Prevention

Learn how to reduce your risks for heart disease and stroke, including key health numbers, effective lifestyle changes, dietary guidelines and how heart disease is different for women compared to men. 

General Information

Sarver Heart Center fellow Nathaniel Kim, MD, and the UA Cooperative Extension Diabetes Prevention Program Director, Vanessa da Silva, Ph.D., RD, joined forces for Diabetes Prevention Month to discuss strategies that prevent both diabetes and heart disease. View the presentation here.

While the news about the COVID-19 outbreak may seem overwhelming at times, it’s important not to lose sight of your overall health. Remember to eat healthy, exercise, get enough sleep, and manage stress.

Sarver Heart Center Joins the National Institutes of Health's focus on #OurHearts are Healthier Together education initiative. You're more likely to be successful if you work on a healthy lifestyle with another person.

People with diabetes are twice as likely to have heart disease or stroke - and at an earlier age. Do you know your risk of prediabetes and diabetes?

Take this brief test from the American Diabetes Association to learn your risk score.

Here are some of the top 10 prevention actions Dr. Charles Katzenberg and Edna Silva, RN, learned during 25 years of teaching the Heart Series, a 12-week heart disease prevention education program.

If you have heart disease or heart disease risk, you probably work on improving health and quality of life by managing diet and exercise. You may even take advantage of the benefits of meditation, yoga, tai-chi and social engagement. But are you also focusing on sleep and circadian health?

Control and treat blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides to keep your heart healthy.

A Swedish study showed that men who did these five things reduced their heart risk by 80 percent.

Do you find the U.S. Dietary Guidelines lacking in specifics on foods to eat or avoid? You're not alone. To help, Charles Katzenberg, MD, compiled a one-page list of heart-healthy foods.

When it comes to women’s health, should we be looking more deeply into matters of a women’s chest, not just the breast? Especially since 1 in 3 women will die from cardiovascular disease, compared with 1 in 31 who will die from breast cancer. Heart disease doesn’t discriminate; it is the leading cause of death whether you’re black, white or Latina.

As an African American woman, Wanda F. Moore is aware that she is in one of the highest risk groups of dying from heart disease and that her non-inherited risk factors are manageable. "In spite of my healthy, active, watch-my-food-intake lifestyle, I too became a victim of heart disease, said Moore, a member the Sarver Heart Center Board and Women's Heart Health Education Committee and chair of the Minority Outreach Committee.

Learn what a stroke looks like and remember to BE FAST. Calling 9-1-1 and getting medical care fast helps preserve the person's brain and minimize stroke disability.

Should hypertrophic cardiomyopathy screening be part of a young athlete’s school physical? Dr. Jil C. Tardiff recommends starting with a thorough family medical history to assess HCM risk; the leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest in young people.

Additional Links

Every five years Dietary Guidelines for Americans is created through collaboration between the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA).

A Cardiologist's Inside Look at Cardiovascular Health, Inflammation and Arthritis