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By Senator Richard T. Moore

September 4, 2007...An apple a day to stay healthy isn’t good enough any more! Maintaining good health is essential in preventing the onset of chronic diseases and other health burdens that can significantly impact the quality of life. Prevention is important at every age, but it’s especially true as we grow older.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States, accounting for 36% of all deaths annually. Nationally, 74.9 million Americans have some form of CVD and another105.2 million have cholesterol levels that put them at risk of developing CVD. A recent study of Massachusetts health statistics by Zachary Tsetsos of Oxford, one of my summer interns, revealed that cardiovascular disease is the primary cause that shortens the lives of people living in the towns in my Senate District. That’s a major concern!

So, what is cardiovascular disease or CVD? The term refers to diseases of the heart (cardio) and blood vessels (vascular). They include: coronary artery disease (diseases of the coronary arteries and their complications such as chest pains and heart attack), atherosclerosis (the most common form is a condition in which the walls of arteries become thick and stiff due to accumulation of fatty deposits), high blood pressure and hypertension (excessive force of blood pumping through blood vessels), and stroke (a sudden loss of brain function due to obstruction or blockage of blood flow to the brain).

Maintaining a healthy diet, exercising and proper disease management are some of the ways that we can all use to change our health habits and improve the quality of our lives as we get older. Recently, the Medicare Program has begun offering preventive services to help seniors stay healthy by improving access to early detection and disease prevention services. A growing number of private health insurance plans are moving in the same direction.

Senior citizens are offered a “Welcome to Medicare” physical exam that educates them about the preventive services being offered through Medicare. These preventive services include: screening for diabetes and heart disease, cancer testing (breast cancer, colon cancer, and cervical cancer), flu vaccinations, and smoking cessation programs. Taking advantage of the preventive services offered by Medicare or a health insurance plan will result in healthy, active, independent, and productive seniors who can reduce the burden of serious health conditions and health care costs associated with obtaining treatment for these conditions.

Each of us should have our cholesterol, lipid, and triglyceride levels tested to monitor risk for CVD. Therapeutic life style changes through smoking cessation, weight management, physical activity, and proper nutrition can help prevent and control CVD risk factors. Drug treatments are available to lower blood pressure and cholesterol in individuals with high risk for CVD and should be used in conjunction with therapeutic life style changes. For other individuals, low-dose aspirin therapy has been shown to reduce chances of a secondary heart attack or stroke in those who already have CVD.

Keeping all of this in mind, my goal is to increase the knowledge of area residents and their families about the risk of CVD and the preventive services offered by Medicare and other programs. Additional information can be obtained by calling or state department of Elder Affairs at 1-800-AGEINFO. Another helpful source of information about medication, especially obtaining free prescription drugs if you can’t afford them, is Mass MedLine at 1-866-633-1617. Both of these numbers are toll free. Another good source of information is my own web site: www.senatormoore.com.