Dr Kerryn Phelps, Health Editor, with Steve Leibmann, Channel Nine 'Today'

PHELPS: Good morning, Steve.

LEIBMANN: Does this report, from the American Heart Association, does it change the basic fundamentals when it comes to treating heart disease?…or preventing it, I should say?

PHELPS: Most of the basic fundamentals are still there, but the emphasis now is on prevention at a much earlier age. You don't wait till your first heart attack, or stroke. And what they are now recommending is that people have a heart check from the age of twenty, and that would be every two years from that age, unless you have more risk factor at an older age, then, of course, more frequently.

LEIBMANN: You see, I would imagine twenty year olds today, if you said to them, 'Now look, sometime in the next couple of weeks, couple of months, go to the doctor and have a heart check', they would say 'give me a break, I'm only twenty'.

PHELPS: Unfortunately, a lot of 50 year olds will say the same thing, they haven't had a heart attack, 'I don't have heart disease, I'm alright'.

LEIBMANN: I know.

PHELPS: And the important thing is that we are now seeing, in childhood and adolescence, the seeds of later heart disease. So, if we start checking in young adulthood for things like the waist measurement, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body mass index which is your weight versus your height, and to actually optimise your health at a younger age. The idea is to prevent that first heart attack, which can be fatal or disabling.

LEIBMANN: So, essentially what we're saying is, or what the American Association is saying, from the age of twenty, set up a 'blue print', if you like?

PHELPS: That's right, set up a 'blue-print' for life. And that stays with you for life, and hopefully for a longer life. But there are a whole range of recommendations, and some of them have changed. There has been more emphasis for example, placed on people who have abnormal heart rhythms called Atrial Fibrillation and those people are advised to go onto a blood thinning agent. Obviously with the advice of their doctor. People who have diabetes have to maintain lower blood pressure readings, and ideal blood sugar levels, compared to people who don't have diabetes. We need to make sure that everyone knows their blood sugar levels, that they are screened for diabetes from the age of 40, that we know about your blood pressure reading, we know about your cholesterol, your 'good' cholesterol and 'bad' cholesterol levels so that we can assess your risk from that angle. They're are also now saying, which is a change from the last recommendation, that in the past, if you had heart disease, or you had already had a heart attack, they were saying low dose Aspirin unless you had some reason not to take it.

LEIBMANN: Yes.

PHELPS: And, now they are saying for people who are at high risk of heart attack, but who have not had established heart disease, then those people should also be talking to their doctors about low dose Aspirin, unless, they're, as I said, at risk of other complications from taking Aspirin and that would include certain groups of asthmatics, and people who have had gastrointestinal bleeding, ulcers, that sort of thing.

LEIBMANN: Okay. I know you've got a busy day in the capital today. We'll talk to you again next week.

PHELPS: Thanks, Steve.

LEIBMANN: Thank you, Kerryn.