CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Exercise and healthy eating is helping a 36-year-old woman manage her heart condition and feel better.

Karen Meyer admits for most of her life, exercising was difficult.

“I would black out, I would get sick, and no one ever really knew what was going on,” Meyer said.

The 36-year-old found out she had supraventricular tachycardia 11 years ago.

“I’ve had it my whole life but we never actually knew until I was 25 years old, when I was taken to the emergency room and they had to stop my heart because it was going 250 beats per minute at its resting rate,” Meyer said.

After having a surgery to correct her congenital abnormality, taking medications and having a healthier lifestyle, she is feeling better than ever.

“Changing my diet and exercise has been an incredible meaningful thing for me and has really changed my life,” Meyer said. “Ultimately, I felt so much in love with fitness being a part of my life, and felt so much better, that I decided to become a fitness instructor and open my own fitness studio in 2015.”

Meyer who owns First Wind Fitness in Charlotte, shared her story to encourage others to start taking steps to prevent and manage heart disease, which remains the leading cause of death in the U.S.

According to Atrium Health’s Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute Director of Sports Cardiology Dr. Dermot Phelan incidents and mortality rates related to heart disease have significantly decreased over the decades. However, he points out most recently that trend has halted.

“I think a large part of the problem is lifestyle issues, people not exercising enough, not eating the right foods and overweight.  I think that is the major thing that is driving heart disease right now,” Phelan said.

He recommends people to learn more about their heart health.

“Understand what their blood pressure and what a normal blood pressure, understand their cholesterol , understand their cholesterol, their blood sugar, have a benchmark and that’s something they can work with their doctor to do,” Phelan said.

He also advises people to pay attention to their symptoms.

“Shortness of breath, which is out of character, is one of the common symptoms people look at. They may develop discomfort going up into the jaw or up into the arms when exerting themselves. Other things are palpitations, which is a sensation of heart racing in the chest or feeling lightheaded, dizzy or fainting episodes,” Phelan said.

Unusual symptoms helped Meyer discover she had a heart condition and learn how to manage it.

“Now I can go about my life and go upstairs and not feel like I just ran a marathon,” Meyer said.

Meyer still pays attention to her symptoms to know when she’s overexerting herself.

She encourages everyone to wear red on Feb. 7, a day of awareness about heart disease. If you post on social media on National Wear Red Day, you are encouraged to use the hashtag CLTgoRed.

February is American Heart Month.