Preventing Heart Disease and Stroke
Introduction
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Maybe you have a family member or friend who is suffering from heart disease. It's sad to see someone suffer, take lots of medicines, go to the doctor often and even be hospitalized. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that person could have stayed healthier and felt better longer? Did you know that you can take steps to prevent this from happening to you and your family?
This lesson focuses on the steps you can take to prevent heart disease and stroke.
Heart disease and stroke are chronic diseases that can be prevented or delayed by adopting a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle includes adopting a healthier diet and including physical activity as part of a normal day.
Making the following lifestyle changes can help prevent heart disease and stroke!
1. Eat a heart-healthy diet! Practice balance, variety and moderation when planning and eating meals by using the USDA Food Guide and Dietary Guidelines. Select foods that are low in total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and cholesterol. Inlcude a variety of vegetables and fruits, low fat dairy products and whole grains for a healthier diet.
2. Exercise! Regular physical activity should be an important part of your daily routine. Try to get up to 30 minutes of physical activity every day. It does not need to be done all at once, but can be done in shorter segments that total 30 minutes for the day.
3. Keep a healthy weight! Lose weight if necessary or avoid gaining weight. Follow a sensible plan for a slow weight loss to help keep the excess weight off permanently.
4. Be a non-smoker! Smoking creates free radicals that cause a lot of harm in the vascular system. When a person stops smoking, benefits occur immediately!
5. Refrain from alcohol or consume only moderate amount! Alcohol consumption is not recommended. Alchol, like cigarettes, causes free radical damage in the body. If consumed, limit alcoholic beverages to no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women. It is illegal for children and adolescents under the age of 21 to consume alcohol. One drink is 12 ounces of beer OR 5 ounces of wine OR 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.
Each of these behaviors should be part of your and your family's lifestyle. You will reap the benefits though feeling better and helping to prevent heart disease and stroke.
Heart disease goes by many names: coronary heart disease, coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, ischemic heart disease and cardiovascular disease, to name a few.
Risk Factors
Risk factors are characteristics that are associated with your having a greater chance of developing a disease. The more risk factors you have and the more severe they are, the greater your chances of getting that disease. For example, a middle-aged man with high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and who smokes would be more likely to die from heart disease than a man who has normal cholesterol level, is a nonsmoker and who exercises regularly.
Risk factors for heart disease may be:
1. High blood cholesterol levels, especially LDL cholesterol
2. Low HDL cholesterol levels.
3. Diet high in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.
4. Strong family history of heart disease.
5. A diet low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
6. High triglyceride levels
7. Smoking
8. Lack of physical activity
9. Overweight/obesity, particularly abdominal obesity
10. Type 2 diabetes
11. Age (45 years old and over for men and 55 years old and over for women)
12. High homeocysteine levels. Lower levels by eating lots of B vitamin foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Major heart disease risk factors for women include:
- High blood lipids and lipoproteins
- Excess body weight (overweight or obesity)
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Cigarette smoking
- Menopause - low estrogen level
Some risk factors can be changed with medicine, by other medical treatments, or some can be changed by adopting a healthy lifestyle (good nutrition, increased physical activity). Changing modifiable risk factors reduces your chances of getting heart disease. We will focus on the risk factors you can change.
High-Saturated Fat, High-Cholesterol Diet
To be heart-healthy, you should:
1. Limit your intake of foods high in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol. You should limit your total fat calories to 20-35% of total daily calories. Choose low fat meats, reduce the amount of butter and margarine you use, choose low fat dairy products and switch to heart heatlhy oils.
2. Reduce calories, when necessary, to maintain a healthy body weight. Small bites make a difference in the long run. Leave food on your plate, take smaller portions and share meals with someone to reduce total calories.
3. Have moderate salt intake, less than 2400 mg per day. Watch for sodium content of products using the Nutrition Facts Panel. Choose lower sodium versions of products whenever possible. Eliminate the salt shaker from the table.
4. Have moderate alcohol intake, if any at all.
5. Eat more fruits (2 or more cups a day), vegetables (2.5 or more cups a day) and whole-grain breads and cereals (3 or more servings a day).
6. Enjoy a high fiber diet: 14 g for every 1,000 calories (about 28g fiber for a 2,000 calorie diet).
Cholesterol
What is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a fatty-like substance found in animal tissues. Your body produces cholesterol, but you also get it from foods such as meats, organ meats, egg yolks, milk, butter, cheese and other dairy products. Cholesterol is used by your body in digestion and the production of some hormones. However, high levels of cholesterol is associated with increased risk of heart disease. To be heart- healthy, your total blood cholesterol should be less than 200 mg/dl. High cholesterol is 240 mg/dl or higher.
Total blood cholesterol is made of three parts, some good and some bad!
1. LDL-C (low density lipoprotein cholesterol) - this is also called "bad cholesterol". Lipoprotein is a protein that carries fat around in the blood, bringing it to the right places needed in the body.
High LDL levels can lead to clogging and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and this is also a primary cause of heart attacks! LDL cholesterol level should be LOW in your blood! An LDL level of less than 100 mg/dl is heart healthy.
You can keep LDL low by:
(1) watching your fat and calories
(2) losing weight if necessary
(3) exercising regularly
(4) increasing foods high in dietary fiber such as oats and barley
2. VLDL-C (very low density lipoprotein cholesterol) -this level should also be low in your blood.
You can keep VLDL-C low by eating seafood which contains omega 3-fatty acids (sardines, tuna, trout, salmon, mackerel). soybean oil, margarine with soybean oil and black walnuts. The fatty acids (parts of the fat) in seafood oils also help your heart maintain a regular heartbeat and prevent irregular rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia). You should eat fish at least twice a week to get these helpful seafood oils.
3. HDL-C (high density lipoprotein) - this is a "good cholesterol" to have in your blood! HDL-C helps remove harmful cholesterol from your body. HDL-C should be higher than 60 mg/dl in your blood . Less than 35 mg/dl is too low!
Remember: Keep the low-density cholesterol (LDL-C and VLDL-C) LOW and the high-density cholesterol (HDL-C) HIGH!
What can you do to improve your cholesterol?
1. Have your doctor check your total blood cholesterol, LDL-C (bad cholesterol) and HDL-C (good cholesterol). Are they within the heart-healthy limits? If your blood cholesterol is healthy, go back to be rechecked every two years. If it is too high, get rechecked according to your doctor's recommendation.
2. If any of your cholesterol levels are not heart-healthy, you can:
Reduce your total fat intake, saturated fat and trans fat intake and cholesterol intake.
Eat a diet that follows the USDA Food Guide or the DASH diet plan: eat lots of grains and breads, fruits and vegetables and low fat dairy products. These foods are high in fiber and low in calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol.
Exercise regularly - light to moderate physical activity for a minimum 30 minutes per day for adults and 60 minutes a day for children.
3. If you are overweight, reduce your weight to a healthy level by eating right and exercising.
Eat a heart-healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight to help prevent heart disease. An 11-pound weight loss is associated with a decline of about 10 mg/dL in total cholesterol.
Assignment: Link to www.quakeroatmeal.com and take the Quaker Oats Smart Heart Challenge.
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