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The Active Route
Taking Charge of Your Heart Health By Laurie L. Dove
Are You at Risk?Decades of extensive medical research has revealed several risk factors that play a major role in causing heart disease. The good news is that there are "modifiable" risk factors (those that you can change through either lifestyle or medications). While you cannot do anything to reduce "nonmodifiable" risk factors (like heredity), recognizing these is equally important. Any risk factors are a sign to pay closer attention to heart health. High CholesterolLDL-cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) is now recognized as the major cause of heart disease. By simply lowering the LDL-form of cholesterol, heart disease rates also fall by 20 percent to 45 percent, according to the National Cholesterol Education Program.
If your cholesterol levels are too high, making lifestyle changes may be an effective first approach to reduce them. These changes may include the following:
- Reducing your intake of saturated fat and cholesterol.
- Consuming more soluble fiber from cereal grains, fruits, beans, lentils and broccoli.
- Losing weight and increasing your physical activity. Current recommendations call for exercise at least 30 minutes on most days of the week.
High Blood Pressure
Hypertension is a frequent condition that, if poorly managed or unrecognized for a prolonged period of time, can lead to heart failure, stroke and kidney disease. It may be necessary to reduce the salt and alcohol in your diet, increase your consumption of fruits and vegetables, stop smoking, exercise more or lose weight. It might also be necessary, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to take antihypertensive medications. Diabetes
Recognizing diabetes is the first step toward preventing its secondary complications like the strain it can put on your heart. Unfortunately, an estimated one-third of the 15 million people with diabetes in the United States don't even know they have it. Making the diagnosis of diabetes is generally done through a blood sugar test. Weight is one of the most important predictors of your risk for developing diabetes. Individuals who are either overweight or obese do not metabolize glucose or secrete insuli as efficiently as people with a normal weight. Reducing the calories you consume, increasing your physical activity and losing weight over a sustained period of time could make the difference.