Heart Diseases - 6 Risks and Prevention

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Heart Disease

The term "heart disease" is used interchangeably with the term "cardiovascular disease." Cardiovascular disease generally refers to conditions that involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels which can lead to a heart attack, chest pain (angina) or stroke. Other heart conditions—such as those that affect your heart's muscle, valves, or rhythm—are also considered forms of heart disease.

Many forms of heart disease can be prevented or treated with healthy lifestyle choices.

Risk Factors

Risk factors for developing heart disease include:

Obesity: excess weight typically worsens other risk factors.

Stress: unrelieved stress may damage your arteries and worsen other risk factors for heart disease.

Poor diet: a diet that is high in fat, salt, sugar, and cholesterol can contribute to the development of heart disease.

Physical inactivity: lack of exercise is also associated with many forms of heart disease and some of its other risk factors.

Poor hygiene: not washing your hands regularly and not establishing other habits that can help prevent viral or bacterial infections can put you at risk for heart infections, especially if you already have an underlying heart condition. Poor dental health may also contribute to heart disease.

Smoking: nicotine constricts your blood vessels and carbon monoxide can damage their inner lining making them more susceptible to atherosclerosis. Heart attacks are more common in smokers than in nonsmokers.

Prevention

Certain types of heart disease, such as heart defects, cannot be prevented. However, you can help prevent many other types of heart disease by making healthy lifestyle changes such as:

Quit smoking

Reduce and manage stress

Control other health conditions such as high blood pressure,
high cholesterol, and diabetes

Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week

Maintain a healthy weight

Practise good hygiene

The material in this email was sourced from: www.mayoclinic.org. It is intended for information purposes only and should not be used in place of consultation with a healthcare professional.