Heart Smart at Every Age: A Lifelong Guide to Heart Health

Through­out your life, your heart is always putting in work. This cru­cial organ is con­stant­ly mov­ing blood through­out your body, sup­port­ing your body as it grows and changes as you get older. 

But just because your heart is a con­stant doesn’t mean how you take care of it stays the same. Your heart’s needs change as you age, and there are spe­cial con­sid­er­a­tions to keep in mind for times like dur­ing preg­nan­cy or menopause. 

No mat­ter what stage of life you may be in, there is always some­thing you can do to pro­tect your heart. 

Heart Health Dur­ing Child­hood and Adolescence 

A healthy heart for life starts dur­ing child­hood. After birth, most babies (includ­ing those born in Illi­nois) under­go required screen­ing for crit­i­cal heart con­di­tions. From there, pedi­a­tri­cians lis­ten to every child’s heart at well­ness screen­ings — a cru­cial part of mak­ing sure their heart is devel­op­ing nor­mal­ly. At age 3, chil­dren should also begin blood pres­sure screen­ing dur­ing these vis­its. In most cas­es, par­ents have to request this. If your child will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in sports, they will need a sports phys­i­cal in addi­tion to their school and well­ness phys­i­cals. These phys­i­cals include heart screen­ings, focus­ing on aspects of your child’s health that could affect their abil­i­ty to safe­ly play sports. 

Out­side of keep­ing up-to-date with well-child vis­its, heart health dur­ing child­hood and ado­les­cence cen­ters on estab­lish­ing heart-healthy habits ear­ly. These include: 

• Eat­ing a healthy diet full of fruits and veg­gies, low in sat­u­rat­ed fats (typ­i­cal­ly found in foods such as beef, cheese, and ice cream), and low in sodi­um (includ­ing in processed foods) 
• Get­ting reg­u­lar exer­cise Chil­dren ages 3 to 5 should engage in activ­i­ty through­out the day, and chil­dren ages 6 to 17 should get at least an hour of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty each day. 
• Learn­ing about the risks of and avoid­ing alco­hol, smok­ing, and drug use

Heart Health Dur­ing Adulthood

Adult­hood comes with new respon­si­bil­i­ties, whether from your career, fam­i­ly, finances, or a busy sched­ule — all of which can put an addi­tion­al strain on your heart health. On top of that, as your heart gets old­er, it needs extra care. 

Now is the time to solid­i­fy and main­tain lifestyle choic­es that keep your heart healthy. These habits will set you up for suc­cess now and in the future. 

It is also essen­tial to stay on top of annu­al phys­i­cals with your pri­ma­ry care provider. They’ll check for poten­tial and cur­rent heart prob­lems by: 

• Lis­ten­ing to your heart 
• Tak­ing your blood pressure 
• Check­ing your height and weight to cal­cu­late your body mass index (BMI)
• Order­ing blood tests, such as a cho­les­terol test 
• Rec­om­mend­ing any addi­tion­al screen­ings based on your health 

They’ll also help you man­age chron­ic health con­di­tions that can impact your heart, such as high blood pres­sure and dia­betes. If you have a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of heart dis­ease, they can cre­ate a plan to low­er your risk of devel­op­ing the condition. 

Heart Health Dur­ing Senior Years 

As you get old­er, espe­cial­ly over age 65, your heart changes sig­nif­i­cant­ly. For instance, your heart is unable to beat as fast as it once did, such as dur­ing exer­cise or stress. The walls of your arter­ies may also accu­mu­late a buildup of fat­ty deposits, and the large arter­ies may become stiffer over time. 

These changes in your heart put you at an increased risk of high blood pres­sure, heart dis­ease, heart fail­ure, stroke, and heart attacks.

Dur­ing your senior years, it’s time to adjust your heart care once more. Start by remain­ing extra vig­i­lant with annu­al phys­i­cal exams. Dur­ing these appoint­ments, your health­care provider will check for signs of heart prob­lems, some of which may be subtle. 

Remem­ber to always report any symp­toms to your provider that may indi­cate heart dis­ease, such as: 

• Pain, tin­gling, or numb­ness in your arms, shoul­ders, neck, jaw, or back 
• Short­ness of breath 
• Chest pain dur­ing exercise 
• Dizzi­ness or lightheadedness 
• Fatigue
• Swelling in the feet, ankles, legs, stom­ach, or neck 
• Prob­lems going about your dai­ly activ­i­ties or being phys­i­cal­ly active 

If you have any exist­ing chron­ic con­di­tions, like high blood pres­sure or dia­betes, keep­ing these con­di­tions in check will help keep your heart healthy for longer. 

Do you have ques­tions about keep­ing your heart healthy with oth­er health con­di­tions? Make an appoint­ment with a Duly car­di­ol­o­gist to man­age your heart health and relat­ed conditions. 

All of your lifestyle choic­es are impor­tant for your heart health — eat­ing healthy, not smok­ing, lim­it­ing your alco­hol intake, man­ag­ing stress, and exer­cis­ing. How­ev­er, even though some exer­cis­es might become chal­leng­ing as you get old­er, there are ways to adjust your exer­cise rou­tines to your com­fort level. 

Some tips to stay active as you age include: 

• Doing strength exer­cis­es with exer­cise bands, hand weights, cans of food, or books 
• Prac­tic­ing your bal­ance, such as with tai chi or yoga 
• Incor­po­rat­ing fun but man­age­able car­dio, such as water aer­o­bics, sal­sa danc­ing, or house­hold chores, like rak­ing leaves 

Heart Health Dur­ing Preg­nan­cy and Menopause 

Hor­mones play an impor­tant role in your heart’s func­tion. Dur­ing cer­tain peri­ods of your life, hor­mone fluc­tu­a­tions can increase your risk of heart problems. 

Dur­ing preg­nan­cy, your hor­mones under­go sig­nif­i­cant changes, and your heart works extra hard to sup­port you and your baby. This can lead to new or wors­en­ing prob­lems, like dia­betes, high blood pres­sure, and preeclamp­sia — some of which can hap­pen up to a year after you have your baby. 

To pre­vent and man­age heart prob­lems dur­ing and after pregnancy: 

• Know your risk for heart prob­lems by talk­ing to your health­care provider and keep­ing up with pre-natal vis­its.
• Make heart-healthy lifestyle choic­es, includ­ing eat­ing healthy, exer­cis­ing reg­u­lar­ly, man­ag­ing stress, get­ting enough sleep, and not smoking. 
• Be aware of warn­ing signs both dur­ing and after preg­nan­cy, such as extreme fatigue, dif­fi­cul­ty breath­ing, bel­ly or chest pain, a headache that’s get­ting worse, and nausea.

Anoth­er life stage that can be demand­ing on your heart is menopause. Dur­ing this tran­si­tion, your arter­ies become stiffer and thick­er, mak­ing them more sus­cep­ti­ble to dis­ease. On top of that, hor­mon­al changes slow your metab­o­lism and change how your body stores fat, mak­ing you more prone to weight gain, which is linked to heart problems. 

Lifestyle choic­es that sup­port your heart health are cru­cial dur­ing menopause. This includes stay­ing on top of well­ness checks, dur­ing which your health­care provider will check for and help man­age any concerns. 

Pri­or­i­tiz­ing Heart Health at Every Stage of Life 

Through­out all stages of life, your heart plays an impor­tant role in your well­ness — and it relies on you to stay healthy. Whether you’re younger or old­er, be sure to stay on top of your heart health. By keep­ing up with health­care appoint­ments, mak­ing healthy lifestyle choic­es, and pay­ing atten­tion to any con­cerns, you can stay heart-healthy for life.