Heart disease prevention strategies are same as that for preventing stroke. Recommendations include:
Controlling high blood pressure. This is one of the most important things one can do to reduce their heart disease and stroke risk — exercising, managing stress, maintaining a healthy weight and limiting the amount of sodium in diet and avoiding alcohol can all help to keep high blood pressure in check. In addition to recommending lifestyle changes, one may need to take medications to treat high blood pressure.
Controlling diabetes — one can manage diabetes with diet, exercise, weight control and medications.
Lowering the amount of cholesterol and saturated fat in one’s diet — eating less cholesterol and fat especially saturated fat and trans fats — may reduce the plaque formation in arteries. Besides dietary changes, one may need to take cholesterol-lowering medications.
Exercising regularly — exercise reduces risk of heart disease and stroke in many ways. It can lower blood pressure, increase level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and improve the overall health of blood vessels and heart. It also helps in losing weight, control diabetes and reduce stress.
Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables — a diet containing five or more daily servings of fruits or vegetables may reduce risk of heart disease and stroke. Following the diet which emphasizes olive oil, fruit, nuts, vegetables and whole grains may be helpful.
Quitting tobacco use — smoking raises the risk of heart disease and stroke for smokers and non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. So quitting tobacco use reduces risk of heart disease and stroke.
Avoiding alcohol — it can be a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Heavy alcohol consumption increases risk of high blood pressure, ischemic heart disease and heart attack; ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.
Avoiding drug abuse — certain drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamines, are established risk factors for ischemic heart disease and stroke.
Maintaining good oro-dental hygiene — it is important to brush and floss one’s teeth and gums often, and have regular dental check-ups.
Anti-platelet drugs and anticoagulants are commonly used as preventive medications, called blood thinners. Platelets are cells in one’s blood that form clots. Anti-platelet drugs make these cells less sticky and less likely to clot. These are used to prevent ischemic heart disease and ischemic stroke. However, such medications should be taken only after doctor’s advice.
“As adopting the DASH diet in one’s life has been shown to lower blood pressure and hence reduce the risk of hypertension, which is one of the important risk factors for heart disease and stroke. More to say, there is need to avoid unnecessary stress in our lives by following a good health routine as research has shown that the depression including stress could increase a person’s risk for developing serious health problems including heart diseases, stroke and diabetes.”
Therefore, while adopting unhealthy routines like eating poorly, exercising less, deprived sleep or leaning more heavily on substances such as alcohol, smoking and drug abuse including taking stress — could increase the potential risks of landing into serious health problems — there are healthy ways to adopt for reducing the risk. Maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, taking less salt in diet, getting adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and alcohol consumption; monitoring blood sugar levels and keeping that under control; besides monitoring one’s cholesterol and triglyceride levels and keeping them under control are crucial hallmarks in prevention of heart disease and stroke.
Moreover, the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan is a healthy diet plan which is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein and low-fat dairy products. Besides that it is also low in sodium, saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol. Having said, focus on to consume more fruits and vegetables each day, choose whole grains over refined grains, and opt for protein-rich sources such as poultry, fish, beans, and nuts. As adopting the DASH diet in one’s life has been shown to lower blood pressure and hence reduce the risk of hypertension, which is one of the important risk factors for heart disease and stroke. More to say, there is need to avoid unnecessary stress in our lives by following a good health routine as research has shown that the depression including stress could increase a person’s risk for developing serious health problems including heart diseases, stroke and diabetes.
(The author is a Physician and a well known health columniste. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
Dr. Tasaduk Hussain Itoo
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