Dr. Tara Narula

Yes.

So it's really helpful because for a lot of people, they want to know those numbers.

They want to advocate for themselves.

And maybe that pushes them to think about things like blood pressure medicine or statins or aspirin when maybe they wouldn't have in certain cases.

Yeah, so the only things we talk about in cardiology that you can't control are your age and your family history.

80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable by lifestyle.

So what do we mean by that?

We mean making sure that you're exercising.

And then general recommendations are about 150 minutes a week of moderate cardio, that's intensity, or 75 minutes of vigorous cardio.

We talk about a heart-healthy diet, the Mediterranean diet, the more vegetarian or vegan or plant-based diets, and then the DASH diet is called the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension.

These are all very heart-healthy diets.

Sleep, getting about seven to nine hours of sleep is really critical.

I will tell you in New York City, when I ask people about all these things, 80% of people say that their sleep is off.

That is a big, big problem in this country.

People are not getting enough sleep.

It is because a lot of things happen when you sleep at night that you just think it's this dead zone quiet time, but actually a lot of processes happening in your body.

And so sleep is critical for a lot of these functionings of our hormones, of our brain, of our cardiovascular system.

Other things to think about would be stress and mental health.

This is a big one that I talk about.

So mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, PTSD.