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Myth #6: If heart disease runs in your family, you can't fight genetics with diet and exercise. Truth: "Your genes are not your destiny. In 2016, there was a study in the New England Journal of Medicine looking at 55,685 people with varying degrees of risk factors for heart disease. Ultimately, the study concluded that those with the highest hereditary risk for heart disease were able to lower their risk of developing heart disease by half through healthy lifestyle choices." Myth #7: Cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins will give you muscle pain, memory loss and diabetes. Truth: "e bottom line on statins is that, in the right patient population, statins have been proven to prevent heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular deaths. For people with very high levels of cholesterol or people with a history of heart disease, statins are very important. While they do have side effects, like muscle cramps, they only occur in 7-8 percent of patients. Statins increase incidence of diabetes slightly, but the benefit of preventing death from heart attack or stroke far outweighs the very small increase in your chance of developing diabetes." Myth #8: Symptoms of heart attack are the same in men and women. Truth: "ey are different. Women tend to present with very atypical symptoms of heart attack. e classic symptoms most of us know are a crushing pain across the chest, shortness of breath and sweating. A woman who is having a heart attack might just feel jaw pain, fatigue, nausea or arm pain. at is why physicians must be very perceptive of these non-obvious symptoms, especially when our patient is female." Myth #9: If you have heart disease or a heart condition you should avoid exercise. Truth: "Exercise is an essential ingredient in establishing a healthy heart, especially aer a cardiac incident. It's mostly a question of timing: how soon aer a heart incident can you resume exercise? What kinds of exercise should you begin with? ese are the kinds of questions you should discuss with your cardiologist." Myth #10: Once you have heart disease, it's too late to do anything about it. Truth: "Life expectancy continues to increase and the risk of dying from heart disease continue to decrease because we have such effective treatments available today. People with heart disease are living longer and longer—heart disease is no longer a death sentence." B r a-F i t S p e c i a l i S t S S i z e S aa-K l i n g e r i e S l e e p w e a r e x c l u S i v e B r a c l u B 11 White St, Red Bank, NJ 07701 • 732-747-3550 • sweetestsinbras.com • @sweetestsinbras SAVE THE DATE 10.4.19 V U E N J . C O M 153

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