A heart attack can change everything. Cardiologists see first-hand how heart disease can sneak up over time and what a difference prevention can make.
Knowing what they know, how do they keep their own heart healthy?
“At the end of the day, it’s all about making sure your blood pressure and cholesterol are controlled… and exercise,” Dr. Marc Eisenberg, a clinical cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, tells TODAY.com.
“It’s very exercise-focused,” adds Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist and clinical associate professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Here are cardiologists’ eight daily habits for a healthy heart:
Walk most days of the week
Both doctors incorporate an exercise routine into their daily life by walking to work.
For Goldberg, it amounts to a roundtrip of about 5 miles a day; for Eisenberg — who lives about 40 blocks away from his office — it’s about a 40-minute walk one way.
Both walk at a brisk pace to get the heart benefits.
“I get my heart rate up when I walk because I walk pretty fast,” Goldberg says. “It’s important for people to do exercises that are natural to them and easy for them to do.”
She also rides a stationary bike at least three times a week, does strength training and mat Pilates.
The goal for everyone is fast walking — or the equivalent, such as bike riding, swimming, using an elliptical machine or jogging — for about 40 to 50 minutes, at least five days a week, Eisenberg adds. It doesn’t have to be continuous so you can break it up into shorter walks or workouts several times a day.
Walking just 11 minutes every day can reduce the risk of developing heart disease by 17%, a 2023 study found.
If it’s not realistic to walk to work, walk on your lunch break or park far away from the supermarket when you go shopping, Eisenberg advises.
Cardio is much better for the heart than weightlifting — though strength training has other benefits,…
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