Skride: We have many ways to help your heart!

As always, the New Year for many comes with some kind of commitment. Someone wants to do a parachute jump, someone else to read a book every month or play more sports and eat healthier. Last year, when we opened the Professor Skride Heart Clinic my whole professional life is now even more dedicated to heart health, so I sincerely recommend health-related commitments to try not to quit throughout the year.

I’m often asked what are the things that have the most impact on heart health. There are quite a lot of factors, I will mention the main ones here. First, insufficient physical activity and unhealthy diet. Physical activity should first be understood as movement in everyday life, how much we walk on foot, how much we climb stairs or use an elevator. This is a good example for many who say that they do not have time: please, do not to use an elevator. How many floors a day could anyone climb like this? It does not replace strength exercises, which would also be necessary, but it can also be done quite simply by everyone – for example, stop on the way to the store on the sports field and perform the tightening exercise at least a couple of times at the beginning or at home every morning before brushing your teeth and showering, lean back 10 times and then every day by one time more. It practically does not change your daily plans, but if you think a little and put all these things together, it will already have a positive effect on health.

In our eating habits, our main problem is too much salt. Salt is a flavour enhancer, so you will find it practically anywhere when eating publicly. My recommendation would be to cook more on your own and then you control how much and what spices you use. An adult should not consume more than 4 grams of salt per day. That’s a lot. If taken separately, it will seem that we will never eat so much of salt, but in the processed foods there is a lot of salt, you can read about it on the package. Another problem is the use of bad or saturated fats, they are found in fatty meats and pastries. But I also have the good news, fish and various seafood can practically be consumed without restriction, there, on the contrary, there will be more benefit. They contain a lot of good or unsaturated fats, which are necessary for the proper functioning of the body. Of course, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, poor sleep and stress are also factors that affect heart health. These factors can contribute to elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels and they should be monitored. If these indicators are elevated, it should be dealt with immediately, otherwise sooner or later it will negatively affect heart health. Heart disease can also be inherited genetically, so if any problems with the heart have been found in relatives or there have been sudden, unexplained deaths of relatives, tests should be carried out to exclude such possibility.

It is especially important to follow the health of your heart in men after the age of 40 and in women after the onset of menopause. Unfortunately for men, gender is also a risk factor, as women’s hormonal system protects them better from acquired heart disease. Additional attention should be paid when starting physical activity. If we have not done anything active for some time, it is necessary to listen carefully to your body, but not everyone understands what the body is saying, so a consultation with a cardiologist would be highly desirable. It would be advisable to consult a physiotherapist about the skeletal musculature and its training.

To find out what heart health is, the most important thing, of course, is the cardiogram, where we see the heart rhythm and changes in the heart muscle. All men after 40 and women after 50 should perform veloergometry, which records electrical activity of heart during exercise, in order to see what is the condition of the blood vessels that supply our heart. For this purpose, a special program has been prepared for us at the Professor Skride Heart Clinic, which includes both examinations and specialist consultations. I will also remind you that already up to 18 years it is important to take an electrocardiogram, an echocardiogram and cholesterol analyses.

In some cases, a visit to a specialist should not be postponed. Shortness of breath and extreme fatigue even with minimal physical activity, as well as swelling in the ankles, an accelerated heartbeat, which makes it difficult to walk more than 500 meters in 6 minutes, may indicate heart failure. Pressing or strangling chest pain at physical activity is a symptom that signals the calcification of blood vessels. Irregular heart rhythm is a signal that attention should be paid to arrhythmia. We should not ignore headaches and visual impairment either. But I urge you never to try to diagnose yourself, go to a specialist! If it is a false alarm, you will not have to worry about anything, but if you need help, then everything will go faster, safer and more correctly.

You don’t have to do anything supernatural to take care of your heart. We see that in other countries with a similar climate, history and economic situation, heart health indicators are much better. It shows that everything is in our own hands. Live healthier and, above all, pay due attention if any of the risk factors apply to you. I can see in my experience and in my contacts with colleagues from other countries that we treat our health relatively lightly. If any drugs have been prescribed, then they must be taken. If any indicator in the analyses is elevated, then it should not be ignored.

You are welcome to come visit us at the Professor Skride Heart Clinic!
May everyone have a happy 2025 and good health!