Heart Health

Chemicals in every puff?

Concerning heart disease prevention, no amount of smoking is safe. Even smokeless tobacco and low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes are risky, as is exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking or using tobacco products is one of the most significant risk factors for developing heart disease. And it’s no wonder why: tobacco smoke contains more than 4,800 chemicals! Many of these can damage your heart and blood vessels, making them more vulnerable to narrowing of the arteries (atherosclerosis). Atherosclerosis can ultimately lead to a heart attack.

Moreover, the nicotine in cigarette smoke means extra work for your heart since it causes blood vessels to narrow and increases heart rate and blood pressure. Carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke replaces oxygen in the blood. This also increases your blood pressure by forcing your heart to work harder to supply enough oxygen. Even so-called “social smoking”—only smoking while at a bar or restaurant with friends—is dangerous and increases the risk of heart disease. Don’t do it.

These smoke clouds do have a silver lining—when you quit, your risk of heart disease drops dramatically within just one year. Regardless of how many years and how many packs a day you have smoked, you will begin to reap significant rewards immediately.

Make fitness a top priority

Regular exercise can reduce your risk of heart disease. And by combining physical activity with maintaining healthy weight, etc., the payoff increases exponentially. Physical activity improves self image and morale, helps you control your weight and can reduce your chances of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. It also reduces stress, another factor in heart disease.

Doctors recommend at least 30 to 60 minutes of moderately intense physical activity most days of the week. That can include exercise in a gym, yard work, taking the stairs, housekeeping, washing the car or even walking the dog. Any kind of physical activity offers heart benefits, so do as much as you can. Surprisingly, you’ll get the same benefit even if you break your workout into 10-minute sessions. You don’t have to exercise strenuously to achieve benefits, but you can see bigger benefits by increasing the intensity, duration and frequency of your physical exertion.

Eat right, drink right

Help protect your heart by eating foods low in fat, cholesterol and salt. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products help protect your heart. Legumes, low-fat sources of protein and certain types of fish also can reduce your risk of heart disease. Most people should add more fruits and vegetables to their diet—with a goal of five to 10 servings a day. Eating fruits and vegetables helps prevent heart disease and cancer, too.

Limiting certain fats is also key. There are four kinds of fat—saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and trans fat. Saturated fat and trans fat increase the risk of coronary artery disease by raising cholesterol levels in your blood. Sources of saturated fat include beef, butter, cheese, milk, and coconut and palm oils. Trans fat may be worse than saturated fat because it both raises your low-density lipoprotein (LDL—or “bad” cholesterol) and lowers your high-density lipoprotein (HDL—or “good” cholesterol). So stay away from deep-fried fast foods, bakery products, packaged snack foods, margarines and crackers. Watch for the term “partially hydrogenated” on the label to avoid trans fat. Omega-3 fatty acids, a type of polyunsaturated fat, may decrease your risk of heart attack, protect against irregular heartbeats and lower blood pressure. Some fish are a good natural source of omega-3s as are flaxseed oil, walnut oil, soybean oil, canola oil. However, pregnant women and women of childbearing age should avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish because they can contain levels of mercury high enough to pose a danger to a developing fetus. For others, the health benefits of fish outweigh the risks.

Drink alcohol only in moderation—no more than 1-2 drinks a day for men, 1 per day for women—to protect your heart.

Take responsibility for your weight

Even small reductions in weight can be beneficial. Reducing your weight by just 10 percent can decrease your blood pressure, lower your blood cholesterol level and reduce your risk of diabetes.

With adults, weight gain is mostly fat rather than muscle. This excess weight can lead to conditions that increase your chances of heart disease—high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Calculating your body mass index (BMI) is a good way to find out if your percentage of body fat is healthy or unhealthy. BMI numbers 25 and higher mean higher blood fats, higher blood pressure, and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. However, calculating BMI is not a perfect method. Muscle weighs more than fat, for instance, and women and men who are very muscular and physically fit can have high BMIs without added health risks. Because of that, waist circumference is also a useful tool to measure how much abdominal fat you have. In general, men are considered overweight if their waist measurement is greater than 40 inches (101.6 centimeters, or cm). And women, in general, are overweight if their waist measurement is greater than 35 inches (88.9 cm).