{"id":423995,"date":"2026-09-02T14:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/423995\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T14:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:12:07","slug":"doctors-share-strategy-for-improving-heart-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/423995\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors share strategy for improving heart health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prioritize your heart health with the &#8220;MEDSSS&#8221; approach: mindfulness, exercise, diets, sleep, avoiding harmful substances, and socializing.<\/p>\n<p>SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Heart disease is the number one cause of death globally and in the United States, it claims millions of lives each year. <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC10460604\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Taking control of your heart health<\/a> immediately when problems arise can keep you from becoming one of those statistics.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart.org\/en\/health-topics\/heart-attack\/life-after-a-heart-attack\/lifestyle-changes-for-heart-attack-prevention\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">cardiovascular health<\/a>, making sure your body and mind are both in the same space is of the utmost importance.<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kens5.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                This story continues below.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<\/p>\n<p role=\"heading\" class=\"article-recirculation__title\">&#13;<br \/>\n                    More in Health&#13;\n                <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        <a class=\"article-recirculation__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kens5.com\/article\/news\/health\/healthy-sa\/healthy-sa-back-to-school-nutrition-meal-prep-kids-lunch-plans-ideas\/273-1a245f54-785f-4ae1-bc1f-0581252bf948\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                    <img   alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                                &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                                &#13;<br \/>\n                                    Healthy SA: Making sure back-to-school nutrition is top notch&#13;<br \/>\n                                &#13;\n                            <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n                        <\/a>&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        <a class=\"article-recirculation__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kens5.com\/video\/news\/health\/healthy-sa\/healthy-sa-making-sure-back-to-school-nutrition-is-top-notch\/273-f676ec05-0a22-4c5e-8e94-0573e40f85f3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                    <img   alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                                &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                                &#13;<br \/>\n                                    Healthy SA: Making sure back-to-school nutrition is top notch&#13;<br \/>\n                                &#13;\n                            <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n                        <\/a>&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>So how can you accomplish that? All you have to do is take your &#8220;MEDSSS.&#8221; We aren&#8217;t talking medication, but this acronym will aid you in your heart health journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Think about the version of yourself, who you were that you like to, who you want to be, and start to speak in a way that positively affirms that you&#8217;re going to hit that goal or hit that target,&#8221; said Dr. Travis Batts, the sports and prevention director with <a href=\"https:\/\/methodistphysicianpractices.com\/locations\/south-texas-cardiovascular-consultants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" id=\"isPasted\">South Texas Cardiovascular Consultants<\/a> at Methodist Texsan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The minimum is 150 minutes of vigorous activity a week. Some folks say 75, but 150 is the floor. Ideally, I want you to be as active as you can physically possibly be,&#8221; said Batts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know diets like the Dash diet, the Mediterranean diet, a whole foods plant based vegan diet, all have protective effects in the setting of cardiovascular disease,&#8221; said Batts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know that anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep reduces your long term cardiovascular risk, improves your overall your body&#8217;s overall ability to navigate stress, and increases your athletic or physical performance,&#8221; said Batts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Getting rid of risky substances, whether that&#8217;s tobacco, alcohol supplements that might not be as helpful as you think or excess in any capacity,&#8221; said Batts.<\/p>\n<p>Last, but certainly not least, making sure you socialize with others in a similar situation. &#8220;It&#8217;s important to create an audience or a group of individuals that has a singular goal, a singular focus, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/heart-disease\/about\/about-heart-disease-and-mental-health.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">that is your total body health<\/a>,&#8221; said Dr. Batts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prioritize your heart health with the &#8220;MEDSSS&#8221; approach: mindfulness, exercise, diets, sleep, avoiding harmful substances, and socializing. SAN&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-423995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}