How to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke?
Heart disease is one of the common causes of death among Malaysian while Stroke is one of the causes of disability among our people. Heart disease or known as a heart attack or coronary heart disease is a condition where the blood vessels supplying your heart are blocked. The blood vessels supplying your heart are small, hence small block may cause serious problems and lead to death.
Stroke, on the other hand, is a condition where the blood vessels of your brain got blocked. The brain is responsible for so many body functions, hence, different areas that got blocked will result in different manifestations. Stroke may result in behavioral changes, loss of speech, loss of memory, paralysis and so on. The key to prevent both diseases is to prevent blood clot
What happened to the blood vessels of the heart?
High level of cholesterol in your blood will result in fat plaque formation within the blood vessels of the heart. This plaque will cause a partial blockage. As time passes, the plaque will rupture and the body will wrongly detect that as internal bleeding and will start forming large plaque. Larger plaque may cause a complete obstruction and the heart will slowly die and fails.
What happened to the vessels of the brain?
The blockage in the brain’s blood vessels may be due to the formation of a similar plaque as in heart attack or the plaque was originated from elsewhere like the legs. The other causes of stroke are the rupture of the brain’s blood vessels.
One disease usually has a list of risk factors. The more risk factors, the higher the percentage of a person to suffer from certain illnesses. There are two types of risk factors which are modifiable risk factors and non-modifiable risk factors.
The risk factors for heart disease are:
- Obesity or overweight
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Male
- Family history
- High-fat diet
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Stressful life
- Unbalanced diet
- Smoking
The risk factors for stroke are:
- Obesity or overweight
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Family history
- High-fat diet
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Stressful life
- Unbalanced diet
- Smoking
If you manage to control or remove the risk factors, the probability for you to suffer from a stroke or heart disease will be lesser. The followings are the ways to reduce the risk of heart disease:
1- Regular exercise
Exercise regularly at least 3 times a week. A session should last for at least 30 minutes. You can do moderate-intensity type of exercises like cycling, jogging, and swimming. Exercise will help you lose weight, help in preventing hypertension, help in preventing diabetes, and reduce your stress level. Exercise helps in preventing stroke and heart disease.
2- Low salt and sugar diet
Less salt and sugar will prevent you from getting diabetes and hypertension, thus, keep you away from stroke or heart disease.
3- Healthy and balanced diet
Consume a fresh, healthy, and balanced diet. Eat fewer carbohydrates, a reasonable amount of protein and more vegetables, and fruits. Low-fat meals are a must!
4- Stop smoking
Smoking makes your blood thicker and you are at a higher risk to suffer from heart disease or stroke. Doctors can help you by giving up cigarettes.
