How to Prevent Heart Disease

Heart disease has been said to be the leading cause of death. Although there are many risk factors that are unavoidable such as the family history, your age or sex, there are different steps that you can take in order to help prevent heart disease.

• Don’t smoke or use tobacco. Smoking or tobacco use is one of the main risk factors for developing heart disease. The chemicals in tobacco can damage your heart and blood vessels leading to narrowing of the arteries (atherosclerosis). Atherosclerosis can lead to a heart attack. When it comes to preventing heart disease, no amount of smoking is safe. Smokeless tobacco and low tar and nicotine cigarettes are risky, exposed to secondhand smoke.

• Exercise daily for at least 30 minutes. Exercising daily can reduce the risk of getting heart disease.  Physical activity helps control weight and may reduce your chances of developing other conditions that may put pressure on the heart, such as hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes. It also reduces stress, which can be a factor in heart disease.  

• Eat healthy and get the right nutrition. With a healthy weight and regular physical activity, healthy eating can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels and prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. This includes the consumption of fruits and vegetables reduce or cut the salt or sodium, and eating less saturated fat and cholesterol to reduce these risks.

• Get your cholesterol and blood pressure checked regularly. High cholesterol and high blood pressure can affect the heart greatly and could cause damage. When you don’t have this tested, you will not know if you may have these conditions. Regular tests can tell you what your numbers are and if necessary take action.