Heart of the Matter

By
Appears in the February 2025 issue.

Valentine’s Day isn’t the only reason to pay attention to your ticker this month

An illustration of a heart

Thanks to their inexplicable popularity around Valentine’s Day, chalk-flavored candy message hearts have long been a (nearly inedible) staple of the year’s shortest and coldest month. But for the past six decades, February also has been recognized as American Heart Month—a time to pay a little extra attention to the actual anatomic machine that keeps our human bodies functioning throughout the year.

That crucial work is often a pretty tough job considering how many people tend to ignore their cardiac health. In fact, if real human hearts had cute little messages printed on them, they might read “EAT A VEGETABLE” or “DON’T SMOKE” in place of “BE MINE” or “TEXT ME.”

But since the heart doesn’t have the marketing muscle of the confectionary industry, that job falls to people like Aman Ali, a cardiologist with the Midwest Cardiovascular Institute in Naperville. As part of the team at MCI, Ali performs minimally invasive cardiac procedures on a daily basis—including transaortic valve replacements, mitral valve repairs, and left atrial appendage closures—and he’s a passionate advocate for heart health. “The heart is so much more than a single pumping vessel—it is a complex machine that has many facets that work harmoniously,” he says. “When one part starts to show signs of not performing at its capacity, the machinery starts to strain and fail. That’s why early recognition and intervention is the key to keeping the heart humming seamlessly.”

Here are a few Ali’s cardiac notes to keep in mind all year long. “As you build a routine, these practices will all become good habits,” Ali says. (Feel free to print some on a candy heart as a reminder.)

* * *

The most common heart issues

• Coronary artery disease
• Heart failure
• Atrial fibrillation
• Valvular heart disease
• Hypertension
• Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol)

Biggest risk factors and behaviors that negatively affect heart health

• Tobacco use
• A family history of early heart disease
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Obesity

Everyday steps to improve heart health

• Exercise three to five times a week, at least 20 to 30 minutes at a time.
• Quit smoking.
• Schedule regular cardiac check-ins with your primary-care physician.
• See a cardiologist early for evaluation and treatment of any heart issues.

Take This to Heart

A few notable (and sobering) nuggets from the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2024 Update:

• 122.4 million U.S. adults, or 47 percent, are estimated to have hypertension.
• 1 in 8 male adults and 1 in 10 female adults in the United States are current smokers.
• 9.7 million U.S. adults have undiagnosed diabetes, 29.3 million have diagnosed diabetes, and 115.9 million have prediabetes.
• 25.5 percent of U.S. adults have high (≥130 mg/dL) LDL-C (“bad cholesterol”), and more than 3.7 million deaths globally were attributed to high LDL-C in 2021.

 

Art: iStock