photo Dr. Kenneth D. Rose

As the saying goes: “If something is sad, it breaks your heart. If something is sweet, it warms your heart. If something is precious, it melts your heart. If something is certain, you know it in your heart of hearts.”

Our hearts are the center of life itself. However, one in four deaths (25 percent) in the United States is caused by a broken heart — heart disease. It’s a muscle that can’t take a rest as long as you live. Each day it beats 100,000 times and pumps blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels.

Although the oldest known case of hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) dates back to about 1500 B.C. in an Egyptian mummy, it has only been within the last half century that heart disease has become so prevalent that it is now the No. 1 killer of Americans. Each year 735,000 Americans experience a heart attack.

Because the heart represents life and love, it deserves a little love from each of us. The pillars to heart health are much like what we would do to care for the pumps that irrigate our fields and water our animals. We need to keep the electrical lines fully powered, the inflow pipes clear and the outflow free from blockages.

So, pillar No. 1 for heart health would be to stop smoking. Not only does smoking harm nearly every organ in our body, it is especially harmful to the heart and blood vessels. The chemicals in tobacco can damage the heart muscle along with the blood vessels by increasing the risk of atherosclerosis.

Keeping the heart’s electrical conduction system functional along with the internal workings is critical.

Pillar No. 2 is to keep the blood vessels that pump blood away from and to the heart wide open and flexible. What we eat can immediately change the flexibility and patency of our vessels. The most common culprit clogging these critical vessels is elevated levels of oxidized LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. This is the type of cholesterol that builds up on the blood vessel walls, leading to narrowing and eventual blockage of those critical “pipes.”

Research clearly shows that a diet free of cholesterol and rich in foods naturally low in saturated fats can help prevent atherosclerosis and even reverse narrowed arteries over time. A whole-plant diet meets these qualifications.

Pillar No. 3 is exercise, which increases HDL (“good”) cholesterol and our antioxidant capacity. Regular exercise increases heart strength — just like any other muscle. You don’t have to run a marathon to get the needed benefits of exercise. A good 30 minutes or more a day of moderate-intensity exercise is sufficient for heart health. With moderate intensity exercise you can still carry on a conversation with a walking buddy, but you won’t be able to sing — you may just get more walking partners that way.

Pillar No. 4 is avoiding excess salt. Salt has been linked to high blood pressure. Salt makes your body retain water, and that causes a fluid overload in our vascular system.

And just like an irrigation pump that is overworked wears out faster, so will the heart pump.

Interestingly enough, nearly 80 percent of our salt comes from processed foods, not from our salt shaker. So a diet of more home-cooked foods and less of those items

that come in a box, can or jar will be much healthier for your heart.

Make your heart happy. Treat it with love, and it will love you back.

Kenneth D. Rose, MD, is a general surgeon at Mountain View Medical Group in Enterprise.