QUESTION: I am haunted by the fact that heart attacks are frequent in my family.
My father passed away at the age of 52 as the result of a heart attack, and now my older brother has had his first one.
Isn't there anything I can do to prevent it in my case?
ANSWER: Very possibly.
Many doctors believe a person can lower his/her risks of such attacks by following good health rules.
There are some things that cause heart attacks risk factors you cannot change: age, sex, race, and a family history of heart disease.
Nevertheless, there are causes that depend entirely upon you, and those are the ones you will want to work on as they can really make a difference. In the past 20 years, certain types of heart conditions and deaths from them have decreased in this country.
That is due to many things, including: improved diagnostic methods, medications, bypass surgery, and better understanding of what role some risk factors such as age, sex, smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, obesity, diabetes, nonexercise, and other things, actually play in heart attacks. About 85 percent of all heart disease cases in the United States may be attributed to modifiable factors, including smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, alcohol, salt, oral contraceptives, and obesity. So stop smoking and being around those who do as much as possible. Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of heart diseases and deaths from them in the United States.
If you have tried "everything" to quit smoking but have not been able to do so, talk with your physician. Seriously curtailing excessive alcohol use and eliminating as much salt, sugar and animal fats as possible from your diet also can help decrease chances for an attack by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol. Increasing consumption of fish some say as many as three meals of fish per week are needed may prove beneficial in lowering cholesterol levels. Also, if you are sedentary, slowly but steadily increasing exercise that you do on a regular basis (try three times each week) can be helpful. Obesity raises blood pressure weight loss helps reverse it.
Also, obesity goes hand in hand with increased cholesterol levels and possibly other heart-damaging conditions. If you are obese, you must lose weight to be healthy.
Weight loss will be easier for you if you increase your exercise at the same time, and stay with the exercise after you have become thin to help you keep the fat off and maintain your health. Additionally, many believe that taking one aspirin daily can help prevent heart attacks in some people suffering from hardening of the arteries who have several known heart attack risk factors. So you see, it may not be the easiest thing to do, but by applying all of the tips I have given you here (or at least some of them) you can actively wage war on the disease you fear, and increase your odds to the point where you may never suffer from it.
The material contained here is "FOR INFORMATION ONLY" and should not replace the counsel and advice of your personal physician.
Promptly consulting your doctor is the best path to a quick and successful resolution of any medical problem.
