TheWellnessLiving Health Tips

Cardiovascular disease risk factors

The more a person shows several factors, the greater the chances of developing heart disease. The best way to prevent heart attacks is represented by reducing risk factors. Risk that can be controlled and treated:

• High blood pressure (hypertension) disrupts the smooth functioning of the heart, amplifying the state of weakness. Both heart and arteries are prone to strokes. High blood pressure increases the risk of stroke, of atherosclerosis, causing congestive heart failure, atherosclerosis, kidney failure and eye disease. When this pressure is associated with obesity, smoking, cholesterol increases the risk of sudden attack. High blood pressure tends to increase with the age. Men are exposed to greater risks than women. After the age of 55 years men shows similar trends for accelerating blood pressure. Instead, after 75 years, women are more prone to such risks than men. HTA’s are not usually defined by symptoms, is a real silent killer. If you are suspected of hypertension, should pay more attention to your health. Keeping a proper diet, losing weight (when applicable), practicing a sport regularly, avoid salt and following a strict medication from a medical specialist, you can keep blood pressure under control (ie lower blood pressure to normal levels), decreasing the worsening condition health;

• Hypercholesterolemia (high levels of blood cholesterol) – coronary heart disease risk increases as you achieve a high cholesterol. When present and other risk factors such as hypertension and smoking, exposure from cardiovascular disease is even greater. Cholesterol is found only in animal fats. Some herbal oil, often used in cooking, are high in saturated fats. Transfats results by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils are often used in restaurants and fast foods. Fruits and vegetables contain no cholesterol, are therefore recommended in any diet. If you need medicines to lower cholesterol is better to resort to a healthy diet reduce the amount of cholesterol and improve your cardiovascular health;

Aspirin and cardiovascular diseases

Aspirin is one of the oldest drugs, which continue nowadays to surprise us. This common product, inexpensive protects the heart of a future attack or even death. Thus, it was found that aspirin help to reduce the number of deaths that occur in less than an hour after a heart attack.

A research has brought to the surface a clear evidence regarding the evaluation of aspirin in preventing heart attacks for men and treating coronary artery disease for both sexes. Dozens of studies involving thousands of people, showed that low doses of aspirin reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease or a heart attack by 25%.

A study reported in 2005 concluded that the records are not very clear on how to prevent heart attacks in women. But except is that you are allergic to aspirin that will trigger other problems, other people should take an aspirin if:

• Have diabetes;
• Have angina;
• Had a cardiovascular attack;
• Had a heart attack or a preinfarct;
• Coronary artery disease;
• Shows a high risk for cardiovascular disease.

Despite the benefits of aspirin, it has some side effects. According to existing records, the risks are higher in men than in women, at least in terms of primary prevention (i.e. avoiding a cardiovascular event).

Aspirin increases the risk of significant gastrointestinal disease. Even people who are treated with aspirin occasional may have problems and go through painful experience if aspirin is administered regularly over a long period of time. Particular, aspirin might not be a good choice for people who have uncontrolled hypertension (the leading cause of bleeding in brain).

Tips – If you’re one of the women who already suffered a heart attack or other cardiovascular events, is recommended to take aspirin to reduce your risk of a second event.

Smoking is the most importan cause of preventable death in the developed world. In spite of this, tocacco dependence is still viewed by many just as a bad habit. Because of the strong bonds created by the dependence, most smokers wanting to quit find it difficult and many fail if not following a strict treatment.

In a recent article in the specialized journal “Annals of Internal Medicine”, Dr Steinberg and collaborators from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey discussed the importance of regarding tobacco dependence as a medical condition that requires a specific medical treatment, rather than a bad habit or a lifestyle choice. They compare smoking to diabetes. Diabetes, they say, is similar to tobacco dependence in “their potential to exacerbate other diseases, their behavioral components of treatment, and their effectiveness of medications”. In spite of this, treatments for diabetes are amply covered by health insurance plans, whereas coverage for tobacco cessation products and treatments are usually very limited.

In the article, the authors review some of the available treatments that usually have satisfactory results. Among the safest options is behavioral counseling, but there are also pharmacotherapies that are safe and effective. “Nicotine replacement therapy effectively delivers nicotine in safer doses without exposure to the toxins and chemicals in cigarette smoke”. As everybody is different, optimal duration of tobacco dependence treatment cannot be established, and some smokers may require more extended courses or treatment than others.

They conclude that limited coverage constitutes a severe downside for this important problem. For those smokers for whom normal methods don’t work, health care providers should encourage using long-term cessation treatments and insurance carriers should cover them. To achieve this, “tobacco dependence should share the status of other chronic illnesses, with effective treatments given as long as is necessary to achieve successful clinical outcomes”.

Nowadays, smokers feel more and more compelled to quit. Health problems such as hypertension, heart disease, lung and other cancers are well-known and constitute one of the main reasons for quitting smoking. In addition, in some countries there is an increasing social pressure against smokers. In Canada, for example, smoking is totally banned from almost every public space except the streets. Today, all public buildings and rooms such as bars, pubs, discos and restaurants are completely smoke-free. Most rentals properties are also a no smoking place, so tenants cannot smoke even in their own home. Other developed countries and many developing countries are following this path, so the pressure to quit is going to be stronger than ever.
However, quitting smoking is not an easy task. Nicotine is highly addictive and the habit of smoking is hard to leave. There are many ways to help. Nicotine patches, gums, prescription drugs, hypnosis and so on, but many people find these methods are either ineffective, expensive or unsafe. Using nicotine (gums or patches) may seem the right thing for some people, but others find it contradictory. After all, you are not really fighting your nicotine addiction.
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