Health care - Save your heart

                                           Save your heart 

Hundreds of thousands die every year from a heart attack; yet, no sign of protest can be heard in this regard by the public, the press or government agencies. At the same time, almost every one of us can find this fiercest mass murderer on his plate!

Can we say that what we eat causes heart attacks?

Not everything. The main culprits are certainly excess fat and cholesterol. And the problem that arises in our body, thanks in large part to them, is the narrowing, hardening and sometimes even clogging of vital arteries that supply oxygen and food to the heart. This process is known as atherosclerosis.

Humans are born with clean, resilient blood vessels. They should remain in this state for the rest of our lives. However, in many people, the arteries are slowly clogged with cholesterol, fat, and calcium - a mixture that gradually hardens and eventually inhibits the necessary and vital blood flow.

During and after World War II, most Europeans were forced to change their diet, which consisted of meat, eggs and dairy products. They had to switch to a "poorer" diet with potatoes, cereals, beans, root vegetables, and other vegetables. Do you know what caused the change? Dramatic reduction in atherosclerosis-related diseases such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, gallstones, some cancers, and arthritis. A significant drop in deaths from these diseases was felt even 20 years after the Second World War.

How Do I Know I Have Arteriosclerosis?

Risk factor analysis is a good way to determine the likelihood of having this heart disease:

• Today, the most serious risk factor for a heart attack is elevated blood cholesterol. Men at age 50, with a cholesterol level of 7.6 mmol / l, are more likely to develop atherosclerosis ten times more than men of the same age as levels below 5.1 mmol / l. A 20% reduction in blood cholesterol levels reduces the risk of heart attack by 50%.

• Smokers 60 years of age are ten times more likely to die of coronary heart disease than their non-smoking peers. About 30% of deaths from a heart attack can be directly linked to the effects of smoking.

• In America, every third adult has high blood pressure. This risk factor triples the chance of dying from heart disease compared to a person with normal blood pressure.

• Obese men are five times more likely to die of a heart attack by the age of 60 compared to men of normal weight.

• Other classic risk factors include diabetes, elevated blood triglycerides, a sedentary lifestyle, stress, and increased blood homocysteine ​​levels. Fortunately, all the aforementioned risk factors depend on lifestyle and diet and can be influenced and controlled.

Risk factors for coronary heart disease

Nutrition:

1. Diabetes

2. Obesity

3. LDL cholesterol

4. High blood pressure

5. Triglycerides

Lifestyle:

1. Smoking

2. Inactivity

3. Stress

Out of our control:

1. Heritage

2. Age

3. Gender

Five of the eight nutrition and lifestyle factors mentioned above can largely be influenced by diet.

Factors not under our control are an inheritance, age, and gender, but they are the least contributing to the development of the disease.

What about medication and surgery?

In people with dangerously elevated blood cholesterol levels that do not decrease even after appropriate dietary changes, medication is unavoidable. However, drugs are expensive. Furthermore, most of them have not very harmless side effects. Taking medication requires frequent laboratory checks and medical check-ups.

Even more sophisticated are surgical procedures: by-pass surgeries, cleaning the deposits with the apparatus and dilating blood vessels with balloons. Some of the results are remarkable. But as time goes by and statistics accumulate, it is becoming increasingly clear that most of these operations do not extend life significantly or necessarily improve it.

The best short-term help you can give a person with atherosclerosis therapy has already developed, it is not too late to make lifestyle changes. You can clean your arteries, reduce the risk of dying from atherosclerosis, and extend your active, creative years. You can significantly change your risk factors yourself, regardless of age, and positive results are often visible after only a few weeks of proper lifestyle and nutrition.

Start eating healthy, homemade low fat and cholesterol foods, and lots of unrefined complex carbs and fiber! Such a diet can lower cholesterol levels by 20 to 30% and reverse the development of diabetes in many cases in less than four weeks. When combined with reduced salt intake, this diet will also help normalize blood pressure and regulate body weight.

Accept an active daily exercise program

If we, as a society, were able to lower our cholesterol levels below 4.6 mmol / l, blood pressure below 125 mm Hg and stop smoking, it is estimated that this could prevent 82% of all heart attacks affecting people younger than 65 years. Such a simple lifestyle changes would contribute to improving the health of our people more than all hospitals, surgeries, and medicines combined.