Hearts get a lot of attention during February.

Heart-shaped candy and balloons, pink and red decorations all help us celebrate Valentine’s Day. But perhaps this year, your Valentine’s Day should have a deeper significance, with a resolve to improve your heart health.

Each February, Medical Center East observes National Heart Month with an annual Heart Day, an event designed to help alert the public to ways to lower the risks of developing and dying from heart disease. This year, Heart Day falls on February 17.

But according to Dr. Robert Foster of Birmingham Heart Clinic, every day should be Heart Day, and greater public awareness is the key. A cardiologist affiliated with Medical Center East, Foster is dealing with a growing number of new and, in many cases younger, patients.

Their histories vary, but all have some degree of heart disease, a condition that often gets pushed down the list of health concerns. Foster is on a crusade to inform the community that limited exercise, poor nutrition and bad habits work together to clog arteries, damage heart muscle and ultimately cause a heart attack or stroke.

“The biggest thing we need is to push our efforts in the community – not just for cardio health, but for vascular health,” Foster says. “It’s important to educate people.”

The general public, he explains, has come to rely on repair over prevention, medication over moderation. But cardiovascular disease can largely be prevented.

“There’s a feeling in the community that heart disease can be fixed,” Foster says. “Some think it’s easier to take a pill, but altering your lifestyle will do a lot more.”

Case in point: In 1993, Billy Bowers of Chalkville underwent triple bypass surgery to repair blocked arteries and a damaged heart. Thirteen years passed before he found himself back in a cardiac unit.

Despite Bowers’ familiarity with heart disease and its symptoms, he hadn’t realized his shortness of breath and low energy were signals for attention.

“I didn’t even know I had a problem,” he recalls. “I didn’t have typical angina pain.”

His diabetes doctor identified Bowers’ symptoms as cardiovascular and urged him to visit his cardiologist. Several tests revealed small blockages in Bowers’ vascular system threatening his heart. In June and August, he underwent procedures in which doctors inserted small wire mesh tubes, or stents, to prop open clogged arteries.

Bowers was surprised to learn that the follow-up treatment to the stent procedures didn’t come in a pill, but in the form of exercise equipment at Medical Center East’s cardiac rehab unit.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” he says.

What he found was an array of specialized machines that monitor patients’ performance and endurance, while trained staff and nurses evaluate their progress. To the outsider, it looks like a gym. To Bowers, it became a means of improving his quality of life.

“I wasn’t looking forward to it, but once I saw the results, I’m glad I did it,” he says.

Since beginning cardiac rehab last fall – three days a week, one hour each session – Bowers has shed 10 pounds, his energy level is elevated, and his diabetes is under control to the point that he no longer takes insulin. He has also grown a circle of friends that includes other cardiac patients and the staff members.

“It was above and beyond what I expected,” Bowers says.

In the beginning, he could complete only two minutes on some machines. In a matter of weeks, he worked up to five minutes. Gradual improvements are key to rehab success, he says, “especially for people over 50.”

Regardless of a patient’s age, Foster recommends a three-pronged approach to improving cardiovascular health and reducing the risks of heart disease:

Prevention requires smokers to quit. In terms of heart attack risk and vascular health, two years of not smoking is the same as if you’ve never smoked, Foster says. Also, keep weight in check to lower your risk of diabetes, which can cause coronary and vascular disease. Exercise will help you manage weight and improve heart health, while it can also lower cholesterol.

Detection of cardiovascular disease has become more precise, with technological advances like nuclear stress testing and the coronary CTA (computed tomography angiography). The Birmingham Heart Clinic houses a CTA, a 64-slice scanner that uses x-rays to visualize blood flow in blood vessels throughout the body to detect blockages and congenital abnormalities. The CTA also computes the patient’s calcium score, a solid indicator of plaque within the arteries. Foster cautions that the CTA isn’t designed for routine screening, but as a follow-up to the stress test.

Treatment follows detection and varies by patient. For 99 percent of cardiac patients, treatment occurs in the emergency room. Keeping short the “door-to-balloon” time (the time that passes between emergency room door to heart catheterization) can minimize damage to the patient’s heart. Treatment during the first 90 minutes of a heart attack is crucial to survival, Foster explains. “The sooner you get the artery open, the better.”