Did Mona Lisa have high cholesterol?  Media organizations around the world, including Time, are reporting an Italian medical expert believes the famous smile was probably the result of fatty acids accumulated around her left eye.

While we may never know for sure if the subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece had high cholesterol or not, the rest of us need to know if we do.

“High Cholesterol has no symptoms.   So that means you don’t have to worry about it then, right?  ABSOLUTELY false,” Blake Medical Center’s Vice President of Cardiovascular Services Donna Disbro said.  “Even though high cholesterol is silent, it can potentially result in a heart attack or stroke.”

Several factors can increase your risk of having high cholesterol including age, family history, obesity, a high-fat diet, a sedentary lifestyle and excessive alcohol intake.

Here are five tips to help lower your cholesterol:

• Eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet.  Before starting any diet, consult your doctor about the best plan for you.
• Avoid processed foods, refined sugars and starches (white bread, white potatoes, white rice and simple sugars).
• If you are overweight, lose weight.
• Exercise regularly.  If you don’t, begin a safe program with the advice of your doctor.
• If you smoke, quit.

“Knowing your cholesterol levels and addressing these levels can help you avoid heart disease and other complications later in life,” Disbro added.

Blake Medical Center is offering free screenings on Thursday, February 11 in the hospital’s Dolphin Pelican Room.

The screenings include:

• Cholesterol & Lipid Panel
• Glucose
• Blood Pressure

Call 1-888-359-3552 to make your appointment now. Fasting is required. 

Other screening dates include:

• April 23
• June 10
• September 16
• December 9

If you have questions about high cholesterol, call our free Consult-A-Nurse hotline at 1-888-359-3552.  Or for more information about Blake Medical Center, visit our website at www.blakemedicalcenter.com.

Heart disease is leading cause of death in the United States, and this year alone 500,000 American women will die from cardiovascular disease.

At Blake Medical Center’s Heart Institute, we have award-winning programs and advanced technology to increase a patient’s chance of surviving a heart attack with fewer complications.

A heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart muscle is interrupted. This deprives the heart muscle of oxygen, causing tissue damage or tissue death.  A STEMI (ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction) is a deadly type of heart attack.

Time is critical to saving a STEMI patient’s life.  The American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the Joint Commission have determined that a patient’s blood flow should be reestablished in 90 minutes or less from the time he or she arrives in the hospital’s emergency room.  Blake is proud to meet and very often beat that goal.

Blake is also home to the West Florida Mitral Valve Repair Center, where our highly-skilled cardiac team is able to give patients a better quality of life by often repairing rather than replacing the mitral valve.

“Here at Blake we have repair rates that are way above the national average,” said cardiothoracic surgeon and Mitral Valve Specialist Dr. Alessandro Golino.  “Currently we have a 96 percent repair rate.”

If the surgery is performed quickly enough, the patient can be returned to a normal life expectancy often without the need for anti-coagulation medication (blood thinners) or additional surgeries.

We also provide a cardiac rehabilitation and exercise program to help return patients to a healthy lifestyle after a heart attack through continued monitoring, exercise and  risk-factor modification

Blake has also received the following awards and recognitions for cardiac care:

• 100 Top Cardiovascular Hospital by Thomson Reuters
• Accredited Chest Pain Center with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) by the Society of Chest Pain Centers
• Acute Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack) Designation from the Joint Commission

• Blue Distinction for Cardiac Care by Blue Cross Blue Shield

For more information about the Heart Institute, visit our website at www.blakemedicalcenter.com or call 1-877-4-HCA-DOCS (1-877-442-2362).

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