Preventing Heart Disease and Stroke

Introduction

You can do five important things to prevent heart disease and stroke!

1. Eat a heart-healthy diet!  Practice balance, variety and moderation when planning and eating meals by using the Food Guide Pyramid. Select foods that are low in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol.

2. Exercise!  Regular physical activity should be an important part of your daily routine.    

3. Watch your weight!  Always strive to maintain a healthy body weight.

 

4. Be a non-smoker! When a person stops smoking, benefits occur immediately!

 

5. Moderate or refrain from alcohol!

Heart disease goes by many names: coronary heart disease, coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, ischemic heart disease and cardiovascular disease, to name a few. 

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.  Maybe you have a family member or friend who is suffering from heart disease.

It's sad to see that person suffer, take lots of medicines, go to the doctor often and be hospitalized.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if that person could have stayed healthier and felt better longer? 

Did you know that you can take steps to prevent this from happening to you and your family?

This lesson focuses on the steps you can take to prevent heart disease and stroke.

What can you do to prevent heart disease and stroke?

1. Eat a heart-healthy diet

2. Exercise regularly                            

3. Maintain a healthy body weight

4. Be a non-smoker

5. Moderate or refrain from alcohol. Alcohol consumption is not recommended. If consumed, limit alcoholic beverages to no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women. It is illegal for children and adolescents under the age of 21 to consume alcohol. One drink is 12 ounces of beer OR 5 ounces of wine OR 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.

Each of these behaviors should be part of your and your family's lifestyle.

You will reap the benefits though feeling better and helping to prevent heart disease and stroke.

Risk Factors

Risk factors are characteristics that are associated with your having a greater chance of developing a certain disease.  The more risk factors you have and the more severe they are, the greater your chances of getting the disease.  For example, a middle-aged man with high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and who smokes would be more likely to die from heart disease than someone who does not have these risk factors.

Risk factors may be:

1. Laboratory measurements - blood cholesterol levels.

2. Personal characteristics - having a type "A" personality - someone who gets upset and stressed frequently.

3. Sociological - income level and education level - people with lower levels of education may not know that certain behaviors are risk factors for heart disease.

Major heart disease risk factors for women include:

• Elevated blood lipids and lipoproteins
• Excess body weight
• Hypertension
• Cigarette smoking

Good nutrition can help to prevent most of these risk factors.

Some risk factors can definitely be changed!  Improving these factors has been proved to reduce your chances of getting heart disease.   There are other types of risk factors. Some can be changed with medicine, other medical treatments or some lifestyle changes.  These may or may not be able to reduce your risk of developing heart disease or stroke. 

We will focus on the risk factors you can definitely change! 

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. The Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service provides equal opportunities in programs and employment. Information and Graphics on this site are copyright protected by LSU Agricultural Center's Louisiana Cooperative Extension Services. For more information on the EFNEP program, contact EFNEPMail@agcenter.lsu.edu.