Your Health

Live Well With Heart Disease

Posted 1/7/2011

\Eating well, regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight and taking medicine when it’s prescribed can help protect you from heart disease.

(NAPSI) - There could be good news for the nearly 5.8 million Americans who the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates are currently living with heart disease. According to the CDC, eating well, regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight will help to lessen the severity of heart disease. That’s just as well since, according to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the No. 1 killer for people age 75 and older.

Years of eating greasy and salty foods, smoking and not exercising regularly—as well as hereditary factors—can lead to heart disease later in life. While many Americans believe that it’s a temporary illness that can be cured, heart disease is a lifelong condition that millions of people live with and have to cope with every day.

“Heart disease can seem impossible to manage, but medicine along with positive lifestyle changes can actually reduce the risk of future heart problems,” said Nelson Fernandez, M.D. and senior medical director of Universal American.

To help people with heart disease continue to lead active lives, hospitals and organizations including the American Heart Association offer educational seminars on medical benefits, healthy lifestyle courses and even financial counseling. In addition, prescription drug plans such as Community CCRxSM PDP (a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan offered through the Universal American family of companies) provide people with Medicare greater choice and control over their prescription medications by offering cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as Pfizer’s Lipitor or AstraZeneca’s Crestor, for low or no co-pays.

With such innovative companies offering more health care options, older adults can focus less on their treatment and more on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

For more information, visit www.UniversalAmerican.com.

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