According to the American Heart Association (AHA), an estimated 81.1 million American adults--more than one in three--have one or more types of cardiovascular disease. Examples of cardiovascular disease include high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and congenital cardiovascular defects. To lower your risk of experiencing heart disease, it's important that you adopt health behaviors that support optimal cardiovascular health.
Eat a Healthy Diet
The AHA suggests that a healthy diet involves the following components: setting healthy diet goals, performing heart-smart shopping, practicing healthy cooking and being selective about your restaurant outings. Of particular importance to protecting your cardiovascular health is your consumption of nutrient-dense foods, including vegetables, fruits and whole-grain products. The AHA recommends eating a wide variety of nutritious foods each day from each of the basic food groups.
Don't Smoke
According to the American Lung Association, more than 392,000 people die from tobacco-induced disease in the United States each year, which makes tobacco consumption the leading cause of preventable death. An additional 50,000 people die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking alone heightens your risk of coronary heart disease, and when it's combined with other factors, it significantly boosts your risk from those factors too. Other smoking-related effects on your health include decreased physical activity tolerance, an increased likelihood of experiencing a blood clot, a reduction of your "good" cholesterol and an increased risk of peripheral arterial disease and aortic aneurysm.
Engage in Regular Physical Activity
Regular physical activity, including aerobic exercise and strength-training exercise, is an important part of your healthy heart strategy. The AHA suggests that if you exercise for as little as 30 minutes each day, you can lower your risk of heart disease. When you are sedentary, your body loses its strength and its capacity to perform physical work. Regular physical activity helps you manage your blood pressure, control your weight and improve your quality of life. According to the American Council on Exercise, a recent study at Duke University Medical Center determined that aerobic exercise can help overweight, hypertensive adults improve their overall cardiovascular response to mental stress, which is another significant risk factor for heart disease.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Maintaining a healthy weight can help you lower your risk for heart disease. According to the Mayo Clinic, the weight you gain as an adult is primarily fat instead of muscle. This excess weight could lead to conditions that elevate your risk for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. The Mayo Clinic suggests that even small reductions in your weight can be helpful in lowering your risk of heart disease. Losing 10 percent of your weight can significantly lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of diabetes. Maintaining a healthy weight is a matter of balancing the energy that you expend through healthy daily exercise with the amount--and type--of calories you're consuming.
Manage Your Blood Pressure
According to the Mayo Clinic, high blood pressure, if sustained over a prolonged period, can damage your heart and blood vessels. Regular blood pressure screenings, beginning in childhood, can help you determine your baseline numbers and help you track any changes over time. The Mayo Clinic recommends that adults have their blood pressure checked every two years. Lifestyle modifications, in many instances, are sufficient to lower or maintain blood pressure values within a healthy range, but you should talk with your primary care provider about the strategies that are most appropriate for managing your blood pressure. Consider the following lifestyle modifications to manage your blood pressure: eat a heart-healthy diet, reduce your sodium intake, participate in regular physical activity, maintain a healthy body weight, limit your alcohol consumption, avoid tobacco products and practice meditation as a way to manage your stress.
Take Charge of Cholesterol
Cholesterol helps you produce cell membranes and certain hormones, and it is an important component of a healthy body. The AHA suggests that too much cholesterol in your blood is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease--which may result in a heart attack--and stroke. According to the AHA, eating saturated fat and dietary cholesterol also increases how much you have, although this is an idea that's met with some resistance in the healing community. According to a study published in the eminent journal "Science," a "meta-analyses of all controlled and randomized trials that have used modification of dietary fat as the only type of intervention have shown that neither the incidence of nonfatal CHD, nor coronary or total mortality, was lowered significantly."
Keep Your Blood Sugar at Healthy Levels
According to the AHA, it's important to keep your blood sugar levels balanced. Heart disease and stroke are two to four times more likely in diabetic adults, and although diabetes is treatable, even when your blood glucose levels are in check the condition significantly increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. The AHA states that most people with diabetes die of conditions related to their heart or blood vessels. For those with diabetes, your recommended blood pressure is 130/80 mm Hg or less. Lifestyle changes, including eating habits, weight management and regular exercise, in conjunction with medication may be required to keep your diabetes under control, and it's important for you to work closely with your primary care provider to keep your diabetes in check and reduce the affect of other risk factors on your health.
