Heart disease is a perennial number one in the list of top killer diseases. The beauty of heart disease is that it can be prevented or, in some instances, slowed or reversed. Some factors that heighten your risk for heart disease - age, gender and family history - are out of your control, but others are within your power to change. Taking the following four steps can significantly cut your risk of having a
heart attack and lower your overall risk for
coronary artery disease:
- Don't smoke = Smoking accounts for 20 percent of all deaths from CAD, while exposure to secondhand smoke results in an estimated 38,000 to 40,000 cardiovascular deaths a year.
- Eat healthy diet and choose fats wisely = This can help keep blood fats -such as triglycerides and various forms of cholesterol- in balance. Considerable evidence favors including a daily source of omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish, flax seeds, walnuts and canola oil) to reduce your risk of heart disease. Soy protein and nuts may help too.
- Exercise regularly = It will help you lose weight, control blood pressure and balance cholesterol levels. Another largely unrecognized benefit of exercise is reduction of a blood clotting factor called fibrinogen. Excessive levels of fibrinogen have identified as a cardiac risk factor.
- Control your blood pressure = Manage your blood pressure though diet, lowered salt intake, exercise and stress reduction programs and drugs if necessary. High blood pressure may be the biggest preventable killer in the world. Yet only a small portion of the millions of the people diagnosed with hypertension have the problem under control.
If you've already had a heart attack or have other key signs of heart disease, experts believe you can cut your risk of future heart attacks by coupling the four main strategies already discussed with one or more other measures, such as:
- Aspirin
- Cholesterol lowering wonder drugs called statins, which have few side effects and some surprissng benefits, such as stroke reduction and, possibly, osteoporossis prevention.
- Folic acid, B6, and B12 supplements, which help depress levels of an amino acid called homo cysteine. Research connects high levels of homo cysteine with a three fold risk with heart attack in men and suggests even modestly elevated levels may promote atherosclerosis ( the process by which an accumulation of fatty plaques eventually narrow an artery) in men and women.
- Other medictions, such as beta blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme.
Heart disease is a perennial number one in the list of top killer diseases. The beauty of heart disease is that it can be prevented or, in some instances, slowed or reversed. Some factors that heighten your risk for heart disease - age, gender and family history - are out of your control, but others are within your power to change. Taking the following four steps can significantly cut your risk of having a heart attack and lower your overall risk for coronary artery disease:
