Meet Dr. Amit Khera Dallas Cardiologist
- Holder of the:
- Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Hypertension and Heart Disease
Why do some people develop heart disease and not others? What are the best ways to prevent heart disease and its complications? For Amit Khera, M.D., these are questions of life – and a life’s work.
Dr. Khera directs UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Preventive Cardiology Program. He trained at Harvard Medical School and UT Southwestern, and he is an expert in cardiac risk assessment and risk factor modifications.
Doing a little bit early in life to prevent a heart attack is better than trying to do a lot later down the road.”
"It's quite clear that heart disease is indeed preventable," he says. "Studies over the last decade have shown that for those who can achieve healthy levels for major risk factors like blood pressure and cholesterol, and who don’t smoke, the chance of having a heart attack is almost 80 percent lower than those with unhealthy levels."
But achieving healthy levels is not always easy; nor will a one-size-fits-all approach work for treatment. A practical plan of exercise and dietary changes for a busy executive who constantly travels is quite different than the plan for someone with a more regular schedule, Dr. Khera notes. And those with rare genetic disorders or extreme risk factors may require a different playbook altogether.
"The approach has to be individualized," he says. “That’s what we do."