February Is National Heart Health Month

Dozens of people took advantage of cholesterol checks and more provided by Mahaska Health on Saturday.
Mahaska Health Hosted Free Cholesterol Checks And More For Participants
February 19th, 2023
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Mahaska Health is helping to provide information and insight into the nation’s leading cause of death, and one that became very personal to me on December 16th, 2022.
Beyond the cholesterol checks, Mahaska Health also had experts advising on sleep quality, blood pressure, and healthy cooking tips.
Mahaska Health’s Cardiopulmonary Rehab Care Team has been on my side, helping me recover from my heart attack, and they were there to talk with individuals and answer their questions.
Oskaloosa News caught up with Dr. Preston Sereg on the importance of raising awareness of heart disease.
“Heart health is important for every community, and here at Mahaska Health, we value people’s health. The biggest thing that comes into longevity and preventing heart disease is early detection,” said Sereg. “Realizing risk factors like family history of heart disease, knowing that your cholesterol levels are elevated, which is why we’re checking cholesterol levels today. Even blood sugar checks to make sure you don’t have diabetes. Those are all things that can help prevent heart disease, or gosh, if you’ve already got some plaque buildup, it can certainly help prevent the progression of that to where you do have a heart attack and end up in a situation you don’t want to be.”
When it comes to something that surprises people about heart disease is sleep apnea.
“I think sleep is one of those things that, obviously, everyone wants to get a good night of restful sleep, but people don’t realize that having sleep apnea and not getting good sleep increases your risk of heart disease,” Sereg shared. “The other questions we’re getting a lot of is about cholesterol medications. People often don’t realize, Well, hey, if I, you know, had muscle aches or pains or couldn’t tolerate one of those cholesterol medicines, that just means I just have to deal with it or try to do my best with diet. Well, in some situations that may be true, but there are other medications out there to help with your cholesterol levels as well. We’ve gotten a lot of questions about those. So I think that’s been really informative for some folks in that regard,” Sereg said.
Reaching out to your primary physician with questions is important to help prevent heart disease, and if you already have it, your physician can help you mitigate your risks going forward.