Austin doctor raises awareness about heart disease

AUSTIN, Texas - Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the U.S., and in most cases, it's preventable. 

In tonight's Health Beat, we are focusing on American Heart Month and efforts to raise awareness. 

Dr. Vivek Goswami, a cardiologist with Heart Hospital of Austin and Austin Heart, joined FOX 7 Austin's Rebecca Thomas to discuss.

What they're saying:

REBECCA: Dr. Goswami, what are the biggest risk factors for heart disease? 

DR. GOSWAMI: You know, the biggest risk factor here is just being human. Right. So you're talking about the thing that is most likely to take us all off of this earth. We're not talking about something that's rare. And unfortunately for most people, the day before they have a fatal heart attack or a massive heart attack, they feel fine. So, having a very reactive mindset, wait until we have symptoms to address. This is really a poor strategy. We really, really got to get ahead of it. And we've really got to work is work on preventing heart disease. And that starts with really what we do on a day to day basis. So no one's going to take better care of us than we are. And depending on what we eat every day and what type of exercise we're doing every day, as you mentioned, we could prevent a majority of heart disease without any new research, without any new funding. We really should be viewing things like exercise as a prescription, not just a recommendation. So right now, a lot of people feel that exercise is kind of the selective thing that they can get to. If it's convenient, it's a good thing to do. We really should be viewing a day without exercise, similar to a day of not taking our medicines. And that goes for what we're eating as well. Our kitchens are killing us and when we have a meal choice, we should always be calculated about what we're putting our body and make healthy food choices. These day-to-day things that we've heard ever since we were young, really, really a big, big difference in terms of prevention of heart disease, cancer, stroke and a lot of the other leading causes of death. The United States. 

REBECCA: Eat healthy, move. You know, if you have a history, a family history of heart disease, it's not necessarily a done deal. Right. I mean, again, there are some simple things that people can do to lower that risk. 

DR. GOSWAMI: That's right. And you can't pick your parents, for example. That's a non-modifiable risk factor. But if you do have some inherent increased risk, all the more reason to be more vigilant with diet and exercise and all the more reason to be proactive with your screening. It's incredible how many people routinely get colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer early or get mammograms to screen for breast cancer at an early stage. But yet many people fail to get any type of heart screening, even though it's more likely to take us off this earth than breast cancer or colon cancer. So we often recommend screening CT calcium scores as a very, very low risk. No contrast, a CAT scan that takes seconds and it can tell us if we have any calcified plaque in our heart arteries and if so, can we do things like ultrasound of the arteries to look for soft plaque. So these are very, very easy, noninvasive ways of screening for early heart disease. And remember, when people have heart attacks in their 50s, 60s and 70s, it's not because of what starts in their 50s, 60s and 70s. That process starts much earlier on and manifest later in life. So we certainly recommend, in addition to diet and exercise and the aggressive risk factor modification, we certainly recommend being proactive with your heart screening. 

REBECCA: So, you know, screening, for example, cholesterol check, blood check, just blood pressure checks. But the screening that you talked about, checking for calcium, when should that start? 

DR. GOSWAMI: Yeah. So I think it depends on the individual. If someone has an inherent aggressive family history or if their cholesterol is exceedingly high, you know, they can always screen earlier, I think, as a generic recommendation, men, mid-forties women in their 50s. But certainly if there's any unique factor, unique risk factors, you want to talk to your physician about potentially getting that earlier. Because again, we want to screen for when the disease starts now when it manifest.  

REBECCA: All right. We are out of time, but Dr. Vivek Goswami, cardiologist with Heart Hospital of Austin and Austin Heart, again, thank you so much for sharing your time and expertise with us tonight.