Heart Disease Prevention
High blood cholesterol is one of a few main factors that place a person at a higher risk for heart attack. When a person has high blood cholesterol, he or she is at an increased risk of heart attack because cholesterol can form plaques in the interior lining of the coronary arteries, causing a blockage of blood to the heart. Cholesterol in the blood can only break up and dissolve if it is combined with proteins called lipoproteins. The “bad” cholesterol that people take in too much of by eating an unhealthy diet contains low-density lipoproteins (LDL) that don’t prevent the build up of cholesterol plagues. On the other hand, a diet of foods with the “good cholesterol,” which consists of high-density lipoproteins, helps dissolve protein from the surface of coronary arterial plaques.
There are steps you can take to lower your bad cholesterol intake, as well as to raise the good cholesterol levels in your blood. Taking these measures can lower your risk of a heart attack:
- Losing extra weight.
- Eating a diet that is low in saturated fats.
- Exercising regularly.
- Taking medications that decrease the bad cholesterol in your blood.
Besides high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, otherwise known as hypertension, is a major risk factor for heart attacks. Patients with high blood pressure are prone to developing atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis causes heart attacks through a build of cholesterol in the arteries that causes the arterial wall to harden and constrict so that the arteries can no longer transport oxygenated blood to the heart. Using medications to control your high blood pressure can help you prevent a heart attack.
Smoking poses another heart attack risk factor. Tobacco smoke has chemicals in it that can cause a deterioration in he walls of the blood vessels, thereby hastening the devastating effects if artherosclerosis, which, as mentioned earlier, can result in a heart attack. Quitting smoking can lower your risk of coronary artery diseases that cause atherosclerosis and heart attacks.
Patients with diabetes types 1 and 2 are also at an increased risk of heart attack. That’s because diabetes is frequently responsible for speeding up artherosclerosis in the legs. People who have diabetes can lower their risk of a heart attack by fastidiously monitoring their blood sugar, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, and sticking to the diet prescribed by their doctors.
Genetics are another influential component of a patient’s risk level for heart attack. If there is a history of heart attack in the family, particularly if it was the patient’s father or another male in the immediate family who was under 55, or the mother or another close relative under the age of 65, the patient may be at an increased risk. With or with out a hereditary component, males are at a greater risk of heart attacks than women because they naturally have lower blood levels of the good cholesterol that dissolves congestive plaques in the arteries. While you can’t change your genetics, living a health lifestyle that includes regular exercise and a diet low in saturated fats, can help improve you chances of warding off a heart attack.