Health

Heart Attack Prevention Tips

Your Heart: Heart Attack Prevention

How can I prevent a heart attack?

The risk factors for a heart attack can be divided into two categories : ones you can’t change and ones you can.

Factors you can’t control There are some risk factors for heart attack you cannot change. They are:

• A history of heart disease or stroke within your immediate family (grandparents, parents, siblings).
  
  
• Age : Your risk of both heart disease and stroke rises as you get older.
  
  
• Gender : Men are more likely to develop heart disease at an earlier age than women. Yet more women than men die from heart disease and stroke

Factors you can control

There are many more risk factors you can change. Focusing on these can help you lower your risk a great deal:Smoking

Your chances of developing heart disease go way up if you smoke.

High blood pressure

High blood pressure is also known as “hypertension.” It puts you at risk for both heart disease and stroke.

Have your blood pressure checked by your doctor, and ask what the figures mean. If your doctor prescribes medication to lower your blood pressure, be sure to take it as directed.

High blood cholesterol

The most important things you can do to lower your blood cholesterol are:

• Limit the amount of fat in your diet.
• Increase the fibre in your diet.
• Be physically active.

Again, have your blood cholesterol checked by your doctor, and ask what the figures mean. Talk with your doctor about how often you should have your cholesterol checked. If you have medication to lower your blood cholesterol, be sure to take it as directed.

Diabetes

People with diabetes have a higher risk of heart disease, but you can reduce this risk:

• Take your insulin (or oral drug) if prescribed, to keep your blood sugar level under control.
• Manage your diet carefully.
• Be physically active regularly.
• Maintain the body weight that’s right for you.

Inactive lifestyle

The heart is like every other muscle in your body. It needs regular exercise to stay healthy. You can help reduce your risk with regular physical activity (light to moderate).

Try to be active 30-60 minutes a day, every day of the week. Build physical activities into your daily routine. Just add it up in periods of 10 minutes each throughout the day.

Overweight

An excess of body fat doesn’t just increase your risk of heart disease. It also puts you at risk for diabetes and some types of cancer. To achieve a healthy body weight, it works best to combine:

• regular moderate physical activity, and
• a healthy balanced diet that is high in whole grains, vegetables and fruit, and low in fat.

Stress

Researchers are studying the link between stress and heart disease. Still, it is known that for some people stress causes higher blood cholesterol, higher blood pressure and blood platelets that are more likely to clot. This is made worse if people smoke or eat a high fat diet.