Dear friend,

Heart disease seems to have fallen off the mainstream charts. It's like old news these days. Bring it up and people visibly become bored with the topic. You'd think, heart disease is something of the past, like leprosy or something?

Yet, one in four deaths are still caused by heart failure. As Dr Faxon once said... “While we have made modest effects in regard to smoking and cholesterol awareness, we are losing ground in high-blood-pressure awareness,”. “Both men and women need to stop smoking, eat right, and exercise and know their blood pressure and cholesterol readings and keep them at target levels,”.

Here' s some more crucial information to help keep your heart healthy... and you ALIVE to a ripe old age...

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What causes heart disease?

With only slight variations among research groups, the following are generally considered to be the major controllable factors of Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD). The first three are clearly the leaders of the pack:

1. High blood pressure forces the heart to work harder, which causes it to become larger and weaker over time. It also increases the risks of a stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure, and kidney failure. When high blood pressure exists along with obesity, smoking, high blood-cholesterol levels, or diabetes, the risk of a heart attack or stroke increases several times.

2. High blood-cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Although lipid levels are affected by many uncontrollable factors, such as age, gender, and heredity, we can often control them through dietary intervention and increased exercise.

In fact, according to the American Heart Association, just a 10% decrease in cholesterol levels may result in an estimated 30% reduction in the incidence of coronary heart disease. Unfortunately, many of us choose not to make a commitment to a better diet and more exercise and must advance to the next step of treatment, which is one of the cholesterol-lowering medications.

3. Smoking. Smoking increases the heart rate, tightens major arteries, and increases the chance of irregular heartbeats. All of these factors make the heart work harder. Smoking also raises blood pressure, which increases the risk of stroke in people who already have heart problems.

4. Obesity. The more kilos over your ideal weight you are, the greater the risk factor. Exceeding your ideal weight by 30% puts a real strain on your heart and raises your blood pressure. People with too many extra kilos have higher levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood and lower levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) - the good cholesterol. Diabetes also is more likely to develop in overweight people.

5. Physical inactivity. People who don't exercise have a 30-50% greater risk of developing high blood pressure and a greater risk of having a heart attack than people who do exercise.

Experts recommend a moderate-to-vigorous level of physical activity but say even a lower
level of exercise may be beneficial if it occurs regularly.

6. Diabetes. Having diabetes increases a person’s overall risk of cardiovascular disease. People who are afflicted with it often have high cholesterol levels and are overweight. 65% of patients with diabetes die of some form of cardiovascular disease. The US National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) recommends that patients with diabetes follow the same guidelines as those diagnosed with coronary heart disease.

7. Stress. Put simply, stress is the end result of conflict between the demands of life and our ability to meet those demands. What causes us stress, and how we react to that stress, is as individual as we are. Researchers, aren't saying that stress causes heart disease, but they do believe that in the very least it aggravates heart conditions and that people are more likely
to have heart attacks during stressful times.

All these risk factors are controllable. Don't become a statistic because you ignored these factors. Take control of your heart and your life today...

For more articles on Heart Health click here!

Have a good week,

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