If you have suffered from a heart attack, a local programme offered at the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital can help you reduce the risk of future health problems and show you a path to a healthier life. The Cardiac Care Programme is a nurse-managed clinic for patients with heart disease. It uses a multidisciplinary approach to care that has nurses, doctors, specialists and other health professionals give input on how a patient can recover faster and return to full, productive lives.

The aim of the Cardiac Care Programme is to offer support to patients at various stages of their recovery to ensure that they continue with heart healthy habits for the rest of their lives. A number of the programme's patients are residents who have been treated overseas at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Approximately 90 percent of those treated at Johns Hopkins follow up with the Cardiac Care Programme.

There are two phases to the Cardiac Care Programme:

When patients are admitted to KEMH with a heart problem, the Cardiac Care Nurse Specialist will visit and explain to them what has happened to their hearts. She'll walk them through what their expectations should be ? either for surgery or recover ? and assess their clinical progress. In collaboration with other health care providers, the nurse will discuss the type of support the patients may need with their recovery while in hospital, as well as once they have returned home.

The Cardiac Care Programme provides ongoing, one-to-one counselling as an outpatient service to those with heart disease. Program participants discuss their risk factors associated with heart disease and goals are set so that patients can monitor how well they are progressing. Patients are provided with exercise guidelines that help them to increase their activity levels gradually.

An education component is also included. The Heartline Educational Sessions are structured classes operating over a six week period that offer patients the opportunity to learn about heart healthy meals; in fact, some meals are cooked for participants and a binder of recipes is provided to help them make smarter meal choices at home. Participants also have the opportunity to meet other patients who have undergone similar experiences.

Some major risk factors that you can control to reduce your risk of heart disease include:

Stop smoking. Cigarette smoking is one of the biggest risk factors for cardiac disease and death.

Lower your weight to within a healthy range.

Get up off the sofa! Try walking to work a few times a week, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Your doctor can talk to you about a sensible exercise programme.

Control your blood pressure and cholesterol. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are two of the major controllable risk factors associated with heart disease.

Reducing the amount of alcohol you drink and managing the day to day stress in your life are also lifestyle changes that will contribute to a healthier heart.

By changing small things in your daily life, you can work toward preventing a heart attack. Kick your smoking habit, walk more and drive less, and try to stay within a healthy weight for your body type. If you have suffered from a heart attack and would like more information on the Cardiac Care Programme at KEMH, please call 236-2345, ext. 1219.