Age old advice stands the test of time
Get your daily intake of fruits and vegetables. Reduce your salt and processed sugar intake. Exercise for 30 minutes a day. Stop smoking. Drink plenty of water. Avoid trans fats. None of these are new or ground-breaking tips for maintaining optimal health, but there is a reason they’ve become synonymous with healthy living. It’s often the simplest things that are most effective in keeping us fit and healthy.
For most people over 50, maintaining health and minimizing conditions such as heart disease are high on the agenda. As the second biggest cause of premature death in Canada, heart disease is something that arguably should be high on everyone’s health agenda, with exercise and diet being prioritized as preventive care methods. As a cardiologist, I have dedicated my professional career to improving the health outcomes of people recovering from heart disease or living with cardiovascular risk. Despite the prevalence of countless studies touting the benefits of diet, exercise, and stopping smoking as preventive measures, many people have a hard time finding a plan that works for them, long-term.
Getting started: Approaching exercise
Taking the first step to improve fitness or diet can be daunting. Many people recognize the need to improve their lifestyles and are open to changing their diet and exercise habits but become overwhelmed and intimidated by thoughts of getting started. For example, standard gyms are tailored to young, fit, people who have experience exercising, and navigating these spaces can be overwhelming for individuals who don’t know how to use them. So where do you start?
The good news is that exercise is medicine, and the power of preventive care lies in your hands. If done properly, the only side effect of exercise should be a little sweat. Keep it simple and start small, making subtle changes you can incorporate into daily life at first. For instance, 30 minutes of exercise can be broken down into 10 min increments so you never have an excuse. Wellbeing is a mindset, and we’re always more likely to stick with something we enjoy. So make it fun – find a friend or group to walk or exercise with, make it sociable, or listen to your favourite podcast or music while you move.
Setting realistic goals is possibly the most important starting point. Many people make the mistake of plucking a fitness goal out of thin air, and hitting the ground running (literally), taking on too much without adequate consideration for their health, ability, fitness level or pre-existing conditions. If you can only do 5 minutes of low impact exercise such as walking at home, start there – 5 minutes is better than nothing. Realistic goals and small changes over time will benefit you more than drastic changes you cannot stick with. Building fitness over time makes your heart more efficient at pumping out blood and exchanging oxygen, meaning it won’t have to work as hard, and setting you up to be able to take on more strenuous exercise in the future.
It’s not a ‘one-size fits all’ approach
There is no shortage of information on heart disease prevention and treatment, but this can sometimes be part of the problem. The sheer amount of information people are confronted with can be off-putting, overwhelming and sometimes contradictory. To counteract this confusion, there are many online resources available through organizations like Heart & Stroke Foundation that convey information in an accessible and digestible way. But just as prescriptions are filled to suit specific health requirements, so too should exercise and diet planning be tailored and personalized. Doctors and patients must work together to find a tailored approach to suit individual needs, rather than leaving preventive care wholly in the hands of patients. Combined factors like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other chronic conditions can all contribute to a patient’s ability to follow the ‘diet and exercise’ mandate, meaning that people need more than a generic ‘exercise more, eat less’ advisory to safely achieve results.
Supervised, personalized fitness and diet programs created to help patients with specific medical histories manage and maintain their optimal health are increasing in popularity, and for good reason. But the focus here should be on ‘maintaining’. Long-term solutions that address the root causes of heart disease will not only improve the physical and mental well-being of Canadians, but also reduce pressure on hospitals, healthcare systems, and the economy.
With the power of prevention in your hands, why not talk to your physician about finding a suitable starting point, setting realistic goals, and finding the maintenance solution that is the best fit for you?
Dr. Eli Rosenberg is the founder and medical director of Pulse Fit Rx, a Vancouver-based innovative cardiac care facility and fitness centre which puts exercise and diet at the centre of heart disease prevention to drive optimal results for patients.
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Dr. Eli Rosenberg is the founder and medical director of Pulse Fit Rx (https://fitrx.ca/), a Vancouver-based innovative cardiac care facility and fitness centre which puts exercise and diet at the centre of heart disease prevention to drive optimal results for patients.