You can control certain aspect that will dramatically reduce your risk of having a heart attack or developing heart disease, but you can’t control everything. Just like reducing your risk of being injured in a car accident by wearing a seat belt, driving carefully, and maintaining your vehicle.
Uncontrollable Risk Factors for Heart Disease include:
- heredity (family history of heart disease)
- gender (men tend to develop heart disease earlier than women)
- age (raises the older you are)
Controllable Risk Factors for Heart Disease include:
- High Blood Pressure
- High Cholesterol
- Sticky Fats
- Diabetes
- Elevated homocysteine levels
Now you know the risks but what exactly are they and what can you do to reduce your risk factors?
High Blood Pressure, also known as hypertension, occurs when blood vessels lose their elasticity or become narrow. Blood pressure is a measurement of a ratio representing pressures in the arteries. The top number, systolic pressure, measures the highest pressure when the heart is pumping. The bottom number, diastolic pressure, measures the lowest pressure when the heart is resting.
High blood pressure is the #1 risk factor for congestive heart failure, or the heart inability to pump sufficient blood throughout the body. An estimated one-third of all strokes are directly related to high blood pressure.
Where should your blood pressure be? A healthy blood pressure for adults is 120 (systolic) over 80 (diastolic). High blood pressure is broken down into four main categories. They are:
- Borderline – 120 to 140 over 85 to 89
- Mild – 140 to 160 over 90 to 104
- Moderate – 160 to 180 over 105 to 114
- Severe – 180+ over 115+
High Cholesterol is no longer thought to be the single most dangerous risk factor in heart disease, but it still makes you more vulnerable to a heart attack. Many health problems and even death can arise without adequate blood flow in the arteries. Plaque, a combination of fatty material, cellular debris, calcification, and cholesterol, can build up and block arteries. Cholesterol, however; is not all bad. Our bodies need cholesterol to function properly. The body uses cholesterol to help in sex hormone and bile acid production. The “good cholesterol”, HDL (high-density lipoproteins), helps transport the cholesterol to the liver for metabolism and elimination. The “bad cholesterol”, LDL (low-density lipoproteins), tend to stick more easily to the artery walls and build up as plaque.
The good news….you reduce your risk of heart disease by 2% for every 1% reduction in blood cholesterol.
Healthy blood cholesterol levels:
- Total Cholesterol – less than 200 mg/dl
- LDL Cholesterol – less than 130 mg/dl
- HDL Cholesterol – greater than 40 mg/dl
Homocysteine has a powerful affect on the heart. Homocysteine is a non-essential amino acid, resulting from a deficiency of three B vitamins – B6, B12, and folic acid. A combination of homocysteine and LDL cholesterol is believed to contribute to the build up of plaque in arteries and also may contribute to arterial wall damage. High homocysteine levels pose a higher risk than high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and smoking.
Risk factors for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high homocysteine levels can include:
- obesity
- lack of physical activity
- smoking
- diabetes
- increased/uncontrolled stress and anxiety
- poor diet
Proper maintenance of these additional risk factors is also needed to lower your heart disease risk. Heart disease was once thought of as a “man’s disease”; however women are quickly catching up. Heart disease in women can be very different than men. Women tend to wait longer to seek medical attention and female heart attack symptoms can be unrelated to chest pain, like back pain, nausea, and indigestion. Lifestyle choices have a tremendous influence in our level of risk for heart disease. Being aware of the risk factors we can not control, and making the necessary changes for the ones we can control will greatly reduce our risk factors over time.
Start small….be persistent….learn to relax….and enjoy your life!
HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE!
