Protecting hearts all year round
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| Health care professionals celebrate heart health awareness at Montefiore. -Photo by Montefiore |
By Robert Ostfeld, MD, ScM, FACC,
Bronx Voice
February 14, 2024
NEW YORK - Heart and blood vessel disease is the number one cause of death for adult men and adult women in the United States.
This disease, often caused by cholesterol blockages in the blood vessels that feed our heart and body with blood, starts to develop when we are very young and can slowly progress over the course of many years. This progression, which is not good for our health even on a day-to-day basis, can lead to a heart attack (which is when part of the heart muscle dies) or lead to a stroke (which is when part of the brain dies). The good news is that it is never too early to protect yourself and it is never too late.
Montefiore’s expert cardiology team works tirelessly with the community to help tackle this disease and help you become healthier, protect you from heart attack and stroke, and treat any existing heart disease you may have. Even if you already have severe heart and blood vessel disease, Montefiore’s team of cardiologists will work with you to help restore your health. That is our mission.
Here are some of our areas of expertise:
Our cardiology team is world renowned at preventing and treating heart and blood vessel disease. Our cardiology prevention team specializes in healthy lifestyle change with our unique Cardiac Wellness Program.
Our prevention team has world leaders in treating high cholesterol, a leading cause of heart disease. We use the most advanced cholesterol therapies and help with the most cutting-edge high cholesterol research studies, a wonderful resource for our patients.
Our team has decades of experience in diagnosing and treating high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. In fact, high blood pressure is called the “silent killer,” because while you may not feel high blood pressure, high blood pressure can kill. We will work with you to optimize your blood pressure and protect you with lifestyle changes, medications, weight loss and more.
Our cardiology team also treats obesity, a major problem in the Bronx. We use lifestyle change and groundbreaking new treatments to help you lose weight safely and effectively, which will lower your risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and more.
Electrical heart problems are also crucial to address, and our team has extensive expertise in this area. In fact, the very first pacemaker was placed at Montefiore. We participate and lead numerous worldwide studies on electrical heart problems including on atrial fibrillation and others. Our team will work with you to help prevent and treat electrical heart disease, with lifestyle change, medications, and cutting-edge procedures.
Our heart imaging team uses advanced ultrasound imaging of the heart, specialized CT scans and MRI scans of the heart and other highly specialized imaging techniques to help us work with you to diagnose and treat heart disease.
Montefiore’s expert cardiology team leads many studies in heart attack care and heart stent placement. From treating heart attacks to treating severe longstanding cholesterol blockages in the heart, our team is here 24/7 to help save a life and to help protect your heart. In addition, our team provides the most cutting-edge technology and expertise when it comes to heart valve treatment, treating severely blocked and severely leaking heart valves.
Our heart failure team is world renowned for treating patients whose hearts have difficulty pumping blood to the body. And, sometimes, someone’s heart may be so ill that they need the most sophisticated and advanced heart care, including a heart transplantation.
At Montefiore, our one-year 96% survival rate for heart transplantation is in the top 6 across the United States.
In addition to providing all these care options, our team teaches cardiologists and students around the world about caring for heart disease. But most importantly, our goal is to work with you to protect your heart, your health, and your wellbeing. It is our mission.
(Robert Ostfeld, MD, ScM, FACC, is the Director, Preventive Cardiology, Montefiore Health System and Professor of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine)
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