All You Need To About Heart Disease

If you've been thinking about using the summer to reconsider your lifestyle and health habits, one good thing to think about is the incidence of genetic diseases in your family. When trying to get healthy, it's important that you take into consideration your specific health risks. You're probably well aware that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, as well as many other countries. If anyone in your family has struggled with heart disease, it's important that you know a few things about keeping yourself safe and healthy.

The Basics

There are a few basic things you need to know about heart disease. First, check out the contributing factors that are most frequently seen in cases of heart disease and what you can do about them:

Being overweight or obese is a very common factor that leads to the development of heart disease. If you are overweight currently, it's important that you start working now to lose weight and start developing a healthier lifestyle. Work your way up to a weekly exercise routine that adds up to at least 2.5 hours of light cardio or 1 hour of intense cardio. For example, this can be done in twenty-minute intervals of running three times a week. You should also plan to do some muscle strengthening exercise two to three times a week. If you aren't overweight, you should be able to launch more readily into a healthy exercise regimen. Talk to your close friends or even any siblings or relatives and see if they want to join you in starting a new exercise regimen. You can both hold each other accountable and even compete against each other for agreed-upon prizes. Another way to get motivated is by having a fitness tracker you can wear that connects to your smartphone. On days that you are more active, you'll feel good about yourself when you see your physical output for the day.
Even if you aren't overweight, a poor diet can still lead to heart disease. If you are low on your necessary vitamins and minerals, your body will not be operating at its best. Check out some of these super foods for suggestions on what to add into your diet. In addition, you also need to be eating healthy fibers as well as fatty fish one or two times per week. It's also important that you limit your consumption of meat. Try practicing "meatless Monday" to start with, and from there, try to eliminate meat from one of your daily meals entirely, for example, practice making vegetarian recipes for lunch every day.

Excessive use of alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco will all also lead to heart disease. Though these factors will exacerbate other factors like obesity, they can each lead to a heart attack on their own, so it's in your best interest to be sure you are limiting your intake of harmful substances. Of course, all of these habits can be hard to kick and may require dedicated treatment in their own right. However, if you are not at the point of addiction, but still feel you could stand to cut your use, one good way to achieve this is to give yourself substitutes: try ice tea in place of coffee, water down your drinks until you are able to have fewer altogether.
And of course, genetics greatly contribute to the development of heart disease. However, in many cases this may increase with familiar habits like gaining weight and eating poorly, so if you are able to stop these habits, you will have a head start over the genetic factor, though it won't cancel it out completely.

Some Other Good Things To Know

As you work on understanding how these factors have presence in your life, there are probably a few other things you will want to know:
Know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. Most people know the common signs of numbness in the left arm, drooping in the face, and trouble speaking. But if you are a woman, you may experience different and less obvious symptoms that many mistake for the flu or acid reflux, so be sure you know the specific symptoms for your demographic.
Heart disease can happen to anyone at any age of their life, so if you have a history of heart disease in your family, don't think that you are safe just because you aren't yet as old as that family member when they had their heart attack. Different age groups need to watch out for different risks and plan different health goals, so be sure you are acting in a way that is appropriate for your age group.

Being underweight and dealing with stress are also factors of heart attacks. When you are underweight, it puts a lot of stress on your heart as it lacks essential nutrients, so if you are underweight, you also need to plan new health goals. Similarly, excessive stress can put a huge burden on your heart, so find ways to minimize stress and deal with it when it gets out of hand.
You may be able to have genetic testing done for certain heart diseases. Talk to your doctor about getting a genetic profile done as it may reveal the likelihood of your developing a genetic disease.
Talk to your doctor about using over the counter medications and vitamins to decrease your likelihood of heart disease.

You're never too young or too old to start thinking about stopping heart disease or curbing its impact. Make it a real part of your daily life and habits moving forward!

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Contributed By: Kimberly