It’s American Heart Month: Cut your risk of heart disease

February is American Heart Month, a time set aside to raise awareness on one of the biggest killers in the country.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Heart Association’s 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update.

With this in mind, Fahad Lodhi, M.D., with Meritus Hagerstown Heart has some suggestions to help reduce the risk of heart disease.

The best place to start is with what you eat, Dr. Lodhi said.

“The biggest No. 1 thing is the Mediterranean diet,” he said. “Hands down, that’s the best thing.”

He said there are studies showing that following the diet can reduce risk of heart attack and stroke by up to 25%.

“We are what we eat,” he said.

The diet consists of focusing on lean meat, such as poultry or fish, olive oil, legumes, fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts, and brown rice.

Related to this, Dr. Lodhi recommends intermittent fasting, which helps with weight loss and reversing early onset diabetes and prediabetes by getting the body to burn stored fat, which is high energy.

There are several methods recommended by doctors, such as alternate-day fasting where you eat a normal diet one day, then completely fast or have only one small meal the next.

Dr. Lodhi himself said he follows a daily time-restricted fast, where he eats only two meals within an eight-hour window each day.

“I eat between lunch and dinner only the two meals,” he said. “The rest of the day, I have nothing to eat, just plenty of fluids.”

Another way to reduce the risk of heart disease is by doing aerobic exercise, “not weight lifting,” Dr. Lodhi said.

He says that spending 35 to 45 minutes a day at least three times a week is good. But if you aren’t able to dedicate time, walking as much as possible in your daily activities would be beneficial.

“Even if you don’t exercise per se, so long as you get some steps in, it’s beneficial,” he said, noting that studies recommend between 7,500 and 10,000 steps per day as a good target.

Medication can also help reduce the risk of heart disease, but there are some precautions, Dr. Lodhi said.

For example, the popular thought is that aspirin can help stave off heart attacks.

“Unfortunately, if you’ve had a heart attack or stroke, taking aspirin has been shown to be beneficial,” he said. “But if you’ve not, the evidence is not the strongest that aspirin is beneficial.”

However, some studies have shown that use of aspirin can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

“The way I look at it, if there’s a person who has a low risk of bleeding, but has a strong family history of heart attack or stroke, I think it’s still worth the consideration of being on aspirin daily,” he said.

It’s best to discuss the situation with a primary care provider, he added.

Other medications, namely statins, also markedly reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and death. But the drugs can also cause bone and muscle aches, he said.

Again, he recommended talking things with your primary care provider. And if diet, exercise and medication don’t seem to be helping, your healthcare provider can refer you to a cardiologist.

“We’re happy to see them any time,” Dr. Lodhi said.

To learn more about Meritus Hagerstown Heart and they services provided, visit MeritusHealth.com/Heart.