04 Apr Reduce Your Risk

Your Body is an amazingly resilient, highly intelligent organism; capable of regenerating new tissue every day!  No diagnosis is an impossible death sentence. Take charge by equipping yourself with knowledge based on facts, and implement these six steps into your lifestyle!

If you didn’t know already, every year 1 in 4 Americans die from heart disease, making it one of the leading causes of death in the US.  About 735,000 Americans suffer from heart attack every year, 15 percent of which succumb to death. Pay attention to these risk factors for a heart attack:

• Age. Men who are 45 and older, women 55 years and older are at high risk.
• Tobacco. Prolonged exposure to second-hand smoke puts you on a high risk for cardiovascular disease.
• High cholesterol  If you have high triglycerides and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL), you have a greater risk for a heart attack.
• Diabetes, especially if untreated.
• Family history: of heart attack or disease
• Sedentary lifestyle. Being physically inactive leads to high bad cholesterol levels that may lead to plaque formation.
• Obesity. Lowering 10% of your body weight lowers your risk for a heart attack.
• Stress. Increased stress levels, increase your white blood cell levels. These raise your risk of developing atherosclerosis and plaque rupture.
• Illegal drug use. Using cocaine or amphetamines may cause coronary artery spasm.
• Preeclampsia If you have experienced high blood pressure during pregnancy, your risk of having a heart attack is high.
• Autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.

However, the news isn’t all bad!  There are BIG chances if you take action now, you can mitigate, lessen or reverse heart disease, even prevent a heart attack!  According to new research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology,¹ young women who follow six lifestyle guidelines can all but “heart attack-proof” themselves.

The study, which followed nurses over the course of two decades, starting around age 37, identified the six lifestyle factors of greatest impact on heart health.²

Women who adopted to all six guidelines lowered their heart disease risk by 92 percent. Based on that, researchers estimated that more than 70 percent of heart attacks could be prevented by implementing the following:

These results also echo the results of a 2014 study concluding that essentially the same health habits could prevent nearly 80 percent of first-time heart attacks in men.

1. Healthy diet

2. Body Fat Percentage (BMI)

3. 2.5 hours of exercise each week

4. Watching television seven or fewer hours per week

5. Not smoking

6. Limiting alcohol intake to one drink or less per day

Regarding: BMI³, note that your waist-to-hip ratio is a more reliable risk predictor because it reflects visceral fat. An accurate assessment of body fat percentage is more reliable. Calculate your Body Mass Index here.

1. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/03/12/6-factors-predicting-heart-attack-risk.aspx#_edn3
2. http://time.com/3653862/heart-attack-prevention/
3. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm

TAGS:  heart disease, risks, reversal