Essentially there are two types of risk factors; those you can control and those you can't. For many people there is a genetic or family history of certain types of diseases and/or conditions. This could include high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease etc. If you are among the 'lucky' who do have a family history of said conditions then realize theres not a lot that you can do to change that and you have to be extra vigilant on the things you can control. This can help explain why people who are physically active, eat good foods, not smoke or drink can have heart attacks. Be sure to discuss your family history with your physician.
Since we have realized there are some things about our health we can't change, let's focus on what we can do to prevent heart disease.
1) Diet No surprise here. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid sugary foods. Focus should be on lean meats like chicken, turkey and pork. Dr. Johnson suggested the portion size of red meats be no larger then a deck of cards. Dr. Johnson emphasized that our diets should be about long term lifestyle choices and not the quick fixes of fad diets. Although he stopped short of recommending any commercial diet he did say the Mediterranean Diet has alot of healthy elements to it.
2) Exercise Experts here recommend a 150 minutes week of exercise, which for all you math majors, is 30 minutes a day for 5 days. This exercise needs to be cardiovascular challenging, we need to be getting our heart rates up. People who do manual labor often think their work is a good substitute for 30 mins of cardio, it's not. Dr. Johnson grew up on a farm and discussed how he had to convince his dad that farm work doesn't give his heart the same benefit.
3) Healthy Weight This one obviously flows from the first two. People who are overweight or obese are at higher risk for developing heart disease. How do you know if you are overweight? The most common tool is the Body Mass Index or BMI. BMI is a forumla which determines what is a healthy weight for somebody based on their height and weight. Determining your BMI is simple you can use this online calculator. If you are BMI 'obese', like me, don't worry. One of the limitations of BMI is that it does not differentiate between muscle and fat. So you could have 5% bodyfat and be an Olympic swimmer, gymnast etc. and still be considered obese by BMI standards.
4) Smoking Tobacco use is also one of the most common risk factors for heart disease. Not much analysis here. If you don't, don't start; if you do, stop.
Basically don't live like Da Superfans
"Dr. said I had a polish sausage stuck in the lining of my heart"
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