BATON ROUGE — In celebration of American Heart Health Month, Cardiologist Dr. Steven Kelley from Baton Rouge Cardiology Center joined WBRZ to share tips on maintaining a healthy heart.

Heart disease can present itself in many different ways, including severe tightness in the chest and shortness of breath, which can be early warning signs that something may be wrong.

"The most common things we see are complications of hypertension or high blood pressure. And also complications of diabetes, which is a big risk factor for cardiovascular diseases as a whole," Kelley said.

Dr. Kelley shared that one of the best ways to protect your heart health is exercise.

"We recommend at least 30 minutes of good aerobic exercise at least three to five days a week."

He also shared that healthy choices are important as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol are all driven by dietary decisions. He recommends that people get evaluated to know the condition of their hearts. 

"A lot of the time we think 'I'm fine, I feel great,' but if you have the right risk factors and know your family history, get yourself evaluated."

In addition to treating heart health, Dr. Kelley co-founded Jump Start Your Heart about 18 years ago after the death of a student athlete in the Baton Rouge Area. 

"The whole purpose of the program was to try and do free screening and EKGs and echocardiograms or ultrasounds of the heart to detect heart disease before it actually manifests itself in the young student athletes," Kelley said.

He also participated in the creation of the Jump Start Your Act, which requires every school in Louisiana to have AEDs, as well as people who are CPR certified in the school, along with emergency action plans.