In the News...
September 2003
Doctor helps promote heart walk
By DORINDA DANIEL, Capital Journal Staff
Walking in the 2003 Pierre–Fort Pierre American Heart Walk is just what the doctor ordered.
“The Heart Walk is a very important way to draw attention to one of the major disease problems in this country,” said Dr. A.J. Tieszen.
“It’s also a way of helping people know what they can do as far as exercise is concerned as far as having a problem with their circulatory system.”
Tieszen is the honorary chairman of this year’s local heart walk. The walk begins at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Steamboat Park amphitheater. The goal is to raise $29,000 for the American Heart Association.
Tieszen, 73, came to Pierre in 1962 and practiced family medicine in the community for 37 years. He retired from Medical Associates Clinic and now has an outreach clinic at Urban Indian Health.
Tieszen said he saw many patients with heart and circulatory diseases while he was a family practice physician.
“To prevent heart disease, you need to lower your cholesterol. You need to control your weight. You need to do regular exercising,” Tieszen said.
People need to walk 20 to 30 minutes at least three times a week in order to do their circulatory systems any good, he said.
“It’s important to have a good heart or keep your heart healthy in order to have a longer and more productive, more comfortable life,” Tieszen said.
He was chosen to be the honorary chairman for the 2003 Pierre–Fort Pierre American Heart Walk because he has touched the lives of many in the community, said Mary Meyer, chairwoman of this year’s local heart walk.
Tieszen also knows the importance of having a healthy heart.
“I had a heart attack in 1986,” Tieszen said.
He had angioplasty and stint placement followed by coronary bypass surgery about four years ago.
“I exercised before, but now I exercise on a regular basis. I do go to cardiac rehabilitation three times a week,” Tieszen said.
Heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases annually kill about 950,000 Americans, according to the American Heart Association.
According to information Meyer obtained from the S.D. Department of Health, 2,638 people died of cardiovascular disease in South Dakota in 2001. Seventeen were from Hughes and Stanley counties.
The American Heart Association uses the money raised by heart walks for research, public and professional education, and community programs that help fight heart disease and stroke.
Heart walks in South Dakota, such as the one taking place in Pierre on Sunday, raised about $400,000 last year for the American Heart Association.
The American Heart Association gave four research grants totalling about $930,000 to the University of South Dakota, Meyer said.
“American Heart Association research does have a large impact in our community and our state,” she said.
Both a three-mile and a six-mile route are available to those walking in the local heart walk, Meyer said.
People should walk a distance they feel comfortable walking, and not necessarily the three-mile or six-mile route, she said.
“We want them to come out and enjoy the fellowship, even if they aren’t able to walk the full distance,” Meyer said.
Registration for the Heart Walk begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, people may call Meyer at 224-5230.
Capital Journal article link
