July Health Fair

Earlier and better is best – the time is now

Author

Kathryn Howe
July 01, 2026

July Health Fair 

Earlier and better is best – the time is now 

Clarity. Simplicity. Visibility. This month is an update that distills down the salient details of the newest American Heart Association guidelines for cardiovascular prevention. Finally. I’m so grateful these came out, but I’m also aware that many are still unclear or unaware.

So I’d like to ensure this message gets to everyone. Spread the word. Your Secret Cells will thank you.

You already know about a lot of inputs that can protect the endothelial cells. Exercise, eating healthy greens and protein, time in nature, and strength training for example. Reducing stress with breathwork, yoga, or contrast therapy. These are crucial.

Keeping blood pressure under control is another example. And for some of us, medicine is still needed. A small irritation that gives you a big win. The same for preventing the plaques that can build up in the artery walls – atherosclerosis is the official name.

Clarity first. Blood vessel walls can develop atherosclerotic plaques that have the potential to grow, limit blood flow, and sometimes become vulnerable to rupture. In the heart, this can mean heart attack. In the carotid artery within the neck, this can mean stroke. In the legs, this can mean amputation. If we don’t have risk of this developing, great. If we do, there is something we can do.

How will you know? Simple tests that should start as early as 19 years of age. At the very least, we should start looking at 30 years of age. This is new messaging. It used to be a lot older. Why? Because information x time = large opportunities to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and amputations.

 

Simplicity next. Plaques are a mixture of cholesterol (lipids or fats) and inflammation. This last part matters. It is crucial to get lipids low, but we also have some people with leftover inflammation that is untreated and leaves them at risk. This means we have to look for a slightly larger team of actors. It’s not just the “bad cholesterol” of old days. Some of these tests are so informative, we typically only need a once or twice-in-a-lifetime insight. The team players in these new guidelines are finally capturing the whole picture – the players in the  entire cholesterol camp, the lifetime high-risk players, and the inflammation players.

Need more info? The guidelines help with that too. A picture can be worth a thousand words. There are non-invasive imaging options that are incredibly affordable and have no radiation or pokes. If needed, the guidelines even outline next steps if people need what we call “cross-sectional imaging”.

 

Visibility for all. The message is clear. The world is waking up to the important factor in every health equation – time. The longer the advance notice of something that can be turned around before plaques build up, the more opportunity to avoid heart attacks, strokes, amputations and other cardiovascular consequences.

I know information is flooding our inboxes, streaming in from various channels, and we want our healthcare providers to have all the answers. It’s just not humanly possible. The new information era means we have to consider how to help one another. Sometimes that might mean a client shedding light on new guidelines with their health team. That’s okay. No judgement. We can help one another.

Here is the link to the guidelines. Take a look. Get to understand them. Bring them to your physician. Or reach out to us at 60khealth. We’re trying to figure out ways to facilitate the conversation.

Kathryn