Elder Care Cafe

One of the scariest moments anyone can have in life is when they realize they are having a heart attack. Numerous people have lived to tell about the moment they first realized what was happening, and that they could die. Coronary heart disease is the number of cause of death in thousands of Americans. Many fatal heart attacks occur within an hour of onset of the symptoms, before most people can make it to the hospital. The most important step anyone can take is to reduce the risk of having a heart attack in the first place.

Fortunately, people who are at risk to have a heart attack can reduce that risk by managing these six areas of their life:

1. Stop smoking. People who smoke have a four times greater of getting heart disease than does a non-smoker. In fact, do not start smoking in the first place.
2. Lower high blood pressure. Taking the necessary steps to keep your blood pressure under control is of primary importance in reducing your risk of heart attack. Keeping your blood pressure under 120/80 is a good start. If your blood pressure runs higher than that talk to your physician as soon as possible. There are self-monitoring blood pressure cuffs available at many pharmacies or you can have your blood pressure check at a free health clinic.
3. Reduce high blood cholesterol. Have your doctor run a blood test to find out what your HDL, LDL and triglycerides are, and whether or not they are within normal range for you.
4. Aim for a healthy weight. Check to see whether weight is within normal range for your height and body type. When you carry excess body fat you are making your heart work overtime which can raise your blood pressure, cholesterol, and risk of diabetes.
5. Be physically active each day. Experts agree that daily moderate exercise is highly important in reducing your risk of heart disease and will increase your quality of life.
6. Manage diabetes. One of the greatest risks of diabetes is heart attacks. Keeping your blood sugar within a normal range will greatly reduce that risk.

We covered a couple of these risk factors last week in more detail in the articles Treating High Blood Pressure and Seniors Aging Gracefully Through Exercise.  Next week we will address the rest of these six risk factors for heart attack.

We have discussed these issues on this site before, but it is good to cover them again. The more we hear about the risks for heart attack, the more likely we will adhere to the guidelines and hopefully keep our own risk at bay.

Related Posts:

• 07/08/2010 -- Healthy Weight Healthy Heart
• 07/05/2010 -- Signs You May Have Developed Diabetes
• 06/29/2010 -- Treating High Blood Pressure
• 05/26/2010 -- Can You Reverse Type 2 Diabetes? Part 2
• 02/04/2009 -- Diabetes, Alzheimer’s Linked