 We're here with Dr. Ali Musfi, a member of the Meridian cardiovascular network, now part of the Hackensack Meridian health family. Dr. Musfi, let's talk about the seriousness of heart disease here on Heart Month. It's the number one cause of death in the US and around the world. And unfortunately, many people don't know enough about it. And they think of cancer, they think of other conditions as being the more dangerous conditions because part of the reason is they know a lot of people who have heart disease. So they don't give it as much importance as it should be given. Here are some unbelievable statistics. One in three US deaths caused by cardiovascular disease. Heart disease strikes someone in the US about once every 42 seconds and 64% of women who die suddenly of heart disease display no previous symptoms. So let's get into some of the risk factors that can lead to heart disease. Well, the risk factors are mainly high blood pressure, presence of high cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes. Now, the great news and there is great news here is up to 80% of heart disease is preventable. What do you do to be part of the good side of that number? Well, first and foremost is to know about heart heart disease per se. Try to educate yourself about the condition. And some of the resources are American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology Web sites from where you can get a lot of information about this. After you have done that, try to do the things that they recommend, such as exercising about two and a half hours a week. And that's about 20 to 20 minutes a day. Nowadays, we have these watches and all that you can use to engage your steps and how long you're doing that. And so that makes it a little bit more interesting as such. Eat a healthy diet, rich in fruits and vegetables. Try to avoid carbs. It has for years, it has always been try to avoid fats, but we know a lot about the dangers of carbs. And it's the carbohydrates, which are the primary things that you need to avoid per se. Reduce your strength. That's again much easier to say than to actually do in our kind of lifestyle. Reduce your weight that goes along with exercise and what you're eating. Take steps to good smoking. If you have been a smoker, that's a poison with every puff that you're going to take. And of course, try to see a physician as such on a regular basis. Now, there are some symptoms that people are well aware of, but there is some confusion in what are some of the symptoms of heart disease. What should people look out for? I think the most important ones are chest pain, shortness of breath, weight gain with swelling, etc. Not weight gain due to obesity. People like to confuse those two. So for example, if you the reason you have a heart attack is because there may be a blockage in the arteries that supplies the heart muscle. And when there is no blood supply or reduced blood supply to the heart muscle, that heart muscle cries out in pain. That's the chest pain that you experience. In some individuals, that chest pain can manifest in the chest. It can manifest in other parts of your body, in the arms, in the neck, in the jaw, etc. So they may confuse that with pain coming from the heart. It's typically on the left side, but it can be on the right side also. So there are many varieties of chest pain. That's one thing. The other thing is the shortness of breath that typically occurs when there's heart muscle damage, heart is weak. And as it's not pumping blood enough, it kind of pulls up into the lung and the person becomes short of breath or gets swelling in the legs, weight gain, etc. And that's a different thing. Now, in some cases, you may not get chest pain, you may get shortness of breath as your predominant symptom as such. So fatigue, dizziness, palpitations, all those are symptoms of heart disease. Bottom line though is when you think you have a symptom, don't try to explain it away on your own. Correct. Get it checked out. Correct. You need to have that checked out. But keep the most predominant things in mind again, chest pain and shortness of breath. All right. Now, there's a lot of information. If people want to go somewhere to learn more on the full spectrum of care and technology offered at Hackensack Meridian Health, what's the best way for them to get that info? I think the best way for them to go on the computer, that's how they have been used to doing it. And it's a very easy method. Again, that's a great website from which you can get all the information. And so is American Heart website. So you can visit hackensackmeridianhealth.org slash heart doctor. Thank you so much for all the info. Thank you very much.