By Bill Bradley, contributing editor
Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians recently said a postseason physical may have saved his life during which doctors found he had prostate cancer.
"I was thinking about changing jobs," Arians said recently. "My physical was the next week. I stayed in Pittsburgh. I took the physical. They found out I had prostate cancer. Had I left, I wouldn't have taken the physical that year."
Former Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner also knows about the importance of the post-season physical. It's there where doctors discovered he had high cholesterol after his first season in Arizona.
"Doctors tells us all the time to come get our yearly physical," said Warner, who will turn 43 next month. "We're younger and we're feeling good. It's one of those things that it's easy to go 'Oh, I'll get to that sometime.'
"There's a lot of things going on in our bodies that we can't necessarily tell by just how we feel or how we look at a particular time. (A physical) becomes so vital."
Warner is trying to help others to become more aware of high cholesterol. He is on a diet and exercise regimen in conjunction with taking Livalo, a once-daily statin, to control the condition.
As part of Warner's work with the makers of Livalo, Warner and his wife Brenda have teamed with Kowa Pharmaceuticals' "First and Goal" campaign to make people more aware of the dangers of high cholesterol. They are involved in the website FirstandGoalHeartHealth.com, which offers tips for a healthier lifestyle, food recipes to improve your cholesterol count and a cholesterol management tracker.
"Like most people I kind of assumed it was all about diet and exercise," Warner said. "I was in great shape, so I was going to change my diet a little bit here or there and see if I could bring it down that way.
"A year later I go back and the cholesterol was still high. I was young and in good shape. I really didn't want to do the medication thing because I felt like I could handle it on my own. But after a number of years with the high cholesterol, I sat down with my doctor and asked what I need to do moving forward."
Warner said his doctor said after three years of consistently high cholesterol that diet and exercise weren't always the cure. He was told high cholesterol is often hereditary and other methods have to be used to control it. That convinced him to try a statin medication.
"It really was just about sitting down my doctor and making a game plan," Warner said. "Part of high cholesterol is that you can look at yourself in the mirror and you can feel great and think there's no issues. But silently they can be affecting your heart.
"That's what I realized. I'm too young and in too good of shape. ... That's why I wanted to get involved with this campaign."
As part of the Warner's participation, Livalo and the Warners are giving away an all-expenses paid trip to Phoenix early next February, when there happens to be a big game played suburban Glendale. Contestants can enter by completing the Four Downs of Cholesterol Management at the website or sharing a heart-healthy tailgating recipe.
For Warner, the early stages of his high cholesterol were discovered not long before he led the Cardinals to NFL prominence. After the 2008 playoffs, he drove them to Super Bowl XLIII and he led back to the playoffs the following season.
"A lot of people would look at me and say, 'Hey, he's a picture of health and he's professional athlete,'" he said. "But I was still dealing with this issue as 71 million Americans are dealing with high cholesterol.
"I wanted to spearhead the push to say, 'Hey, go get it checked out. Go sit down with your doctor for your heart health.' I have seven kids. I want to watch my kids grow up. I want to participate in their activities. There's a lot I wanted to accomplish beyond football. It all starts with making sure my heart's healthy."
Warner said he believes the statins made an immediate impact. He said it took time to find the right statin that managed his condition.
"The tough thing about cholesterol is that you don't necessarily feel anything," he said. "You're not going to see anything. If I looked at myself in the mirror at that point, I would never guessed that I had any issues whatsoever.
"Even after taking medications you don't feel different. It's not one of those things that change how you feel or how you look. That's what makes it so tough. ... Especially with heart disease and plaque build-up, you don't know how it's affecting you unless you get a physical."
Warner emphasized the key aspect of the campaign is getting people to take an annual physical and checking cholesterol levels.
"Don't wait until it's too late," he said. "Don't wait until you're feeling bad. Go and get this stuff done because it is silent and you can't really tell until you have the tests done.
"Then, sit down with your doctor and figure out what's the best game plan. Is it diet? Is it exercise? Or is it a combination of the two with a medication? It's never too early to take control of your heart health."