How to Get 'Totally' Healthy
CBN.com According to the American Heart Association, more than 71 million people have one or more types of heart disease -- that’s one out of every three adults. But the answer to a healthier heart may require more than just diet and exercise.
Take pastor Ed Young, for example. Ed has always been an avid runner. But 17 years ago, he nearly had a heart attack. So Ed got serious about staying healthy. There’s even a fitness center at his church in Houston, Texas.
As co-author of Total Heart Health for Men and Total Heart Health for Women, Ed teams up with authors Michael Duncan and Richard Leachman, two of the country’s leading heart doctors from the world-renowned Texas Heart Institute. Their 90-day challenge combines physical and spiritual heart strengthening. You’ll be inspired to stay on track toward a totally healthy heart.
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, we have with us pastor Ed Young of the incredible Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, and eminent cardiologist Dr. Richard Leachman. They’re here to tell you more about total heart health, and we welcome both of you to The 700 Club. Ed, good to see you.
PASTOR ED YOUNG: Always great to see you, Pat.
PAT ROBERTSON: You are so fit, doctor. Thank you so much for being here.
DR. RICHARD LEACHMAN: Thank you.
PAT: You just look wonderful. You’re out there on the treadmill and on the track and lifting weights.
ED YOUNG: A little bit. I can’t keep up with you.
PAT: Oh, stop it.
ED YOUNG: You’re the model.
PAT: But you’re at it every day, it looks like. It’s just wonderful.
ED YOUNG: Well, it’s been a wonderful thing for me. A few years back, I had that warning that happens to other people. Always something happens to other people in our profession.
PAT: Well, what caused the heart attack? Was there a full-blown heart attack?
ED YOUNG: I had the flu. It wasn’t a full-blown heart attack, but I had those warnings in my chest. And I hadn’t been running regularly prior to getting the flu. I’d sort of been up and down. Then I had this warning, and I said, ‘I’m out of shape.’ I started on a little exercise bike one day and had those Popeye arms. I get checked out by a cardiologist. I didn’t even have a cardiologist at that time. They discovered my LAD artery was about 95 percent blocked.
PAT: Good heavens!
ED YOUNG: They did an angioplasty; and that changed my life. Jo Beth and I began to eat properly. I began to exercise. One day, I was talking with Dr. Leachman and Dr. Duncan, two world-class scientists and individuals who work with the heart, and we said, ‘We’re in the same business. I’m in the heart business, and you’re in the heart business.’ Out of that conversation, we put together Total Heart Health, which is a lifestyle.
PAT: Let me ask the doctor, you’re one of the eminent cardiologists in the country, working down in the Houston Medical Center. What caused his problem?
DR. LEACHMAN: It was a buildup of blockage in the artery going to the front of his heart, and this tends to occur over time. Interestingly enough, we begin to develop this process in almost every American at a relatively young age, perhaps as early as in our teens and early 20s.
PAT: You don’t mean it. Well, what does it? I mean, why?
DR. LEACHMAN: There are a number of risk factors involved in this. Family history and heredity is one. But there are a number of risk factors that we can change.
PAT: Is it stress? He’s so stressed out, it hurts. I mean, he’s just on the go. He’s got not one church. I asked him if he had a helicopter to go to church. He’s got a service out there on the edge of Houston. You’ve got the biggest Second Baptist. Your son’s got one up in Dallas. I don’t know how many other churches you’ve got. But anyhow, is it stress that does it?
DR. LEACHMAN: For him, stress could be an issue. But the other issues that are involved are diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, being overweight. Now, he may not have had many or even any of those, because some people can actually develop this disease without specific risk factors.
PAT: You guys got together after this incident, and you were smart to get one of the best in the country to give you some advice. So you collaborated. It’s Total Heart Health for Men and Total Heart Health for Women. What’s the difference?
ED YOUNG: Well, Dr. Leachman taught me that the heart of a woman is different from the heart of a man.
PAT: Well, is it because they’re more tender and gentle?
ED YOUNG: That, too. Right brain-left brain, as far as that’s concerned.
PAT: Yes. No, seriously, what’s the difference?
ED YOUNG: A woman’s heart is smaller, and I’m really moving in Dr. Leachman’s fetter. Generally, symptoms for heart problems with women are different.
DR. LEACHMAN: That’s correct. For men, as you heard from Dr. Young, he had fairly classic symptoms: some pressure sensation, either in the chest or arms, provoked by physical exertion. For women, they may get that kind of symptom, which would be relatively classic: But, frequently, their symptoms are very non-specific and vague. Maybe something like flu symptoms or excessive fatigue or even indigestion may be warning signs for women.
PAT: That’s it? I mean, they just feel a little tired?
DR. LEACHMAN: As many as 50 percent of women, and even many men, may have no symptoms whatsoever. That’s why this disease is called ‘the silent killer.’
PAT: What should people do? I mean, you’ve got a book. You guys have put together Total Heart Health. Is there some kind of test? Should they do stress tests and things like that, cardio?
DR. LEACHMAN: Yes, sir. We do a lot of stress testing and routine checks, screening tests for folks that have absolutely no symptoms or signs in our office every day. It generally includes a stress test of some kind, measurement of their blood pressure, measurement of their cholesterol numbers, and glucose to see if they may have diabetes. That would be an excellent start.
ED YOUNG: If you’ll eat properly, give us an hour a day, 30 minutes spiritual, 30 minutes physical, for 90 days—21 days you break a habit. If you use sugar in your coffee, at 21 days you don’t need it. Forty days, you begin to build in things. Ninety days, you’ll have a new lifestyle.
PAT: That’s three months.
ED YOUNG: That’s three months, but it’s a lifestyle that’s simple, that’s workable, that’ll really give anyone, I think, total heart health. So that’s what we’re advocating.
PAT: Well, I appreciate you gentlemen. And, Ed, I thank you, and one of the great churches in America. Ladies and gentlemen, if you just happen to be in Houston, go by Second Baptist. It is an experience. You feel like you’re in St. Sofia’s in Constantinople. It’s this gorgeous place. But, anyhow, thank you so much for being here.
