prevent heart disease or
serious heart disease are to do all those things to try to stop all that, don't smoke,
eat healthy, exercise. Those are the three biggies.
Anchor: Now is the time to start if you haven't started already. February, Heart Health Awareness
Month. Thank you so much Dr. Scott Simeon for joining us this morning. We appreciate
it. Dr. Simeon: Thank you.