6 Lifestyle Steps to Take for Heart Health and Restoration

On average, someone dies of cardiovascular disease every 36 seconds in the United States. An epidemic before the pandemic, and an underlying condition leading to the worst outcomes of the virus, heart disease has been the No. 1 killer for all Americans. Half of Americans suffer from it, and the prevalence of heart disease is even higher for Blacks and other people of color. People are at risk if they are overweight, inactive, smoke, eat a high-fat, high-sodium and highly processed diet, have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol…all matters of lifestyle.

If someone has been diagnosed with heart disease, they may not know their treatment options include a powerful therapy called Lifestyle Medicine. Lifestyle Medicine is defined as the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention—including a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection—as a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty.

Dr. Cate Collings, a board certified cardiologist and the new president of The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), Director of Lifestyle Medicine for Silicon Valley Medical Development and El Camino Health Medical Network in the San Francisco Bay Area, recommends six lifestyle steps-to-take for those given a heart disease diagnosis:

1. Heal your arteries with anti-inflammatory foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts
2. Strengthen your heart with moderate exercise one or more times a day
3. Tame heart damaging stress with reflective, meditative, or spiritual time each day
4. Invigorate your heart-brain connection with small and large moments of positivity with both friends and strangers
5. Evaluate any addictive behavior and be proactive in finding help
6. Prioritize restorative sleep

ACLM is the nation's fastest growing medical professional association, having grown over 700% in the last five years. Its purpose is to fill the gaping void in medical education on evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic approaches and to support its members in their practices. Our members’ clinical outcome goal is health restoration, as opposed to just disease management.

Addressing lifestyle is the first step in heart disease and other chronic disease treatment and management guidelines, but it has been largely overlooked due to a lack of physician training in lifestyle, barriers to practice and a lack of consumer understanding. This is an issue of informed consent. ACLM encourages medical professionals to become trained and certified in this burgeoning field, and encourage patients to ask their providers to become trained if they are not.

Dr. Collings explains Lifestyle Medicine in this webinar: https://www.lifestylemedicine.org/ACLM/Education/Webinar_Archive_Open_Source/The_Power_of_Lifestyle_Medicine.aspx

Dr. Cate Collings is Director of Lifestyle Medicine for Silicon Valley Medical Development and El Camino Health Medical Network in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has dual board certifications in Cardiology and Lifestyle Medicine and holds a graduate degree in exercise physiology, as well as professional culinary and wellness certifications. She received her education from the University of California, University of Wisconsin, and Stanford University Medical Center. She has served in multiple capacities and leadership positions at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA over the past 25 years including Medical Director of the Cardiopulmonary Wellness Center and Women's Heart Health. She now focuses exclusively on Lifestyle Medicine consultations, culinary medicine, and developing tech and human connection-enabled Lifestyle Medicine programs that solve for cardiovascular and other lifestyle-related conditions. lifestylemedicine/elcaminohealth.org