Medical Monday: Heart Health

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - Taking care of your heart is an essential part of staying happy and healthy.

Dr. Rodolfo Aldir, the Medical Director Cardiovascular services at Northern Light AR Gould Hospital says, “So from the standpoint of the food, the diet lots of exercise there’s a lot of bad stuff”

According to Dr. Aldir, It’s important to focus on the health of your heart as early as possible. Because by the time you make it to his office, severe damage may have already been done. He adds that the most important thing you can do to protect your heart involves implementing lifestyle changes, one of those lifestyle changes includes changing your diet to eat like your grandma did.

Dr. Aldir says, " Normally grandma was able to grow her own vegetables, things were fresh, less preservatives, focused more on our vegetables, our fruits. Meats were actually a smaller piece of it, in the old days if we had a cow or if we had a goat, you didn’t want to kill the cow and you didn’t want to kill the goat so we actually used the environment to be able to feed you”

Another lifestyle change that Dr. Aldir recommends involves staying active.

Dr. Aldir, says, ”The thing is we need to start maintaining our activity. the difficulty lies in that we are in front of a computer or we are in front of a television all too often and what we need to do is think about how can we get outside and how can we exercise . recommendations are for at least 150 minutes a week of cardiovascular health”

Even though it’s winter time in the county, Dr. Aldir says that’s no excuse to become a couch potato. In fact, he says studies have shown that one winter activity is really good for your heart.

“I’ve been instructed that the weather doesn’t stop us so if we keep in mind the best cardiovascular exercise which has been proven under medical studies happens to be Nordic skiing so that is by far the best, it’s just a little harder to do it does require equipment. but here in this area in Aroostook county I’ve seen that there’s a great deal of trails. What we are seeing is a lot of people on snowmobiles, we should be seeing more on skis. if we can see them doing a little bit of Nordic exercise that can help.” according to Dr. Aldir.

If you’re not a fan of Nordic Skiing, Dr. Aldir says that something as simple as walking around the mall is a great way to keep active for your health,

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