Heart Health & Cardiovascular Care

“Cardiovascular disease is very prevalent in our society, and no one is immune. If you have chest pain, unexplained weight gain over a short period of time, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a family history of heart disease, I want to see you so that we can work together to minimize your risk of serious complications, such as a heart attack or heart failure, and improve your heart health”.

-Dr. Bella Zimilevich, MD

About Heart Disease

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. Although more than half of the deaths from heart disease every year occur in men, women are rapidly catching up to men in this regard.

Coronary artery disease, or CAD, is the most common type of heart disease, responsible for approximately 385,000 deaths every year (CDC, 2012).

What are the risk factors for heart disease?

Risk factors for heart disease include:

• obesity or overweight
• smoking
• sedentary lifestyle/lack of exercise
• inadequate diet
• family history of heart disease

How I can help

As an internal medicine physician, I have seen my fair share of patients with heart conditions. Whether you are at risk for heart disease due to family history or lifestyle factors, or you already have heart disease, I can help you to identify ways to reduce your risk of suffering a serious complication. I can’t change your gender, family history or age (known as modifiable risk factors), but I can help you to reduce certain risk factors such as weight, hypertension and high cholesterol.

Many patients come to me complaining of chest discomfort or pain, which can be caused by many conditions such as heart attack, acid reflux or musculoskeletal injury. If you experience chest pain, I can order appropriate blood work, an ECG test (which takes a tracing of your heart rhythm), and many other tests that may be necessary to rule out a heart attack and help me get to the root of your chest pain. As an internal medicine physician, I am able to manage most heart-related conditions, so seeing a specialist is not always necessary, but if a specialist’s opinion is needed, I can certainly refer you.

Note: if you experience severe or sudden chest pain that lasts longer than a few minutes, is associated with shortness of breath, sweating, nausea or radiates to your jaw or arms you should go to the nearest ER, rather than coming to the clinic.

Of course, we see many other conditions besides chest pain. At Mill Basin Medical we treat a wide variety of cardiovascular symptoms, including:

• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol (particularly LDL cholesterol)
• congestive heart failure (CHF)
• eg or ankle swelling
• pain, weakness or discoloration of the lower legs
• rapid changes in weight from day to day
• shortness of breath
• weakness and/or dizziness
• abnormal fatigue at rest or with exercise
• irregular heart beat, fast or abnormally slow heart rate
• chest pain or discomfort

Note: if you are experiencing severe chest pain that lasts longer than 2 minutes, please go to the nearest emergency room

Whether you are young or old, healthy or struggling to become healthy, I want to see you. If you do not have heart disease, I will work to maintain your heart health. If you have risk factors for heart disease, I will work with you to decrease or eliminate your personal risk for heart disease.

If you have already been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, I will work with you to manage your condition so that your condition does not worsen. Don’t delay – make an appointment today.

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