Heart Disease - Prevention is better than cure

Dateline: 04/05/98

Great. You're interested in cutting your risk of heart disease. Let's get started right away.

Heart Risk Factors - what are they ? Stop Puffing - keep living High Blood Pressure - the silent killer Raised Cholesterol - clogging the pipes Getting Physical - exercise for a healthy heart Lean and Mean - trim the flab and live longer

First, let's take a look at the risk factors for heart disease and see how making some minor lifestyle alterations could help you prevent heart disease.

What are the risk factors for heart disease ?

Broadly, risk factors may be divided into two kinds.

• those you can't do much about
• those that you can modify

Non-modifiable Risk Factors

There are some things you just can't change. Some of the risk factors for heart disease fall into this category, including factors like gender, age, ethnicity, genetics and geographic location.

Coronary artery disease is 2.5 times more likely in men than women. Heart attacks occur in 9.7% of women between 65 and 69 years of age, but in 17.9% of those older than 85. There are many reasons for this protective advantage women enjoy, and they are detailed in another related article titled "Why are Women so Superior in Coronary Disease ?"

African- Americans have a higher heart disease risk than whites, and the incidence also varies among Hispanics, Asians and other races. These variations are the result of a complex interaction between a variety of effects including dietary habits, social customs, stresses, exercise and activity levels, climate, cultural influences and much more.

Genetic influences on heart disease incidence used to be considered irreversible. Today, the break-throughs in gene therapy are exciting. They raise the hope that in the future, we may be able to repair some faulty genetic programming in our DNA that predisposes us to heart disease.

But really, there isn't anything you can do about being born male, growing older or the color of your skin !

However, before you despair, take heart ..... There are many other things you can do that will significantly reduce your heart disease risk.

What can you do to avoid heart disease ?

Here are five things you can do, starting NOW. Click on the links to read more about each one:

• Don't puff your life away !
• Keep those pressures down
• Big Bad Cholesterol
• Move it, Move it, MOVE IT !
• Got to trim that flab

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For more resources on heart disease, you can

• visit the archives for related articles
• visit the resource library
• check out the heart disease bookstore

FAVORITES FOREVER Take some time to browse through this site. Check out some more articles covering different areas of heart disease: Through the Keyhole : Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery Bypass Surgery sans Bypass : the MICAS website Catching 'em Young : Fetal Cardiac Surgery The Gender Gap : Heart Disease in Women Heart Birth Defects : Congenital Heart Disease Caring after Curing : Post-Op Care for Heart Surgery Between Mother and Child : Pregnancy and Heart Disease
HEART DISEASE / CARDIOLOGY FORUM Visit our Forum. Post a message on the Bulletin Board - it could be anything about Heart Disease - your thoughts, feelings, emotions or knowledge. If it comes from your heart, then put it HERE.....
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