What Is your Risk of Heart Disease?
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The American Heart Association
The American Heart Association informs you with tons of useful information about your cardiovascular system. How to keep it in shape with the right food, the right exercise and how to reduce risks of cardiovascular disorders. Get information about a healthy life style, health topics and how to get involved a volunteer which can be anything. From a lifesaver, over a fundraiser to as an advocate for state issues like enacting smoke-free air laws. And of course you can read about the latest development in research and publications.
Virtual Workouts
Keep Moving on heart.org by one of their best exercise motivators.
But the Most Important Thing to do is
Doing the Test
It might save your life !
Risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease:
High Blood pressure (hypertension)
Hypertension is a silent killer. People with high blood pressure normally don't notice they have it
Radiation Therapy
Cancer treatment in form of Radiation Therapy can be very effective. Unfortunately this kind of treatment can damage cardiovascular tissue.
Smoking
The tobacco industry tried to deny it successfully for a long time. Science caught up on it though: there is scientific proof of smoking related to many forms of cancer.
Lack of Sleep
Sleep is beneficial for your heath. After a good rest we are resilient enough to get back to work. A lack of sleep causes the opposite
High Blood Cholesterol (hyperlipidemia)
High Blood Cholesterol is another silent killer. People can have a way to high level of it in their blood without noticing this. The only way to find out if your cholesterol level is okay or not is to let your doctor do a blood test.
Diabetes *
People with diabetes have a higher risk of heart disease. Fortunately you can improve your heart health by doing exercise, eating healthy food, avoiding stress and losing some pounds.
Low Carb Diets
People on a low carb diet often make the mistake to eat too much fat. Especially the saturated fats are bad for your cardiovascular system.
Physical Inactivity
Sleep is beneficial for your heath. After a good rest we are resilient enough to get back to work. A lack of sleep causes the opposite
Drinking much Alcohol
Long term alcohol consume on a regular basis can cause severe heart problems
Stress
Like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, stress is a silent killer. The difference with stress is that you can notice it. The difficulty is the denial. Many people experience stress but don't want to admit it.
Air Pollution
Another silent killer: air pollution. 20%(!) of all heart problems are caused by air pollution. Important to know: indoor air pollution is 2-5 times higher than air pollution outside
Reduced Lung Function
The corporation of three organs in our body corporate is extremely important: the heart, the lungs and the kidneys. If one of them is malfunctioning will this have negative effect on the other two.
The most common symptoms of cardiovascular disease
• pains or pressure in the chest, which may indicate angina
• pain or discomfort in the arms, the left shoulder, elbows, jaw, or back
• shortness of breath, also known as dyspnea
• nausea and fatigue
• light-headed or faint
• cold sweat
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR RISK ?
STOP SMOKING
Easy to say, I know. Still: if you'd quit smoking you'd cut your risk of an heart attack into half !
improve your cholesterol levels
The best diet to improve your cholesterol levels is one that is high in fiber. Saturated fat and refined sugars cause cholesterol level raise.
Below you'll find limits of the different kinds of cholesterol:
• Total cholesterol level over 200
• HDL ("good") cholesterol level under 40
• LDL ("bad") cholesterol level over 160
• Triglycerides over 150
check your blood pressure regurlarly
Check your blood pressure every month in particular if high blood pressure occurs in your family more often. If you don't have a blood pressure monitor yet, make sure you'll buy an upper arm device for the most reliable results. Cuff devices aren't that accurate.
keep moving
People who sit all day have an increased chance to get heart disease and die from it. The solution is obvious: exercise more. Not necessary to do this on a high intensity level. Low impact exercise during around 30 minutes a day works perfectly to stay fit and avoid heart disease. Always check with your doctor before you start!
follow a cardiac-healthy diet
As mentioned above: Eat a diet low in cholesterol and high in fiber. Avoid saturated fat and refined sugars. On your shopping list must be fruits and vegetables, next to whole grains, nuts, beans, legumes and other plant-based foods.
For the essential proteins and good fats you can eat fish like salmon or tuna containing the omega-3 goodies. And then of course poultry and lean meat (occasionally for sustainability reasons).
Finally: avoid salt and sugar as much as possible and reduce alcohol consume!
lose weight
Needless to say that overweight is bad for your heart health. Overweight can cause high blood pressure and diabetes, both increasing your risk of heart failure.
Have yourself Checked upon diabetes
It is common knowledge that diabetes increases the risk at heart disease. Many people who have (pre-stage) diabetes often don't know about this. Get tested to be sure you're safe!
avoid stress
We all have stress from time to time and that is not always bad. The good stress can help us to reach our goals in a way and speed we wouldn't be able to without it. The bad stress however can take over control and even change you in a more or less permanent "angry" person. That is something you want to avoid since it is one of the causes of cardio-disease. Managing your stress level by doing regular low impact physical exercise (cycling/walking), mental exercise (meditation) or a combination of it in form of yoga is a perfect way to lower it.
DNA Risk Analysis
Maybe you want to be on the safe side and want to know exactly what risk you have for 28 different diseases. In this case, Futura Genetics has exactly what you need: The DNA Collection Kit
