Popular Heart Disease Prevention Tips

Heart disease has become the number one cause of premature death in the United States and many other parts of the world. Heart disease is also a debilitating malady that disables many people. Heart disease treatment methods are thus vital for improving the quality of life of people suffering from these illnesses. The number one killer in America today is a disease that can often be prevented.

According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the nation's single leading cause of death for both men and women. At least 58.8 million people in this country suffer from some form of heart disease. It involves the blocking, either partial or total, of the arteries that lead to the human heart. But, you can help to protect yourself from heart disease by following these simple health tips:

Maintain a healthy weight

As you put on weight in adulthood, you gain mostly fatty tissue. This excess weight can lead to conditions that increase your chances of heart disease - high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

How do you know if your weight is healthy? One way is to calculate your body mass index (BMI), which considers your height and weight in determining whether you have a healthy or unhealthy percentage of body fat.

BMI numbers 25 and higher are associated with higher blood fats, higher blood pressure, and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

Exercise

Exercise has an effect on every other risk factor for heart disease except smoking. When you exercise regularly, your heart, which is muscle, gets stronger. Stronger hearts require fewer beats to pump blood and oxygen throughout your body. Your blood pressure can be reduced as you become more physically fit. And if you burn more calories than you eat, you'll lose body fat and weight, too.

Exercise also affects the blood itself, increasing circulation, producing more HDL (the "good" cholesterol) lowering blood sugar levels, helping prevent the formation of harmful blood clots and lowering the amount of adrenaline that your body needs.

Best of all, exercise makes you feel better. Walking is one of the best ways to control stress and prevent depression - for heart patients and everyone else, too.

Lose weight if you're overweight. Your doctor can advise you about the best ways to lose weight.

Eat right. Lower or eliminate your intake of red meat and fats in your diet. This includes fatty foods such as whole milk, dairy products, potato chips, rich gravies, and the like. These foods can and do raise your bad cholesterol level. Switch to skim milk, eat lean meats, and just do without the chips and the other junk foods that you just do not need for good health. Put more fresh vegetables and fresh fruit into your daily diet. Eat plenty of fiber which has been shown to help in reducing the bad blood cholesterol level.

Tobacco Smoke

A smoker's risk of heart attack is more than twice that of nonsmokers. The nicotine and carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke reduce the amount of oxygen in the blood. They also damage blood vessel walls and may trigger the formation of blood clots. Smoking also reduces "good" cholesterol, which promotes heart disease. If you do smoke, get help to quit now! There are many effective programs to help you quit. Once you stop smoking your risk of heart disease starts to drop and over time will be about the same as if you'd never smoked.

Niacin is the closest thing available to a perfect treatment that corrects most causes of coronary heart disease. Niacin blocks the release of fatty acids from fat cells. Niacin plays a critical role in energy production, gene expression, and hormone synthesis. You cannot live without it. Niacin also tends to shift LDL particle distribution to larger particle size and improve HDL functioning. The intake of 3 grams Niacin for as little as two weeks can reduce serum cholesterol by 26 percent.

Pectin limits the amount of cholesterol the body can absorb. High pectin count in apples may be why "One a day keeps the doctor away".

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