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What should I know about heart disease?

Too many people think they can wait until old age to worry about heart disease. A common perception is that heart attacks happen mainly to men. The good news about heart disease is that most of us have more control over the health of our hearts than we may realise.

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What Is Heart Disease?

Heart disease, coronary artery disease,  arteriosclerosis and the hardening of the arteries all refer to the same process. Your heart-health depends on an abundant supply of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood. It cannot survive an interruption in this flow of blood. Your coronary arteries supply this blood to the heart, and when the arteries harden and become congested, this places a strain on the heart - possibly leading to heart disease. The heart, starving for blood, begins to die, and things can quickly reach a critical level.

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Lifestyle Choices

Harmful cholesterol deposits start to attach themselves to the artery walls when we are young, but children rarely have heart attacks because it takes decades before the condition becomes life-threatening. Lifestyle choices, such as high-saturated-fat diets, being sedentary and smoking are the most common causes of heart disease. It is understood that most people who eat a typical Western diet, full of dairy products and meat fats, have some degree of artery hardening, possibly leading to trouble in later life.

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Heart Disease in Women compared to Heart Disease in Men

A woman's production of oestrogen in her childbearing years boosts her HDL. This so-called "good cholesterol" helps reduce her risk of heart attack. Up to the age of 60, men have a higher rate of heart attack. But after the age of 60, a woman's chance of experiencing a heart attack greatly increases and becomes equal to a man's.

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What can we do?

The good news is that some simple lifestyle changes can help reduce or even completely dissolve harmful cholesterol build-up. We owe it to ourselves to learn early how to make these changes in our lifestyle to cut down our risk of heart disease and to provide a heart-healthy environment for our families.

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Will I get heart disease?

No one can predict with 100 percent accuracy who will have a heart attack, but scientists have developed a list of factors most likely to link people to heart disease. By assessing your family history, general health and lifestyle, you can decide what you can do to prolong the health of your heart. The burden on your heart and arteries increases as the number of risk factors grows, raising the odds for future heart disease and heart attack. But even if you find yourself in a high-risk category, the news is good: you can actually reverse damage to your arteries and clear away arterial deposits by adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle. Everyone needs to take the simple steps that will protect them.

One risk everyone shares is the aging process, because the risk of heart attack increases with age.

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Family History

If you have close family members (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings) who have had heart disease or heart attacks before age 65, you may be predisposed to develop harmful build-up in your arteries at a greater rate than someone with no such history. You also may find it harder to keep your cholesterol levels within an acceptable range without medication. You should view a family history of heart disease as a signal to be vigilant about the lifestyle choices that influence heart health and to get a regular heart health check-up.

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High Blood Pressure, Diabetes and High Blood Cholesterol Levels

Cholesterol levels are one of the ways your doctor determines how likely it is that your arteries are clogging up with harmful deposits. High total cholesterol and high LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) indicate a strong possibility that plaque is present and your arteries are narrowing. A low HDL (the "good" cholesterol) means your body isn't able to carry cholesterol deposits away from the artery walls.

People with high blood pressure or diabetes have higher rates of heart disease, and if you add unhealthy cholesterol levels to high blood pressure and/or diabetes, the risks for heart disease increase considerably. However, research also shows that people who follow medical advice to lower blood pressure with diet and/or medication and who take steps to keep their diabetes under control also protect themselves from future heart attacks.

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Diet

Saturated fat fuels the build-up of deposits in the arteries because it triggers the body to produce more LDL cholesterol. This is the kind of cholesterol that sticks to the walls of your arteries. The more saturated fat you eat, the greater your risk of developing heart disease. We consume saturated fat when we eat animal products, such as meat and dairy products, as well as processed foods made with hydrogenated oils. The average healthy adult should consume no more than 25 grams of saturated fat each day, a nugget about the size of a walnut. People with heart disease should eat much less.

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Excess Weight

Over nutrition sets up a vicious cycle that is detrimental to good health. The rate of overweight citizens grows each year and with it, a much higher risk of heart disease. People who are overweight tend to eat foods high in saturated fat, which, in turn, promotes the formation of harmful deposits in the arteries. If you are more than 30 percent over your ideal weight, you must take measures to lose extra pounds.

The dietary concerns of some young women often centre on their weight. As the numbers on the scale or the measuring tape begin to climb, they put an emphasis on reducing calories. But harmful arterial build-up occurs in slender women, too. While controlling weight is important for heart health, any weight loss plan must include low-saturated-fat foods. Periodically, diets come along that promise instant results with high-fat foods or high-protein foods. Avoid them. In the long run, they can raise your risk of heart disease.

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Exercise

People who exercise regularly reduce their risk of heart disease by almost 50 percent. The heart depends on a constant supply of blood to feed it the oxygen and nutrients it needs to keep pumping. Exercise not only increases the oxygen in the blood and keeps the blood circulating, but also makes the heart stronger and more efficient. Studies also show that when you exercise, every step you take increases HDL, the good cholesterol. Also, exercise helps you maintain a normal weight, which offsets the deposit-building process.

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Smoking

Tobacco smoke and saturated fat are two of the most lethal things you can put in your body. It is believed that smoking makes it easier for deposits to attach themselves to the walls of arteries. Smoking carries an added risk of dependency. People rarely smoke only the occasional cigarette; they smoke the pack! We know enough about the addictive properties of nicotine to realise that once people start, many simply cannot give it up without a great struggle. And some people find it impossible to quit. Smoking has become increasingly attractive to young girls and women, yet more money is spent on public campaigns to raise the awareness of breast health than to prevent smoking. While taking birth control pills alone does not increase your risk of heart attack, the combination of smoking and birth control pills causes a woman's risk of heart attack to soar.

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These are the most common warning signals of a heart attack:

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Less common warning signs of heart attack are:

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Further Reading

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Chinalife Remedies

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