Preventing Heart Diseases and Stroke

Heart diseases and stroke are the primary cause of death in the United States. On a positive note, about 80% of premature heart diseases can be prevented by lifestyle changes and regular health checkups.

Smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, poor diet, and lack of physical activity are a few common risk factors that lead to heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Inevitable factors that can play a significant role in heart disease include age, family history, and ethnicity.

Keep an eye on these risk factors and control them to reduce the threat of heart disease. Learn to maintain a healthy diet, exercise regularly, avoid tobacco use, and manage your blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure.

How to Prevent Heart Attack and Stroke?

To prevent heart attack and stroke, physicians recommend that you do regular checkups and control certain risk factors. Some of the lifestyle changes that you can adopt for heart disease and stroke prevention include:

• Be physically active: To keep your heart healthy, exercise regularly. A 30-minute workout every day will improve your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Strengthen your heart health with a healthy weight and cardio.

• Eat a healthy diet: To have a healthy heart, ensure you eat plenty of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, fish, and pulses with a bit of salt, sugar, and fat. Alcohol should also be used in moderation. A balanced diet is essential to maintain your heart's health as it improves circulation and provides enough vitamins for a healthy body.

• Quit smoking and avoid tobacco use: Smoking is dangerous to your health. It can raise your blood pressure and lower good cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Quitting smoking will reduce your risk for these conditions. If quitting smoking or tobacco is challenging, ask your team for help using proven methods. Don’t just swap one tobacco source for another; try to avoid secondhand smoke, too!

• Stay at a healthy weight: If you’re overweight or obese, maintaining a healthy weight through proper diet and regular exercise can control heart disease and other risk factors associated with obesity. A good diet and regular exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight. If you need help, talk to your health care team about a weight loss plan.

• Manage stress: It is vital to manage stress, as it can lead to high blood pressure. Severe stress is linked to heart disease, and the best way to control it is through meditation, exercise, and listening to soothing music.

• Make sure you get proper sleep: Good sleep is essential for maintaining cardiovascular health. It reduces the risk of high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. To get a good night's sleep, try to have 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep per day. If you experience any sleeping disorder, such as sleep apnea, consult your physician and take adequate treatment.

• Control risks: If you have high blood sugar, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or any such risks, you have to find means to control and maintain them with the advice of your physician.