I Choose Us - Self improvement and motivation for women.

The risk or chances of something negative happening to you are dependent upon a number of variables.  These variables include taking preventative measures and being educated so that you reduce the risk of adverse events occurring in your life.  Then of course, there are circumstances that are beyond your control which may simply allow for things to happen.

An example of this is minimizing your involvement in an automobile accident.  Preventative measures that you can take to reduce your risk of being involved in accident could include decreasing your time behind the wheel of your car or making sure your automobile is properly maintained.  Educational measures could include a driver’s education course. Circumstances that would be beyond your control would be if an oncoming driver experienced a stroke and lost control of their vehicle.

Our heart disease risk factor is based upon the same premises.  There are things that we can do that are preventative in nature, actions we take to reduce the risk, and then there are those heart disease risk factors that are beyond our control.

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Cardiovascular risks factors by now are all well established. We know that the way we eat plays a major role in our health. We also know that the foods consumed by people in Mediterranean countries contribute to a healthy diet and prevent cardiovascular disease.

Many studies have shown that the consumption of fruit and vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole bread, with an addition of olive oil as the major source of fats, has a positive effect on cardiovascular health, preventing cancer and diabetes. So what makes a Mediterranean diet so much better for your health?

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Patients exhibiting high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other heart disease risk factors, should heed the warnings and advice from their physicians to improve their chances of living longer.

In many cases, a change in lifestyle is needed to reduce heart disease risk but once determined a person is at risk, continued follow-up is needed to ensure the heart disease risk is kept at bay. Heart disease is blamed in about 20 percent of the deaths in the United States and one of the biggest heart disease risks that patients can control is the level of low-density lipoproteins (LDL cholesterol) in their blood.

The change in a person’s diet to greatly reduce foods high in animal fat as well as those with trans fatty acids, can do wonders to reduce cholesterol levels as well as the heart disease risk associated with them. Consuming foods such as fruits and vegetables, which have no cholesterol, can also offer similar benefits.

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Coronary artery diseases or CAD is the medical term given to heart disease. This is the outcome of the hardening and/or narrowing of the arteries due to various reasons, the main one of which would be high levels of bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol). People who have this condition fall into the high risk category of developing sudden heart attacks which could be fatal.

Coping with Heart Disease

Once the atherosclerosis sets in, the risk of heart attack will always be there. It has been observed that increasing levels of HDL cholesterol can control and even reverse this. This ‘good cholesterol’ actively cleans the plaque (the built-up matter on the inside of the walls of the arteries) and sends it to the liver to be disposed off. In this way, it reduces the risk of stroke or heart attack.

It is recommended that cholesterol tests should be done at least every three to five years after a person reaches 30 years of age. This would ensure that you know the exact time when atherosclerosis sets in and so curative and preventive measures for heart disease can be adopted in the earliest stages.

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Heart disease can be caused by a number of factors and even though you may think that you are not at risk because you watch your diet and exercise you can be very surprised if you randomly checked your cholesterol.

Prevention is better than Cure

It is not enough to just exercise and eat right but it is as important to control and examine your cholesterol levels as well. Being fit and in shape does not have much to do with cholesterol as it is not calculated by weight (even though most overweight people will suffer from high cholesterol) but by the level that is present in your blood.

Preventing heart disease should start as early as possible and that is the reason parents should be well informed in order to make the children lead more active lives.

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If you look at it superficially, both kidney and heart diseases seem totally unrelated. The kidney disease involves the excretory system, while the heart disease involves the cardio-vascular system.  However, if you look closer there are many ways in which heart disease can develop in the wake of kidney disease.

Most Common Possible Links

1. Kidney and heart disease link no 1:  Red blood cells formation – kidneys are producing erythropoietin which is a hormone needed for the formation of red blood cells in the bone marrow.  Owing to kidney disease, the hormone production can be inhibited or stopped altogether which in turn influences the production of red blood cells.  This results into anemia which in turn forces the heart to work harder to oxygenate the body. Over a certain period of time, this extra effort thickens the walls of the heart on the left side causing left ventricular hypertrophy or LVH as it is known in medical terms.  LVH is one of leading causes for heart attack and death.

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When you think of heart disease, you usually think of an older person. You probably suspect that the person lived a life of eating fattening foods, lived a completely sedentary lifestyle and just lived the kind of lifestyle that bred heart disease. However, what if you found out that the person wasn’t an adult at all? What if you found out that this person was a child. That’s right, children’s heart disease exists. It’s sad but true and it’s only through education and research that we can find a cure for this horrible killer.

It’s All In The Genes

Children’s heart disease occurs usually in the child’s genes. The children’s heart disease was likely passed down from the child’s parents. This means that the child got the disease, not through making bad lifestyle choices, but merely from being born. When this happens, it becomes very hard to treat the disease. It’s not like a doctor can tell a child to watch his/her diet, exercise amount. They didn’t do anything to get this disease, they were just born and so other forms of treatment must be found.

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You have just returned from a visit with your doctor who has shared with you the results of your recent tests.  These tests were ordered by your doctor because of the pain that you are experiencing in your chest.

The news is not good.  Your doctor shares with you that you have the early signs of heart disease.  However, the good news is that it was caught early and she is starting you on a heart disease treatment program.

The heart disease treatment program consists of not only taking prescription medicines, but incorporating other important elements that can reduce your risk and slow down the progression of the disease.  These other aspects of the heart disease treatment include the doctor’s orders to stop smoking, lower your cholesterol level through a strict diet, controlling your hypertension, exercise and controlling your emotions.  These 6 factors are a MUST if you want to win the battle against heart disease.

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   It has long been believed that stress and heart disease go together, but finding a conclusive consensus among medical professionals has not been successful. The different types of stress, and how it affects each person differently, makes it difficult to offer a blanket explanation of the effects of stress and heart disease.

In its basic form, stress is described as a condition, or feeling, experienced when a person believes that demands exceed the personal or social resources the individual can mobilize. Not all stress, however, is necessarily bad. How a person deals with stress is what determines how it affects them.

To claim that stress and heart disease are combined, you always have to look at the two main types of stress. Physical stress can be considered the type of stress you put on your body by exercising and emotional stress is the type a person may feel if they lose, or initially lack, control of a situation.

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