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Health Line
11-07-2025
- Health
- Health Line
A Cardiologist Answers Your Most Pressing Questions About Preventing Heart Disease
Preventing heart disease starts long before symptoms appear, and understanding what works (and what doesn't) can make all the difference. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, yet many cases are preventable through lifestyle changes, awareness, and timely medical care. To help break down the most common concerns about heart health, we spoke with Dr. Haider, an interventional cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Queens. Known online as @yourheartdoc, Dr. Haider is dedicated to educating the public on heart disease prevention. In this detailed Q&A, Dr. Haider shares expert advice on diet, exercise, medications, screening, and common myths, providing a clear guide to keeping your heart healthy at every age. Building a heart-healthy lifestyle Q: What are the most important lifestyle changes people can make to prevent heart disease? Dr. Haider is clear: consistent lifestyle choices form the foundation of heart disease prevention. Movement 'Staying active is key, even if it's just walking,' he says. 'Multiple studies have shown that taking 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day is associated with lower cardiovascular mortality.' For structured activity, he recommends either 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking, cycling, or gardening, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise like jogging, swimming, or tennis each week. Diet Movement alone, however, isn't enough. What you eat matters just as much. 'The Mediterranean diet is the most heart-healthy diet supported by data, ' he explains. This way of eating focuses on whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, lean proteins, and whole grains. It limits processed foods, red meat, sugar, and saturated fats. 'A diet low in saturated fats and processed foods, with lots of fiber and healthy fats, can significantly reduce your risk of cardiac events.' Habits to avoid Other essential habits include not smoking, limiting alcohol, and managing weight. 'Smoking is one of the most dangerous things you can do for your heart, and there's no safe level,' Dr. Haider warns. As for alcohol, moderation is key: 'If you drink, keep it to a minimum. Alcohol doesn't protect your heart, no matter what old headlines might suggest.' Q: How does stress affect heart health, and what can people do about it? ' Chronic stress, whether emotional, mental, or physical, has been repeatedly linked to heart disease,' Dr. Haider says. 'There's also a strong connection between mental health and cardiovascular outcomes.' While stress alone doesn't cause clogged arteries, it can increase inflammation, elevate blood pressure, and lead to maladaptive habits, such as overeating, smoking, or skipping exercise. That makes stress management a vital part of prevention. Techniques like mindfulness, therapy, exercise, and prioritizing sleep and connection can all help. 'Mental health isn't separate from heart health. It's part of the same conversation,' he adds. Q: At what age should someone start paying attention to their heart disease risk, even if they feel healthy? 'It's never too early,' Dr. Haider stresses. By the time someone reaches their 20s, they should already be having conversations with their doctor about heart health. 'You should have your cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, and waist circumference checked,' he adds. 'These numbers provide a foundation for understanding and managing your risk.' Knowing your numbers Q: What are the key health numbers people should track, and how often should they get checked? Dr. Haider emphasizes that monitoring one's health stats can make all the difference. ' Cholesterol should be checked at least once a year, or more frequently if treatment is being adjusted,' he says. He also recommends taking blood pressure at every physical. If it's high, patients may need to start tracking it at home with a monitor. Additionally, blood sugar, often measured by fasting glucose or HbA1c, is another critical number, especially for those with risk factors like obesity, family history of diabetes, or high blood pressure. 'We also monitor weight, BMI, and waist circumference,' he explains. 'These are all pieces of the puzzle.' Q: Can someone have heart disease without any symptoms? 'Yes, absolutely,' Dr. Haider says. 'By the time someone experiences symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath, the disease is often advanced enough to have caused a blockage.' This is why early and consistent monitoring matters so much. In some cases, imaging tools like a coronary artery calcium (CAC) score or CT angiography may be used to screen for silent heart disease. 'Depending on the individual's risk profile, we might recommend these tests to detect early plaque buildup before symptoms appear.' Incorporating medication and supplements Q: When is it appropriate to start medications like statins, even if you haven't had a heart attack? Statins, which help lower cholesterol, can be used both for people who've already had cardiac events and for those at risk. 'If someone has any evidence of coronary artery disease or atherosclerosis, like on an imaging test, they should be on a statin,' Dr. Haider explains. Even in people without signs of existing disease, statins may still be appropriate based on calculated risk. 'We use the ASCVD risk calculator to estimate a person's 10-year likelihood of a cardiac event. That helps us decide when to start treatment,' he says. 'If LDL cholesterol is very high (over 190 mg/dL) even after lifestyle changes, then statins are usually recommended.' Q: Do heart health supplements like fish oil or CoQ10 actually help? Dr. Haider is cautious about over-the-counter heart supplements. ' Fish oil supplements can lower triglycerides, but they haven't consistently been shown to reduce heart attacks or strokes in the general population,' he explains. 'And while CoQ10 is sometimes taken alongside statins to help with muscle symptoms, the data doesn't support its effectiveness.' He recommends focusing on proven strategies, including lifestyle, medications when appropriate, and routine monitoring, rather than relying on supplements. Addressing common misconceptions Q: What are some of the biggest myths people still believe about heart disease? 'There's a lot of misinformation out there,' Dr. Haider says. One persistent myth is that high cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease, or that saturated fats are harmless. 'Those claims are simply false,' he asserts. 'There is overwhelming evidence that high LDL cholesterol and diets rich in saturated fats increase the risk of heart disease.' Another false belief is that once you develop coronary artery disease, it can be completely reversed. 'We can stabilize the condition. We can slow its progression. But full reversal is not realistic, even with a perfect diet or supplements,' he says. Finally, Dr. Haider warns against thinking that heart disease only affects older men. 'Young people and women are at risk, too. Heart disease doesn't discriminate, and that's why prevention matters for everyone.'
CNN
09-07-2025
- Climate
- CNN
How can families handle anxiety around summer camp after the Texas floods?
Hurricanes StormsFacebookTweetLink Follow When tragedies are in the news — natural disasters, plane crashes, fires — parents naturally and unavoidably react by thinking about what might happen to their own children. And children worry in turn about what might happen to them. The flash flooding last week that killed more than 100 people along the Guadalupe River in central Texas, including dozens of campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, was a family nightmare come true. Every summer, kids hug their parents goodbye for camp, with both sides full of anxiety about what it means for children to be away from home and family. Now that those normal worries are being amplified by the news from Texas, what should parents and kids do? Children who have been planning for camp should still go to camp, even if it feels difficult, said Dr. Gail Saltz, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill-Cornell Medical College. 'When we don't do a behavior that makes us anxious, it restricts us further and actually tends to make us more anxious.' Fear is understandable but it's important to recognize when it becomes irrational and unnecessarily limiting, potentially even threatening formative experiences in children's lives, Saltz said. The devastation at Camp Mystic feels especially distressing because summer camps are places people choose to go, that often hold their fondest memories. The very nature of overnight camp removes the sense of control many parents feel when their children are home. 'It's a transition to something new and different. That evokes separation anxiety for both parents and kids, even in older kids,' Saltz said. Watching an unfolding tragedy of this magnitude can trigger what Saltz calls 'irrational, catastrophic fears' and deep feelings of helplessness — and just at the moment when families across the country are dropping off camp trunks or waiting for messages home. No matter how unprecedented an incident, hearing about it makes it feel as if it's likely happen again, 'certainly in the immediate aftermath,' Saltz said. 'It's important to remember it's bizarrely rare.' The deadly flooding occurred after drought conditions and a massive amount of rain — another example of extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent amid rising global temperatures. 'It adds this element of helplessness — the same kind of helplessness, for example, that many people feel about guns and school shootings,' Saltz said. 'And so that feeling of being stuck adds to that distressing, helpless feeling, not being in control.' Bob Ditter, a clinical social worker for the American Camp Association, said stories from Camp Mystic alumni reflect a place that has been around for nearly 100 years and where people feel safe and a strong sense of belonging. 'The reason that this has resonated with so many people is the specter of having our safe, happy space swept away from us is just unimaginable,' he said. Dr. Leslie Paris, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia who studies American childhood, said that camps have historically been treated as safe havens from crime and disease. They encourage tradition and nostalgia, too, drawing generations of parents 'eager to provide similar opportunities to their own children.' Going to camp has never been perfectly safe. Deadly drownings, disease outbreaks, and lightning strikes have happened through the generations, but not so widely or frequently that they drove campers away. 'The scale of the tragedy at Camp Mystic is particularly significant,' Paris said. 'I think that we are collectively shocked because these are deaths so deeply out of order, so fundamentally wrong.' Parents and caregivers should acknowledge their fears but resist the temptation to avoid anxiety or discomfort. They can do their due diligence about safety, including asking camps about their emergency plans and how they can communicate with their children. But they'll have to accept that some degree of uncertainty will always exist. Parents acknowledging and tolerating that uncertainty is a model for their children, Saltz said. 'You're operating as a family. There are a million things in life that you cannot do if you can't tolerate any risk at all,' Saltz said. 'You can't cross the street, you can't fly to a vacation. Everything has some modicum [of uncertainty] so it is important in the world of resilience, experience, managing new tasks, to be able to tolerate that.' For parents with anxious children, Saltz suggests leaving the news out of family discussions or letters to camp. 'There's no reason for a child in a camp in Vermont to be hearing about this camp in Texas,' she said. 'In pre-internet days when camps were around, they wouldn't have.' Still, word will spread. And when it does, 'the most important thing to do is to point out how rare it is to tell them that they can absolutely talk with you about it,' Saltz said. 'They can ask you any questions. You may not know the answers, but you'll try to find out for them.' Ditter from the American Camp Association said that parents should emphasize 'that there's a difference between something that has happened to somebody else that resonates with us, but that hasn't happened to us. It's our empathy that makes us frightened and makes us feel these things deeply. In fact, we even have a name for it. We call it empathic distress.' Saltz emphasizes that neither parents nor children should immerse themselves in the news. 'I would advise parents who have learned about the story not to keep watching the news story over and over again,' she said. 'There's no benefit, but there is repeated triggering.' Even if it feels uncomfortable, children with mild anxiety disorder, mood issues or separation anxiety still benefit from taking risks and developing away from the normal routines of home. But sleepaway camp may not be for everyone, including children with a panic or mood disorder, phobia, or who have experienced a recent tragedy or trauma. 'If you send them somewhere where they can't get any treatment, you may be doing them a disservice,' Saltz said.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- The Guardian
New York City doctor pleads guilty to sexually abusing patients in hospital
A New York City doctor charged with raping or otherwise sexually abusing several hospital patients and acquaintances has pleaded guilty. Zhi Alan Cheng, a gastroenterologist, acknowledged filming assaults in his apartment and the hospital where he had previously worked, New York-Presbyterian Queens, state prosecutors said in a statement on Monday after his guilty plea. He is expected to receive a 24-year prison sentence from Queens supreme court justice Ushir Pandit Durant at a hearing tentatively set for 28 August. 'The level of violence and perversion displayed by Zhi Alan Cheng in sexually abusing multiple victims is compounded by the fact that he took an oath to do no harm as a medical professional,' said a statement attributed to local district attorney Melinda Katz. The guilty plea resulted from one of several prosecutions of prominent physicians in New York and other parts of the US on allegations they violated patients in medical settings. As prosecutors put it, authorities arrested Cheng on 27 December 2022 on allegations that he had raped a woman whom he knew at his apartment. That woman discovered videos depicting her and other women being assaulted by Cheng, and an attorney of the survivor approached Queens prosecutors with that information. An ensuing investigation led to the seizure of numerous devices containing videos of Cheng sexually abusing unconscious women who were his patients or over at his apartment. Investigators also seized recreational drugs – fentanyl, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and MDMA – as well as powerful medical sedatives, including propofol and sevoflurane. In August 2023, prosecutors obtained a 50-count criminal indictment charging Cheng, who had been held without bail since his arrest. He faced additional charges in an indictment handed up against him in March 2024 after another hospital-related victim came forward. Ultimately, Cheng, 35, pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and three counts of sexual abuse, all in the first degree. He also entered what is known as an Alford plea to one count of sexual abuse, which means he maintained his innocence on that charge but conceded overwhelming evidence against him would probably get him convicted at a trial. Four of the survivors involved in the case against Cheng were described as hospital victims, prosecutors said. The rest, prosecutors said, were described as apartment victims. 'I thank the brave victim who initially came forward and exposed this abuse,' Katz remarked in her statement. 'We hope the guilty plea allows all the victims to continue to heal.' Authorities have said that the hospital which had employed Cheng cooperated in the case against the disgraced doctor. 'As caregivers, we are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of our patients. It is a sacred trust. The crimes committed by this individual are heinous, despicable, and a fundamental betrayal of our mission and the patients' trust. We are deeply sorry for all that the victims and their families have endured,' New York-Presbyterian hospital spokesperson Angela Karafazli said in a statement. News of the charges against Cheng came about two weeks after former Manhattan obstetrician-gynecologist Robert Hadden had been sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for sexually abusing numerous patients. Back then, Cheng's attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he recognized 'how serious the charges' against his client were. Lichtman on Monday thanked prosecutors for his client's plea agreement and said: 'The charges to which Mr Cheng has pleaded guilty today are extraordinarily serious.' The Associated Press contributed reporting
Washington Post
01-07-2025
- Washington Post
New York City doctor pleads guilty to sexually abusing patients in hospital
NEW YORK — A doctor pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing sedated patients at his New York City hospital and raping women who were unconscious at his home. Zhi Alan Cheng admitted to abusing seven women, including three female patients he was treating at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital, the Queens district attorney's office said. Cheng, now 35, was arrested in 2022 after a female acquaintance discovered a video of him abusing her at his home while she was passed out. Searches of his home and devices uncovered video evidence of the doctor abusing women at his home and workplace, according to prosecutors. They also discovered liquid anesthesia. He has remained in jail and has been barred from practicing medicine. Cheng faces up to 24 years in prison at sentencing, prosecutors said. 'The level of violence and perversion displayed by Zhi Alan Cheng in sexually abusing multiple victims is compounded by the fact that he took an oath to do no harm as a medical professional,' said District Attorney Melinda Katz. 'I thank the brave victim who initially came forward and exposed this abuse.' Prosecutors alleged Cheng abused an eighth woman who was a patient at the hospital. He entered an Alford plea on that charge, meaning that he did not admit guilt but acknowledged that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. Most of the victims had no memory of the abuse and were sedated. One of the women woke up to in the middle of an assault after she had been sedated for a gastrointestinal procedure, prosecutors said. Prosecutors have said that New York-Presbyterian officials cooperated in the criminal investigation. 'As caregivers, we are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of our patients. It is a sacred trust. The crimes committed by this individual are heinous, despicable, and a fundamental betrayal of our mission and the patients' trust. We are deeply sorry for all that the victims and their families have endured,' New York-Presbyterian hospital spokesperson Angela Karafazli said in a statement. Chen's attorney, Jeffrey Einhorn, thanked prosecutors for the plea agreement and said: 'The charges to which Mr. Cheng has pleaded guilty today are extraordinarily serious.'
CTV News
30-06-2025
- CTV News
New York City doctor pleads guilty to sexually abusing patients in hospital
Warning: This article contains graphic details. NEW YORK — A doctor pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing sedated patients at his New York City hospital and raping women who were unconscious at his home. Zhi Alan Cheng admitted to abusing seven women, including three female patients he was treating at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital, the Queens district attorney's office said. Cheng, now 35, was arrested in 2022 after a female acquaintance discovered a video of him abusing her at his home while she was passed out. Searches of his home and devices uncovered video evidence of the doctor abusing women at his home and workplace, according to prosecutors. They also discovered liquid anesthesia. He has remained in jail and has been barred from practicing medicine. Cheng faces up to 24 years in prison at sentencing, prosecutors said. 'The level of violence and perversion displayed by Zhi Alan Cheng in sexually abusing multiple victims is compounded by the fact that he took an oath to do no harm as a medical professional,' said District Attorney Melinda Katz. 'I thank the brave victim who initially came forward and exposed this abuse.' Prosecutors alleged Cheng abused an eighth woman who was a patient at the hospital. He entered an Alford plea on that charge, meaning that he did not admit guilt but acknowledged that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. Most of the victims had no memory of the abuse and were sedated. One of the women woke up to in the middle of an assault after she had been sedated for a gastrointestinal procedure, prosecutors said. Prosecutors have said that New York-Presbyterian officials cooperated in the criminal investigation. 'As caregivers, we are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of our patients. It is a sacred trust. The crimes committed by this individual are heinous, despicable, and a fundamental betrayal of our mission and the patients' trust. We are deeply sorry for all that the victims and their families have endured,' New York-Presbyterian hospital spokesperson Angela Karafazli said in a statement. Chen's attorney, Jeffrey Einhorn, thanked prosecutors for the plea agreement and said: 'The charges to which Mr. Cheng has pleaded guilty today are extraordinarily serious.' The Associated Press
