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For a healthy heart, follow these simple steps.
| • | First, to find out where you stand, we suggest you visit your local health clinic for a cholesterol test. This is a quick test to check the level of fat in your blood, and you should have it done at least once every two years. | ||||||||||||||
| • | Second, if this page (your cholesterol test report) has shown you that your lifestyle needs changing, then change it! Don't just ignore the situation and hope it will go away: it won't! So quit smoking, get down to a normal weight, start exercising regularly; don't take life too seriously and start eating properly. | ||||||||||||||
| • | Before you start a Healthy-Heart Diet, get organized! For example, in order to eat more fruit and less fat, we strongly advise you to invest in a juicer to make your own fruit juice, and a good non-stick frying pan. And make a list of good foods to keep in the house. Remember: the worst mistake you can make is to run out of good things to eat! | ||||||||||||||
Generally speaking, our chances of getting a heart attack depend upon two separate factors:
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Family history plays an important part, but lifestyle is probably the major culprit. For example, heart disease & stroke accounts for 48 per cent of all Irish deaths, yet only about 0.01 per cent of the population inherits an additional risk of such conditions. In other words, if we wish to reduce the risk of a heart attack, we must improve some of the habits, which make up our lifestyle. There are 6 bad habits, which together make up the sort of lifestyle that can cause heart disease. 1. We refuse to change. 2. We smoke. 3. We are too overweight. 4. We don't exercise. 5. We let stress get on top of us. 6. We don't eat properly.
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