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Reducing your Risk of a Heart Attack

Want to Avoid being a Cardiovascular Death Statistic

Sep 15, 2008 Tracey Lloyd

Heart attacks remain one of the world's biggest killers, yet there are simple steps that we can all take in order to reduce our risk of being struck down.

A simple change to your lifestyle may be all that is needed such as thinking about what you eat, getting moving and quitting smoking to reduce the risk of a myocardial infarction.

The heart is a muscular pump, going about its business of moving blood around your body through a network of arteries and veins without you ever consciously having to tell it to do so. Plaque can cause arterial walls to narrow. This narrowing makes it difficult for the blood to flow around the body and it may pool and clot at the narrowed site. If a blood clot breaks off and travels to the heart, this can cause a potentially fatal heart attack, where the heart loses its ability to pump properly. In the event of a heart attack, a person needs immediate medical assistance.

In order to reduce your risk of having a heart attack, you have to review your lifestyle and potentially make some changes to it. Three of the major risk factors for having a heart attack that are easily adaptable to change are: your diet, your physical activity levels and your smoking habits.

Diet

The Heart Foundation of Australia recommends that people eat from wide variety of nutritious foods and limit consumption of fast foods and recognised junk foods such as potato chips, biscuits, candy and full sugar soft drink. Nutritious foods to enjoy include low fat red meat, fish and poultry, legumes, fruits and vegetables (at least 2 serves of fruit and 5 of vegetables daily) and wholegrain carbohydrate products such as whole grain breads and cereals. By adopting more nutritious foods and limiting consumption of non-nutritious foods, you will not only decrease your risk of a heart attack, but may also lose weight in the process and gain more energy for day to day living.

Physical Activity

Every person should achieve 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days, however research has found that over half of Australian adults do not meet this goal. Moderate physical activity has been found to decrease your risk of not only a heart attack but also of some cancers, arthritis and may decrease your blood pressure to normal levels if you currently experience elevated blood pressure levels. If you are new to exercise, 30 minutes of moderate activity means activity that raises a sweat but still leaves you able to talk, for example going for a brisk walk. Also you do not have to complete the 30 minutes all at once, you can build up your sessions over the course of a day in 5, 10 or 15 minute bursts.

Smoking

The phrase “smoking causes lung cancer” has long been used by cancer foundations in order to provide smokers with a reason to quit. Although this has been effective many people do not know that smoking also causes heart disease thus increasing your likelihood of having a heart attack. Quitting smoking can be done and within 5 years your body will have returned to the same state as a non-smoker, thereby decreasing your heart attack risk.

Unfortunately you can’t ensure that you will not have a heart attack, as there are issues like family history and genetics to consider. However by adopting simple lifestyle changes you can reduce your risk of dying as a result of a heart attack.

The copyright of the article Reducing your Risk of a Heart Attack in General Medicine is owned by Tracey Lloyd. Permission to republish Reducing your Risk of a Heart Attack in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.