Changing Daily Habits
Taking your medicine—including PLAVIX—as your doctor prescribes is one part of a heart healthy strategy to reduce your risk of a future heart attack or stroke. Lifestyle change is also important:
Did You Know?
Reducing high blood pressure and cholesterol is important, but you also need to reduce the formation of clots in order to help protect yourself from a heart attack or stroke.
- Control your cholesterol level and blood pressure.
- If you smoke, talk to your doctor about a smoking-cessation program that's right for you.
- Maintain a heart healthy weight or lose weight if you're overweight. If you are overweight, losing as little as 5 percent of your body weight may reduce your health risk.
- Talk to your doctor about a heart healthy diet plan that is right for you.
- Incorporate some sort of exercise into your daily routine (be sure to check with your doctor before starting any exercise program).
- Continue to take your PLAVIX and other heart medicines every day as your doctor recommends.
- Don't start or stop any medicine without talking to your doctor first.
- See your doctor regularly.
Could PLAVIX help reduce your risk? Get a customizable list of questions to bring to your doctor.
Tips for healthy lifestyle changes
- Eat a heart healthy diet, which includes a variety of foods: vegetables, fruits or fruit juices, fish and meats that are low in fat, low-fat or fat-free dairy products, grains (especially whole grains), and legumes (such as lima beans or green peas). Limit calories and saturated fat.
- Gradual changes in eating habits have a better chance of leading to permanent heart healthy lifestyle change.
- Make physical activity part of your regular routine. Start easy, increase gradually, and feel good about getting more active. Talk to your doctor before changing your activity level or starting a new exercise plan.
- Check product labels to learn how much food is considered to be a serving, and how many calories and grams of fat are in it. You might be surprised at what counts as a full serving!
- Be especially careful to limit portion size of foods high in calories, such as cookies, cakes, other sweets, french fries, fats, oils, and spreads.
- Make a commitment to stop smoking, achieve and stay at a healthy weight, and eat foods low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium.
- Being physically active after a first heart attack appears to significantly lower the risk of death or a second heart attack. Talk to your doctor about building a heart healthy exercise plan that?s best for you.
And, remember, PLAVIX starts working soon after you take it and will continue to help protect you as long as you take it as prescribed by your doctor. To help you remember to take PLAVIX, try taking it at the same time every day, such as at mealtime or bedtime.
What to do next:
PLAVIX is a prescription medicine recommended for people who have suffered from a recent stroke or recent heart attack or have been diagnosed with peripheral artery disease, or P.A.D. (poor circulation in the legs).*
Always talk to your doctor before taking aspirin or other medicines with PLAVIX, especially if you?ve had a stroke.
x close
Please note: You are about to leave a Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership site.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership does not review the information on this Web site and/or database for content, accuracy or completeness. Use of and access to this information is subject to the terms, limitations and conditions set by the Web site and/or database producer.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership makes no representation as to the accuracy or any other aspect of the information contained on such Web site and/or database, nor does Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership necessarily endorse such Web site and/or database.
US.CLO.08.04.063
264US08PM175
sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC
©2008, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership.
All Rights Reserved.