Risk Factors For Heart Disease

A close friend of mine knows a great deal about risk factors for heart disease, but even as a highly trained physician and tri-athlete, he at one time suffered from heart disease. Dr. John Koehler has been a practitioner in the medical field for over 2 decades. He is well known in the greater Rockford, Illinois area as operating numerous Physicians Immediate Urgent Care clinics. His story is of discovery, recovery and gratitude...you see he once had serious calcium plaque buildup (95%) in his coronary arteries. Serious stuff! Dr. "J" as I call him, is a great student of disease prevention.

The stark reality is degenerative diseases are preventable through lifestyle changes.

Health Care Crisis

We have a serious health care crisis in this country. A sad reality is many doctors either don't take the time to discuss preventative strategies (such as high end nutrition and low glycemic food intake) or have limited knowledge in this arena. The fact is doctors receive very little to no formal training in the nutritional and preventative medicine arena. What doctor's do know a lot about is drugs, and surgery. In actuality, we don't have a "Health Care " system in this country. We a have a sickness care system. Why? All the emphasis is targeted at intervention after the fact, after you are diagnosed. Very little if any education is offered regarding preventative strategies, which can eliminate the potential for chronic illness all together.

What We Eat, How Much We Eat

You have certainly heard the statement, we are what we eat. The average American annually consumes a whopping 200 lbs more food today than during the early 70's. Only 4% of that intake is protein. The rest are high glycemic carbohydrates that are very damaging, which cause all kinds of problems over time. It may take years to show up, but today 4 out of 5 Americans dying from long, slow degenerating chronic illness today is proof. The rate of obesity today in adolescents has quadrupled, resulting in an epidemic of degenerative disease.

Leading Degenerative Diseases (Preventable)

* Coronary Heart Disease
* Type 2 Diabetes
* Arthritis
* Osteoporosis
* High Blood Pressure
* Fybromyalgia

Carbohydrate Addiction Cycle

Consuming bad carbs in the form of high glycemic foods is a major player in visceral fat buildup, which cause risk factors for heart disease. As we consume excess calories from excess fat and sugar we gain weight over time. Visceral fat is stored under the arms, around the waistline, but most damaging in and around the intestines in the stomach area. This is known as "Metabolic Syndrome, or Syndrome X. Another very damaging aspect of visceral fat is that it stores toxicity in the form of chemicals and preservatives, from the food and fluids we eat and drink, and the air we breathe. We must learn to get off the carbohydrate addiction by eating low gi foods, which never turn to fat to begin with. Daily exercise, such as simply walking, is another excellent preventative strategy in eliminating risk factors for heart disease.

Optimal Nutrition

Another major player in reducing risk factors for heart disease is optimal nutrition. Obtaining the essential minerals and anti-oxidants today from our nutritionally depleted soils today is nearly impossible. For most, eating optimally healthy foods is inconvenient. High quality supplementation is a key factor in overcoming, and preventing heart disease...

The bottom line is, you can take control of your health. You must be pro-active and take the actions necessary to either reverse or prevent heart disease all together.

You can start right now to get on the path to true health in eliminating risk factors for heart disease. Winning begins with Beginning. Click here to learn more.... http://go.lowglycemicresetplan.com

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Factors You Need to Consider When You're 30 Years Old and Above

Heart disease is still the leading cause of mortality in the United States and even in other countries as well. Almost every year over a thousand people with ages between 30 to 45 years old die from heart disease or coronary heart disease.

If you belong to this age group and you may seem asymptomatic, it is still important to become aware about your heart and your overall health. To give you a clear understanding on how you can be conscious about your heart health, below are some factors you need to know and consider before it's too late!

Heredity

Family health history plays an important role in your health. If your mother or father has a genetic disease often related to the heart, you're also in high risk of acquiring the same disease as theirs. Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and arrhythmias are often inherited. Being aware of your genetic mark-up and family history can save you from having any of these conditions. Get yourself screened and do a yearly medical check up for any disease advancements.

Diet

Eating unhealthy foods that are high in saturated fat and cholesterol can put your heart at risk. Eating fatty meats and deep fried foods can raise your cholesterol levels which can clog your arteries if accumulated overtime. Keep in mind that when you reached 30, you need to break some of your unhealthy eating habits and try to consume a heart healthy diet instead.

Inadequate exercise

Most people tend to live a sedentary lifestyle without having the initiative to do physical workouts. Little do these people know that a 30-minute walk or any physical activity can help you boost your overall health and aids in keeping your metabolism all pumped up! Exercising on a daily basis can help you to burn more fats, improve your cardiac rate and even lower down your cholesterol levels.

Substance abuse

Cigarette smoking and excessive alcohol drinking is not good for the heart especially when you're in your mid-year life. Nicotine found in tobaccos tends to constrict blood vessels which lead to poor blood circulation. Not only it impedes blood circulation, nicotine can also increase the adherence rate of low density lipoprotein to the arterial walls which can fully clog circulation. If this happens, an eminent heart attack or stroke may occur.

If you want to live a happy, healthy and longer life, throw away any of your bad habits and start build healthy ones.

Paul loves to share information about heart disease. To know more about heart disease, what raises cholesterol and what cause high cholesterol levels, visit us online and sign up for your FREE mini-course to get instant access on the newest trends and expert advices on how to fight heart disease and have a healthy heart.

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The Risk Factors for Developing Heart Disease

There are several risk factors for developing heart disease; high LDL cholesterol is only one. Family history plays a significant role. If your father had a heart attack or stroke prior to age 55 or your mother had a heart attack or stroke prior to 65, you have a higher risk. The same increased risk factor applies if your siblings had heart attacks or strokes in those age brackets. High blood pressure, smoking cigarettes, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, being 30% or more over your ideal body weight (as determined by your BMI), metabolic syndrome, leading a sedentary lifestyle, HDL of less than 40 mg/dL and women with premature menopause all increase your heart attack and stroke risk factors. A previous personal history of any kind of cardiac event also puts you at a higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Exercise and other physical activity a preventive for heart disease

Steady exercise or physical activity is a very real and effective way to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Cardiovascular exercise is the best way to strengthen your heart muscle, raise HDL levels and reduce blood pressure. To get the most heart health benefit out of any exercise routine, you need to get your heart rate elevated. If you have not exercised for an extended period of time and otherwise lead a sedentary lifestyle, you should consult your physician before starting any exercise program. Once you have been given the go ahead you still need to start slow and increase your exertion at a rate you are comfortable with for two reasons. First is your muscles including your heart need time to build up. Trying to do it all at once will make you sore and may not be the smartest for your heart. The second reason is that if you injure yourself by using muscles and tendons that are not accustomed to that kind of intense use, you may end up with injuries or be so sore that you don't feel like staying consistent with your exercise routine. Consistency is the most important aspect. You will increase your conditioning quickly if you are regular with your newfound exercise routine.

Knowing the offsetting factors

There are various positive factors that help offset risk factors. High levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol are very beneficial in preventing heart disease or at least offsetting risk factors. The Framingham study and others have suggested that for each single point increase in HDL, there is a corresponding drop in your risk of having a heart attack by 2%-3%. Some of us are just plain lucky and are born with high HDL. Others are not so fortunate and struggle to raise their HDL and even with excessive physical activity are helpless to raise it. HDL below 40 is considered a risk factor. HDL of over 60 is considered a positive factor for heart disease. Total cholesterol readings are not the best barometer of heart disease risk. Even though high HDL levels and low LDL levels are no guarantee, your risk factors are most assuredly reduced with high HDL and further reduced with low LDL levels. Overall or total high cholesterol levels are less accurate as a predictor but most often a high total cholesterol reading is attributable to high LDL.

Estrogen production, is it another factor?

Women who have not gone through menopause have a much lower rate of heart attacks and strokes than men. It is said that Estrogen production reduces heart disease risk. However after menopause, women are 2-3 times more likely to have heart attacks than women who have yet to go through menopause and are the same age. Although premenopausal women are less likely to have heart attacks than men that is not the case after they stop producing estrogen with menopause. A 2002 study showed that women on hormone replacement therapy had more heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer and blood clots than women not taking hormones. Therefore, Hormone replacement therapy is not the answer.

What risks provide the most benefit?

There are differences in each risk factor as it relates to lessening the chance of heart attacks or strokes when changes are made. A survey of risk-reduction strategies by Harvard researchers showed these risks and benefits:

A person who maintains a healthy body weight as he or she gets older, or keeps body weight near "ideal," has a 45% lower risk.Decreases the risk for heart attack by 50% one year after a person quits smoking10% of reducing total cholesterol cuts heart attack risk by 20 to 30%Being inactive almost doubles the risk of coronary artery disease.

Other risk factors for heart disease are currently under further investigation.

Lipoprotein(a) or Lp(a) is a molecule of LDL with an extra protein attached. There is a hypothesis that the existence of Lp(a) and high levels of LDL are of concern. Not so much for people with normal LDL levels.Elevated fibrinogen levels although present in people with heart disease, it has not been proven that lowering fibrinogen lessens the risk of heart attacks. Ways to reduce fibrinogen includeexercise, weight loss, smoking cessation, low dose aspirin, low dose alcohol and eating a lot of fish.Homocysteine level reductions have not been proven to lessen the risk of heart attacks.C-Reactive Protein or CRP is the most recognized of the risk factors and measures the amount of inflammation in the arteries.

For more information about preventing heart disease and heart attack, please visit Cholesterol Institute at http://cholesterolinstitute.net/

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