MATTERS OF THE HEART
Take control of your heart health.
Dr Julian Tan starts his days with an early morning jog – not just to exercise the body, but also to clear the mind. And at the close of the day, the interventional cardiologist from Mount Elizabeth Hospital unwinds through playtime with his three children, be it rough- housing or just chit- chatting about their day in school.
If there is one thing Dr Tan’s daily routine shows, it is that a healthy lifestyle isn’t just about being physically t. Mental wellness plays a big part in maintaining good heart health too. “Mental stress can worsen hypertension,” shares the cardiologist with close to two decades’ of experience.
Hypertension refers to abnormally high blood pressure. This is a main cause of heart attacks – one of the top killers in developed countries where stress, sedentary lifestyles and overly rich diets prevail.
So, when it comes to keeping your heart healthy, a 10- minute breather to take one’s mind away from the mounting stress in the middle of a workday, or allowing one the luxury of just “switching off” with a lighthearted comedy before bedtime, can be just as important as regular aerobic exercise.
Indeed, maintaining good blood pressure requires a holistic approach. Prevention is always better than cure, and Dr Tan recommends adopting healthy lifestyle habits such as sleeping and rising early, doing aerobic exercises regularly and consistently, avoiding excessive anaerobic forms of exercise (such as weightlifting), and opting for a low- sodium diet. “Lifestyle and diet control play big roles in controlling high blood pressure,” he says.
Yet there are more ways than one to manage hypertension, even for those with an existing condition. “Medication is not the only way to treat hypertension,” reveals Dr Tan. He performs a procedure called Renal Nerve Denervation (RDN) for those who are unable to control their high blood pressure through medication.
RDN involves putting a catheter from the artery in the groin directly to the artery in the kidneys, and electrically “burning” away the “overactive” nerves surrounding the kidney arteries that control blood pressure. This minimally- invasive procedure is reserved only for those with resistant hypertension, or poor blood pressure control despite multiple drugs.
“Yet another myth is that hypertension only occurs among the elderly. Young women may develop hypertension during pregnancy, as can young men with kidney disease,” he says.
It is thus important for all to have an awareness of hypertension management options – and take heart in knowing that with advancement in technology and modern medicine, we can be in better control of our heart health.