Heart Disease Prevention: Adopting a Healthier Lifestyle

Heart disease prevention is not difficult. In fact, it can be easy with just a few lifestyle changes to prevent the number one cause of death among women. It is said that over 58 million Americans suffer from some form of heart disease, so it would seem natural that heart disease prevention should be a part of our everyday vocabularies.

The number one key to heart disease prevention is adopting better living habits. Simple changes like eating better, getting more exercise, and being more health conscious in general have shown that they can drastically reduce your chances of acquiring heart disease.

Control Your Eating Habits

For optimal heart disease prevention, it’s necessary to improve your eating habits. First,avoid foods high in saturated fat and trans fatty acids. Saturated fats are naturally found in food that comes from animals: meat, eggs, dairy products, as well as some oils. Trans fatty acids are usually found in commercially baked or fried foods. By lowering the amount of these fats from your diet, you will ensure your heart’s health.

Second, eats lots of fruits and vegetables and make sure you take in more fiber. It’s also a good idea to take a multi-vitamin; not only will a multi-vitamin assist you in your heart disease prevention, it will help prevent other diseases as well such as cancer or Alzheimer’s.

Work Out for Your Health

Getting more exercise is another habit necessary for heart disease prevention. Many don’t realize that getting more exercise doesn’t need to include the gym or exhausting aerobic sessions. It can be done at work, home, school, or anywhere else, really. If you can, walk instead of drive, park further away from your destination, or just take the stairs instead of the elevator. When you’re at the store, make an extra trip around the aisles, just to make sure you picked up everything on your list. Wherever you are, stay conscious of the amount of exercise you get daily, and not only will you improve your overall health, but you’ll look and feel better than ever.

Keeping Healthy

More positive habits include: stopping smoking, reducing or eliminating alcoholic drinks, and reducing stress. While that last one might not seem so easy, it can be with the many tricks to stress relief. Merely counting to ten or taking several deep breaths can often calm you down and make you feel more under control in even the most stressful of situations. By keeping your stress managed and eliminating foreign chemicals from your body, you will live longer, healthier, and, ultimately, happier.

Heart disease prevention is not difficult and can be done with a few minor lifestyle changes that will improve your health and make you feel better. Once you’ve adopted these great lifestyle habits, you’ll want to tell your friends and family all about them. After all, when you’re living a long and happy life, you’re going to want someone around to share it with you. By sharing these tips with those you love, you’re showing the ultimate love of all – you’re showing them heart disease prevention and saving their life.

Heart Disease in Women: The Number One Killer

To understand the seriousness of heart disease in women, we need to first look at the facts. According to recent studies, it’s found that more than 8 million American women are currently living with some form of heart disease. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death of American women and more women than men die of heart disease each year.

Heart disease in women can be diagnosed and treated but the key to staying healthy is prevention. Once a woman finds out that she has heart disease, it may already be too late. Chances are, that woman has engaged in several risk factors throughout her lifetime that contributed to her contracting the disease. Such risk factors that increase the risk of heart disease in women include cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, not being active, diabetes and obesity.

Women need to understand that these risk factors need to be avoided as much as possible because they are so susceptible to the disease. Heart disease in women doesn’t need to be as much of an epidemic it has become. With just a few lifestyle changes, all women can once more live long and healthy lives without the risk for heart disease.

Of course, there are other risk factors that increase the risk for heart disease in women that can’t be helped. These risk factors include age, heredity, the effects of menopause, etc. By knowing this, women should arm themselves with as much information as they can so that they can know just what they are dealing with.

Heart disease in women doesn’t need to have such a high morality rate.

By adopting a few lifestyle changes such as getting more exercise, eating right, quitting smoking and reducing stress levels, women can drastically reduce the propensity for heart disease. This is important not only for heart disease but for other diseases as well.

Heart disease in women does claim many lives each and every year but the disease can be manageable and preventable. Women need to study and learn as much as they can. They need to be educated. Not many women know that they have such a high probability of getting the disease. All women need to know that they have a greater risk of getting the disease than men. By understanding and knowing this, women will have a step up on this horrible disease and, maybe one day, heart disease in women will be a thing of the past.

Women and Heart Disease; What Everyone Should Know

When we think of a victim of heart disease, we tend to think of men, but unfortunately, heart disease is the leading killer of both men and women in the United States. Heart disease includes the narrowing of the arteries that bring oxygen to the heart, heart failure, diseases of the heart muscles, inborn defects, and other conditions. Five hundred thousand American women die each year from heart diseases, and the risks increase as a woman ages.

The Change of Life

The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center explains that menopause changes the risks for women and heart disease. Post-menopause, a woman’s body experiences reduced estrogen production, changes in cholesterol levels, changes in the structure of blood vessels, and increased production of the clotting agent fibrinogen.

No one yet knows exactly how much a woman’s risk is affected by each of these changes, but they are definitely associated with greater heart disease risk. Women who have gone through menopause are two to three times more likely to suffer heart disease than a pre-menopausal woman of the same age. Women that have had a hysterectomy experience these same raised risk factors.

In the past, scientists studying women and heart disease hypothesized that hormone replacement therapy could help post-menopausal women fight heart disease; however, long-term studies do not confirm that preliminary idea and doctors no longer recommend hormone replacement therapy to battle heart disease. Menopause we cannot change, but other risk factors are under our control.

Using hormonal birth control (the pill or the patch) is considered safe for women under thirty-five. As of now, doctors do not have proof that birth control hormones can increase or decrease problems for women and heart disease, especially after the age of thirty-five. When talking about your heart disease risk factors with your doctor, get his or her opinion on your personal situation.

A Change of Lifestyle

Scientists studying women and heart disease find that women are knowledgeable about what lifestyles are associated with heart disease, but are also prone to having those lifestyles. For example, according to the National Institutes of Health, fifty-six million American women have high cholesterol, 33% of women have high blood pressure, and 62% of women are overweight. Despite these risks, women are less physically active than men, on average.

For women, as for men, there are a few good guidelines to a healthier heart. Habits such as not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight by regular activity or exercise, cutting down on the fatty foods, and getting your cholesterol tested can dramatically help prevent heart disease. Don’t become another statistic about women and heart disease.

Rheumatic Heart Disease : It is Treatable

Rheumatic heart disease, also called rheumatic fever, occurs when an untreated strep throat infection migrates to the joints and heart, causing fever, muscle aches, and possible permanent heart valve damage. Just as “rheumatism” refers to joint pain, “rheumatic” fever gets its name because one of its main symptoms is actually pain in the joints rather than the heart.

The National Institute of Health estimate that rheumatic heart disease develops in about 3% of untreated strep throat infections in the United States. Because mainly young people get strep, accordingly rheumatic heart disease mostly strikes people aged between six and fifteen years old.

Most people in the west who get strep will never develop rheumatic heart disease, because the strep throat infection is treated effectively with antibiotics. However, if fever, irregular heart beat, nodes under the skin, and other symptoms appear after a strep infection, a doctor will perform lab tests to diagnose rheumatic fever.

Penicillin treats rheumatic heart disease symptoms, including the contraction of the heart, which may damage heart valves; however, there is no cure for the disease, and patients must continue with penicillin injections. Some doctors argue this treatment should continue for the rest of the patient’s life. Left untreated, besides the symptoms of physical pain, rheumatic heart disease can cause permanent heart valve damage. Without surgery, heart valve damage can lead to fatal heart failure.

Cases And Treatment Worldwide

Doctors working with the Australian National Heart Foundation are working on a vaccine to prevent rheumatic fever. After an unexplained jump in the number of cases among the Aboriginal population of Australia from 2004 to 2006, doctors launched the world’s most advanced investigation of rheumatic heart disease.

In New Zealand as well, rheumatic fever is a problem among some populations, and the treatment there is penicillin shots every month for ten years. One famous rugby player, a childhood victim of rheumatic heart disease, admits to “getting lazy” about having his shots, and the symptoms of the disease returned to him as an adult. Luckily, he knew his problem and how to get help. Some people, especially those with little access to health care, simply suffer through fever attacks, and fall victim to heart valve failure.

In fact, the World Heart Federation in Geneva, Switzerland calls rheumatic fever a disease born of poverty. Though it is easily prevented by a good strep throat treatment, many young people of the world do not have access to the healthcare that would keep their heart valves healthy and extend their lives.

Ischemic Heart Disease and the Western World

Ischemic heart disease is the proper medical term for reduced blood flow to the heart – it is ultimately caused by hardened or blocked arteries, and it is the number one cause of death in most western countries.

From the time people are very young, as young as five years old, they can start developing tissue deposits, called plaque, in the lining of their arteries. For many people, these deposits never cause trouble. For others, the deposits can grow, harden, and eventually cause death. The growth of these tissues is called arteriosclerosis.

As these tissues grow, the arteries will enlarge some to try and accommodate blood flow. However, if the blob of plaque ruptures, the particles clog blood passages causing a heart attack or stroke, in the worst cases.

"Please, Pass On The Fats"

Scientists know what causes ischemic heart disease: a fatty diet, inaction, and smoking. While smoking is certainly not limited to rich countries, a fatty diet and inaction are luxuries of middle- and upper-class populations.

In Europe and the United States, calories are cheap and plentiful. For an hour’s wage, a person can buy a meal containing a pound of meat. However, in some countries, a pound of meat is a treat to be divided within one family once a month. No doctor recommends either extreme of poor or rich food, but rather, everyone needs a healthy, balanced, but lean diet to prevent ischemic heart disease.

However, some doctors have an idea about using peer pressure to make westerners make themselves healthier. Thirty years ago, few Americans wore seatbelts. And many more smoked cigarettes than do now. Laws played a part in changing behavior, but in both of these cases, peer pressure really started the trend. And many scientists, nutritionists, and activists, worried about ischemic heart disease, are trying to repeat the trend for healthier diets.

And this power of healthy suggestion seems to be working on restaurants. Especially since 2004, fast food chains have started to offer healthier menu choices such as yogurt, salads, and fruit. Many restaurants now print some nutrition information on their menus and offer specifically “heart-smart” recipes.

But the question is will people take advantage of healthier menus, city recreation departments, and fresh vegetables at the grocery store? So far, it does not seem so. Some scientists predict that 75% of all Americans will be overweight by 2008. Yet extra weight and the bad diet and inactivity that usually accompany it are causing an epidemic of ischemic heart disease.

Obesity and Heart Disease ; Are They Related in Some Ways ?

Many medical professionals believed that obesity and heart disease were only related in an indirect sense. They attributed the major risk factors for heart disease (such as hypertension, high cholesterol, and even arteriosclerosis) to the degree of the obesity of the person involved. While obesity is a contributing factor for many of these conditions, studies are now indicating a more direct link between obesity and heart disease.

A More Direct Link?

Recent longitudinal studies indicate that while obesity can affect a number of risk factors for heart disease, the two are also directly related in that obesity can be a predictive indicator of heart disease. In a fourteen year study, it was indicated that middle-aged women with a BMI index of greater than twenty-three, but less than twenty-five still had an approximate 50% increase in the risk of both fatal and non-fatal coronary heart disease. This indicates a clear, direct connection between obesity and heart disease.

Another factor that may connect severe obesity and heart disease more directly is that of abnormalities in the left ventricular mass and function of the heart. While in the majority of cases, these abnormalities are seen in the presence of both hypertension and obesity, there are recorded causes where these abnormalities are seen without hypertension being apparent. In such cases, the only condition that appears to affect the condition of the heart is severe obesity. This information indicates that obesity and heart disease are intricately linked and can definitely lead to congestive heart failure.

Treatment Choices for Obesity and Heart Disease

Since a connection, either direct or indirect, has long been established between obesity and heart disease, the medical profession has developed a number of avenues over the years to combat these two related problems.

In certain patients with congestive heart failure, for instance, sodium restriction and even a small reduction in weight may dramatically improve the function of the heart and lead to a reduction in the risk of heart disease. In fact, a number of studies have indicated that a drastic weight loss, such as after gastro-intestinal surgery, greatly decreases the occurrence of both heart disease and insulin based diabetes.

There are, of course, any number of ways to treat both obesity and heart disease. These can include changes in diet and exercise practices, medication, and sometimes even surgery. Only you and your doctor can decide what choice is best for you. Whatever method is chosen, the connection between obesity and heart disease is becoming clearer everyday.

Congenital Heart Disease, What Is It ?

The heart is the most important part of one’s body; it ensures blood circulation throughout the body, without which life would not be possible. Medicine has advanced greatly and, with modern technology, almost all heart diseases can be treated successfully if detected in time.

What is Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease, or CHD, is a malformation of the heart or a large blood vessel near the heart. Congenital heart disease is a condition that one is born with and it is one of the most common forms of major birth defects in newborns, affecting approximately 8% per 1000 infants. It is normally diagnosed within one week from birth in 40-50% of congenital heart disease cases.

This condition is not a problem until after birth, as the blood circulation differs from that after birth. The fetal circulation derives oxygen and nutrients from the mother through the placenta, and the fetal circulation has important communications between the upper heart chambers and the great blood vessels near the heart. Consequently, most types of congenital heart disease are well tolerated during fetal life.

The Cause of Congenital Heart Disease

This disease can have different causes such as:

- Environmental factors such as chemicals or drugs are sometimes to blame. For example, if a mother-to-be catches measles or rubella during pregnancy, the infection can impair the development of the unborn baby’s heart or other organs. Similar effects can take place if the mother-to-be consumes alcohol during pregnancy.
- Maternal diseases for the mother can increase the risks of developing congenital heart disease in the unborn baby.
- Chromosome abnormalities – a common chromosome abnormality causing congenital heart disease is Down’s syndrome where an extra #21 chromosome is present. About 50% of children with Down’s syndrome also have CHD.

Treating Congenital Heart Disease

The treatment depends from person to person due to the huge difference in occurrence from case to case. Everything needs to be taken into consideration in order to follow an effective treatment program.

A treatment program can only be decided after proper diagnosis made by a specialist. While eating healthy and exercising always helps, congenital heart disease is a special case which needs to follow strict doctor’s instructions; no self medication or treatment is advised. Information and guidelines are available both online and in the doctor’s office to help one educate themselves in order to deal better with this disease.

The Cause of Heart Disease - Do Not Blame Your Parents !

If your mother and your father had heart disease, and their parents before them, you may feel doomed to heart failure. While it is true that heredity is a cause of heart disease, it is only a factor among many others. One recent study even says heredity accounts for less than 10% of a person’s risk of developing heart disease.

So, What is the Other 90%?

Doctors do not agree on the number one cause of heart disease, but smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol are the frontrunners in any study.

The chemicals in cigarettes damage artery walls, making it easier for cholesterol deposits to build an unhealthy, blood-blocking home in the body. Smoking also makes platelets, the component of blood that causes clotting, to be more active, and hence the risk of a killer clot rises.

A body needs cholesterol and can actually produce all it needs, so when we ingest foods high in cholesterols, like dairy and meat products, our bodies get a lot more cholesterol than they need. The body saves cholesterol instead of excreting it, and that cholesterol gets stored along the walls of the arteries. Too many cholesterol deposits lead to artery blockage and clots.

High blood pressure is also a major cause of heart disease. Imagine this, your arteries are narrowed because of all that cholesterol stored in there, yet your body is the same size and needs the same amount of blood; so your heart is trying to pump a lot of blood through a passage that is getting too small. Just as the motor of an air conditioner can get worn out trying to push air through a filter that no one has cleaned, your heart can overtax itself trying to force blood through blocked passages.

Obesity, not just because of all the health problems that come with it, is another cause of heart disease. Often obesity comes with high cholesterol and blood pressure, which we know increase the risk of heart disease, but new studies are also showing a correlation between abdominal fat and heart disease in a way that is not yet fully understood. Either way, as the circumference of stomach increases, the risk of heart disease seems to increase more.

Also, stress causes an overall decline in health and is particularly associated with heart disease. So, unless your parents are stressing you out enough to cause a heart attack, they are not the cause of heart disease.

Quit Smoking Cigarettes - 2

What does it take to quit smoking cigarettes? Self-Hypnosis? A patch? A sympathetic friend? An admonishment from your doctor? A simple switch to pumpkin seeds?

If you are one of the millions who smoke cigarettes, it is no doubt that these questions have floated through your mind time and again. No matter what approach you take to try to quit smoking cigarettes, one thing I have learned is this: You cannot do it using will power alone. Will power may be a component of the solution, but it does not get to the heart of the matter.

In order to quit smoking, you have to cease beating yourself up about it.

Something fundamentally needs to shift in you. The craving needs to disappear. If you have tried being harsh on yourself and that tough approach has not worked, then you have to go easy on yourself. Try going to the opposite extreme and see what happens.

Will power is a feeling of over-effort, a determination to be in control. Will power goes hand in hand with being harsh on yourself. It is an honorable way to tackle things, but unfortunately, it is one that is uncomfortable and usually offers just a temporary solution.

You have to seek deeper. In order to truly quit smoking cigarettes you have to look within and remove your negative attitudes first. In order to quit the smoking habit, you must first attain a very high degree of self-acceptance for the fact that you do smoke.

"But I already accept myself for smoking!" you may be screaming. Hmmm. Look carefully. Be honest. Be radically honest! If there is even a slight degree of uncomfortableness about not having quit smoking, then you are judging yourself in some way. Judgment locks the craving in place. It has a locking effect because the craving in you is a natural "rebel." If you judge the craving, then that makes the craving fight back even stronger. The "craver" in you rebels and makes you want the cigarettes more intensely

On the other hand, if you let the craving be ok as it is, not being harsh on it, giving it room, not fighting against it, it MUST subside over time. Try it. You have nothing to lose. Smoke slowly. Let your self enjoy every inhale. Let yourself relax with ever exhale. Once you have mastered this practice of acceptance, THEN put your attention on quitting. I am certain you will notice a difference.

At the very least, you will not be as unhappy about learning to quit smoking cigarettes as you were before. Beating yourself up for smoking or for not being able to quit smoking is just as much of a killer as the smoking itself. Beating yourself up kills your mood.

So, take the Zen approach instead. Let yourself feel at peace with the smoking, and then take appropriate action to quit smoking (a patch, a pumpkin seed, or whatever). Make self-acceptance your truest goal, and your goal to quit smoking cigarettes will come much more easily.

Quit Smoking Cigarettes

Quit smoking cigarettes!!?? Yeah, right. I loved them. They were my solace, my trigger, my friends. They were part of my French heritage, so I told myself, so giving me the out as one of a culture with low disease and death rates.

But my closest friend, a CNS working in a retired living center described to me the fallout: “You’re at risk for cancers, emphysema, and strokes, for starters,” she said, despite my balking. “If you don’t quit smoking cigarettes,” she nagged, “I would hate to see you end up like my people here, gasping for breath, toting around oxygen tanks, needing help doing the simplest of tasks because you’re all stroked out.” So I agreed. I would quit smoking…if she would help me.

That’s the key to quitting cigs—using all the help you can get your desperate, hacking, trembling hands/self on, can wrap your resistant brain around. Here are some steps I took to quit smoking cigarettes, steps you, too, can take to one level or another:

-PREPARE BY READING UP ON QUITTING

The American Cancer Society offers free, thoughtful info on giving up the habit. The pamphlets are written in serious terms and at the same time use gentle language. If you need the soft approach, so you don’t feel like a freak, the ACS might be for you.

There are plenty of books on quitting--many informative, supportive, coaxing, humorous, brilliantly researched, and helpful. I can’t recall the title (it was about 15 years ago I quit smoking cigarettes), but you’ll know it when you see it, as it has something like twenty words in the title, all hyphenated: something like, The No-nagging-low-pressure-how-to-really-quit-smoking-cigarettes-book!

And it’s written by an MD offering info on how smokes are a dual drug…unlike any other: they are, he says, upper/downers. When you’re nervous or agitated, you take long…slow…drags and are tranquilized; when you’re logy, sluggish, tired, you take short.quick.puffpuffpuffs, and are instantly energized, hyped up.

Doc X exclaims, “No wonder it’s so hard to quit smoking!” He also defines another characteristic that helps us appreciate why we’re so hooked. He gives the times for onset, noting how there’s only one other drug, of all drugs (OTC, street, prescribed that hits the brain faster, and that’s crack cocaine. If I recall correctly, crack hits you in 3 seconds, heroin in 10, 7.

Cigarettes are harder to quit than heroin!

-INTERVIEW SUCCESSFUL QUITTERS

No need for brutal interrogation; just informally ask how others who stopped smoking did it. Here are a few tricks told to me:

1. Drink water. A lot of it. Our bodies take at least 8 ten-ounce glasses of water a day anyway, so whenever you feel the urge to puff, do water instead.

2. The oral act is a big part of smoking. Use a pencil, an imaginary butt, or even—if you’re brave—a real unlit cig, and each time you have the crave to drag, inhale really deeply and satisfyingly, instead.

3. Say, “If I still want a cigarette in 20 minutes, I’ll have one.” What? Give in? No. Give yourself permission to. BUT…truly wait the whole 20 minutes (for most cravings cycle through and pass away in 20 mins.). Then, here’s the trick, repeat the permit. If you still want a cigarette in 20 minutes, you can have one. The next thing you know, 8 hours have passed.

4. Reward yourself. First, when you plan to quit smoking cigarettes, note how much you spend on smokes. During white-knuckle moments, remember you have a treat coming. Use the same money you’d use on cigs to buy a toy, new bauble, health drink (not coffee!), magazine, DVD (yes, some of us smoke that much).

5. Use slogans. 12-step programs have something there. Easy does it. This too shall pass. I think I will have to wring the neck of the crazy driver in front of me.

Well, not that last one…but you get the idea. Do whatever works. Pray. Meditate. Run. Walk. Bike. Hike.

I did a lot of hiking. My friend drove us to Mt. Tam every day, and we scaled trails I bitched about, cried over, resented. But the tricks worked. For a year and a month, exactly. Then I stupidly picked up the lung bleeders again.

Quit smoking cigarettes? Aw, crap. Here we go again.

The Effects of Kidney and Heart Disease

Good health is something you cannot take for granted; thus, constantly maintaining it by eating well, exercising, and having regular check ups is what every one of us must strive for.

All our body parts and organs are vital for a happy existence; however, the heart is one of the most important organs, without which living is not possible. When faced with heart disease, treatment can be challenging, but when heart problems combine with another major organ failure, there can be fatal consequences.

Kidney and Heart Disease

Renal and coronary artery disease may progress parallel to each other, and there are many heart related diseases that affect the kidney, as well.

Kidney’s function is to filter wastes and excrete fluid by using the bloodstream’s own natural pressure. There are a number of causes that can trigger damage to the kidneys, and some of them are:

- Decreased blood flow, which is usually caused by clogged arteries that, in turn, will cause a kidney and heart disease.
- Acute tubular necrosis (ATN) – this may occur when tissues are not getting enough oxygen or when the renal artery is blocked or narrowed.
- Over-exposure to metals, solvents, radiographic contract materials, and certain types of medications.
- Myoglobin in the urine (myoglobinuria) – this condition occurs when one consumes excessive amounts of alcohol, tissue death of muscles for any given cause, or other disorders.
- Direct kidney injury.
- Infections such as acute septicemia.
- Blood disorders, which affect the heart and can lead into a joint kidney and heart disease.

There are many other causes, which can lead to the deadly combination of kidney and heart disease. You need to do everything in your power in order to avoid this dangerous duo attack. It is more than likely that in a situation where you are faced with kidney and heart disease at the same time that the outcome is fatal.

Prevention is Better Than a Cure

The only way to prevent a double failure of your body’s systems is to be constantly aware of your health’s situation by conducting regular check ups with your doctor and following his/her advice.

Knowing in time that you are in danger of some major failure, or that you will be faced with a serious disease should you not take precautions right away, will help save your life. Most people who have heart attacks never suspected one and usually end up in emergency room in a critical state. Take charge of your life and take care of your health today.

Guide to Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), also known as Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) and atherosclerotic heart disease, is the result of accumulation of atheromatous plaques (an abnormal inflammatory accumulation of the macrophage white blood cells) within the walls of the arteries.

The symptoms and signs of coronary heart disease can only be noted in the advanced state of the disease. Most individuals who suffer from coronary heart disease can have no evidence of its existence for long periods of time before they have a stroke.

Causes of Coronary Heart Disease

- Family history of coronary heart disease
- Males are more prone to this particular disease
- Being 65-years-old or greater
- Smoking
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Lack of physical activities
- Menopause in women
- Infection that causes inflammation of the artery wall

Symptoms leading to coronary heart disease may not always be easily readable, as many live with clogged arteries for years before they realize they have a problem. Usually people suffering from coronary heart disease walk in the emergency room with a heart attack on their hands.

Here are some of the symptoms that may help you recognize this disease:

- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath

As prevention is always better then treatment, one should try and have regular check ups and follow the doctor’s advice. Knowing in time that you are likely to have a heart problem may save you from being faced with an emergency situation, which can sometimes turn to be fatal.

Preventing Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease is the most common of heart diseases in the western world. Here are some ways to prevent ever suffering from it in the near future:

- Decrease your cholesterol level.
- Maintain your ideal body weight – obesity is one of the main factors of coronary heart disease.
- If you are a smoker, this is yet another reason you should stop smoking.
- Have a healthy diet and exercise – some doctors strongly recommend diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin C.

Proper diet and exercise have always have always been the key to maintaining one’s health, and for centuries man has practiced this as being the best natural medicine.

Health is our most valuable possession, which often cannot be bought back once lost. One should try to make an effort to maintain what we naturally have – good health; as an old saying goes ‘health is wealth’ after all, treasure it while you still have it.

A Discussion of the Risk Factors for Congestive Heart Disease.

Congestive heart disease affects approximately five million Americans, and some medical professionals believe that within five years time approximately half of those people will unfortunately die from their condition. Congestive heart disease is marked by the heart's inability to pump efficiently enough to supply the body with freshly oxygenated blood. It is the leading cause of hospitalization among senior citizens and accounted for nearly 20% of the hospitalization of this age group in 2003.

Since congestive heart disease is a condition that warrants attention, a brief discussion of some of the risk factors might be in order. While some of these factors cannot be helped, there are many things a person can change about their lives to reduce the risk.

Risk Factors That Cannot be Helped

There are a number of risk factors for congestive heart disease that simply can't be helped. One such factor is a previous heart attack, and advanced age, specifically over the age of 65, is another common factor for this condition. Another, of course, is a history of diabetes. Both these factors, although treatable cannot be reversed, and if you have had one of these medical conditions, there is a distinct possibility that congestive heart disease might be a condition to watch out for.

Another risk factor that cannot be changed when dealing with congestive heart disease is having a genetic disposition to the disease. Genetic testing and knowledge of the complete family history can go a long way in indicating whether or not congestive heart disease is something that should be a concern for you.

Risk Factors the Can Be Changed

While some factors that indicate the potential for congestive heart disease cannot be helped, there are a number that can. These factors include such things as chronic high blood pressure, drug or alcohol abuse, thyroid disease, and even heart valve disease. All these risk factors, especially drug and alcohol abuse can be managed with help from your medical professional or friendly neighborhood physician. The best course of action is talk to your doctor to design a plan to attack congestive heart disease and hopefully stop it from affecting your life.

Unfortunately, congestive heart disease is difficult to diagnose because it often occurs as a result of or in conjunction with other forms of heart disease. Perhaps the best hope for patients with this disease is to catch it early and begin treatment as soon as possible.

Smoking and Heart Disease

Cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart diseases, such as heart attack, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease.

Some Heart Disease Facts Due to Smoking:

- Tobacco contains more then 4,000 chemicals, many are known to be poisonous.
- Nicotine increases blood pressure, because the carbon monoxide makes the heart beat faster and takes the place of oxygen in the blood.
- Tar in tobacco causes cancer, which can be a fatal disease.
- Smoking for long periods of time will cause artery clogging, which in turn leads to heart attacks from overworking the heart by reducing its oxygen supply. It also makes clots more likely to form in the blood vessels increasing the risk of potentially fatal changes in the heart beat.
- Those who are regular, long-time smokers have a 70% greater risk of death from coronary heart disease than non-smokers.
- 80% of new smokers are children and adolescents who are trying to copy a parent or other hero figure.

Passive smoking can cause heart disease, and those who do not smoke directly but inhale smoke from others are at direct risk, as well.

- Living with an active smoker increases one’s risk of heart disease by 30%.
- Inhaling smoke is especially dangerous for children and unborn babies (pregnant women) and can lead to low birth weight babies, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, and middle ear infection.

Stop Smoking to Improve Your Health and Increase Your Life Span

Many choose smoking to cope with stress, loose weight, because of poor self-esteem, or simply to fit in the friend’s circle by looking ‘cool.’ Most of the first time smokers get their first cigarette from someone else or find it readily available in the house from a smoking parent.

Here are some great reasons to stop smoking now:

- Smoking causes heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack.
- Your smoking can cause the same bad effects on your family and friends around you who don’t smoke.
- Save money from not buying cigarettes – if you do the math, depending on how much you smoke, you are looking at couple of thousand dollars a year.

Getting Help

If you think you cannot do it with just plain will power and/or if you are a heavy smoker, get help before you start so you can successfully quit the habit.

- Check with your doctor first and see what course of action he/she recommends.
- Nicotine patch/pills/chewing gums are a great substitute.
- Try to quit along with a friend or a group.

Cigarette smoking can cause you to die early and those who live close to you to inhale the smoke – that in itself should be reason enough to quit. Enjoy a healthy life and offer clean air to your family and friends – quit smoking today.

Information on Heart Disease: Learning is the Key

Heart disease is the number one killer in America. It’s estimated that more than 58 million Americans have some form of heart disease. The key to stopping such as a problematic illness like heart disease is to find out as much as we can about it and, more importantly, how to prevent it.

Information on heart disease is not hard to find; in fact, your doctor probably has several good reads on the subject in his office. If you don’t have a doctor, then just open your local newspaper. With such important status, you would be hard pressed not to find an article or other piece of information on heart disease from your local health center or hospital. Also, search the web where all the information on heart disease that you want is only a few keystrokes.

What to Look For

The information you’ll want to research are things such as: risk factors, prevention, the latest scientific research, symptoms, and treatments. This vital information on heart disease is important to understanding it. By learning as much as we can about heart disease, we can hopefully prevent it and all go on to live long, healthy, productive lives.

By looking at such information on heart disease, we learn that certain risk factors that can cause it. These risk factors include: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. More personal risk factors include: being overweight, smoking, a lack of physical exercise, and stress. By learning what behaviors attract heart disease, we can find out just which habits we might want to avoid.

Why You Should be Informed

Prevention is the best way to avoid ever having to deal with the disease. Through information on heart disease, we can adopt certain lifestyle changes, avoid getting heart disease, and possibly stop this problem from spreading any further.

By reading about the latest research, symptoms, and treatments, we can keep abreast of the latest findings regarding this killer disease. More importantly, we can educate others about this horrible disease, others who may be seeking information on heart disease just like you.

It’s important that we seek out information on heart disease to learn as much as we can about it so we can stop it in its tracks. Only by learning about it and applying what we’ve learned, can we stop this disease. The more information we have, the more ammunition we have to defeat this killer of so many Americans.