Get Tips for a Healthy Heart

Aug. 7, 2007 — -- This year an estimated 1.2 million Americans will have a new or recurrent coronary attack. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States.

In fact, one in three Americans suffers from heart disease. Those sobering statistics become even more relevant when as many as a third of those people will have another heart attack in six years.

Those are some of the reasons Dr. Mehmet Oz and exercise physiologist Bob Greene teamed up with GlaxoSmithKline to develop the "Heartfelt for Life" training program.

Click here to find out how to get the free DVD.

The free DVD was designed specifically for people who have had heart attacks. It includes exercises to help improve health.

Oz said eating well can prevent a heart attack, but exercise is a crucial part of the equation. Exercise actually is the most important predictor of a person's life span, according to Oz.

"We spend lots of time talking about food and diet, but we forget exercise is equally important," Oz said.

He suggests walking 30 minutes for six days a week or three hours a week in general in order to reduce the risk of heart attacks.

Oz said exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, which in turn reduces heart attack risk by 35 percent.

The goal is to get your good cholesterol, HDL, above 50, he said. Bad cholesterol, LDL, should be lower than 100, and triglycerides should be below 150, he added.

In order to reach those numbers, the exercise regimen must include cardiovascular exercise, meaning you have to sweat, Oz said.

A good way to judge health is to see if you can walk a quarter of a mile in 20 minutes, Oz said. If a person can't do that, a 30 percent chance exists that he or she will be dead in two years, he said.

Several warning signs exists when a person is about to have a heart attack. But the signs may be different for men and women.

"Look for abnormal pains that aren't the kinds that you usually get," Oz said. Examples include pains in the stomach, he added.