One of the best ways to prevent heart disease is to stay active. At least 30 minutes a day, five days a week of light to moderate exercise or one hour, three days a week of moderate to intense exercise is recommended.
“Exercising regularly can help keep you in shape, help keep you moving, help to prevent heart disease or at least help you figure out if you’re having symptoms to be concerned about,” Dr. Holliday said. “If you exercise regularly, you’re much more likely to notice if your usual level of activity is off and you’re having symptoms with activity that you don’t normally have.”
Eating a healthy diet of mainly fresh fruits and vegetables is also extremely important. If you are a meat eater, try eating lean proteins, making sure to avoid a lot of fried foods, unhealthy fats and sugar.
Knowing your risk factors can help you lower your risk of heart disease. This includes knowing if you have a family history and what your blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels are.
“Everyone should be screened at least once when they hit their 20s and then continue to follow up with a doctor so they can periodically be monitored to make sure they’re not developing any of those risk factors for heart disease,” Dr. Holliday said. Even small changes improve heart health
If you’re overweight, try to get down to healthy weight, but don’t do it drastically. One to two pounds a week is better. Make sure you’re getting at least seven hours of peaceful, uninterrupted sleep. If you smoke or vape, stop. And if you drink excessive alcohol, reduce your intake.
“But the most important way to protect yourself is to listen to your body and reach out to a doctor if you notice any concerning symptoms,” Dr. Holliday said. “We’re happy to help you.”
New smartphone app quickly analyzes human motion to aid physical rehabilitation
A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health has developed a smart phone app that can track and analyze a person’s ability to move from one place to another, known as locomotion, and other types of movements. Human motion analysis is used to evaluate patients with movement difficulties, to help clinicians plan surgery, and to assess the results of treatment procedures. The research team believes that using the app costs about 1 % of conventional motion analysis techniques and works 25 times faster. The study appears in PLOS Computational Biology.
Researchers tested their app, called OpenCap, with 100 participants. Using two or more smart phones, the app recorded sufficient quality videos to allow for web-based, artificial intelligence analysis of muscle activations, joint loads and joint movements. Data collection took 10 hours for the 100 participants, and computation of results took 31 hours. Traditionally, locomotion analysis requires fixed lab space and more than $ 150,000 worth of equipment, including eight or more specialized cameras to capture three-dimensional images. The captured data also takes several days to analyze by a trained expert.
While current technology is too expensive for routine clinical use, according to the investigators, the app could potentially be used to help screen for disease risk, inform rehabilitation decisions, and track improvements in motion following treatment.
The study was conducted by Scott L. Delp, Ph.D., of Stanford University, and colleagues. NIH funding was provided by the Eunice Kennedy ShriverNational Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
