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Conquering and Preventing Heart Diseases

By Medical Expert Team

Mar 15 , 2016 | 2 min read

A healthy heart is the essence of healthy life. Unfortunately, during the last decade, heart diseases have surpassed cancer in being credited as the No. one cause of mortality. There is no denying the fact that Diabetes Mellitus have contributed significantly to this but still there is a large population that is non-diabetic and still has cardiac disease. A well-informed, avid reader and a health conscious person know that heart ailment can be sudden and fatal. Though there are several advancements in medicines that have been made in keeping the heart healthy but this happens only when one has suffered a cardiac problem. The best part about cardiac diseases is that they are preventable and predictable by avoiding the modifiable risk factors like smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise. Dyslipidemia along with routine cardiac screening can help to avert and predict many cardiac issues. There are two aspects of reducing the risks associated with cardiac problems:

Timely diagnosis and recognition of symptoms due to cardiac problem especially heart attack. A couple of symptoms to watch out are:

Intense discomfort in the centre of chest pain that may not decrease upon resting
Spreading of chest pain to other areas like jaw, neck, arms, abdomen, and back
Wheezing/Coughing
Nausea
Cold sweating
Anxiety and restlessness

In case of even the slightest suspicion, one must go to a doctor and get his ECG and cardiac enzymes checked. Remember that heart attack occurs due to the decrease in blood flow to muscles of the heart. This time is critical if we want to save the heart muscles. The first 6-12 hrs are the best to save the heart muscles if proper blood flow is established.

2. We need to avoid the factors that increase our cardiac risk and adopt a healthy lifestyle with regular cardiac screening to timely diagnose any cardiac problem. Here are a few pointers:

Don't smoke, and avoid inhaling second-hand smoke
Maintain a healthy diet that's low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and salt
Exercise at least 30 minutes on most or all days of the week.
Aim to keep your weight in the normal range
control your blood sugar if you have diabetes
Talk with your doctor about what physical activity you should be indulging in and avoiding altogether
Have a regular cardiac screening

Keeping your heart healthy doesn't really take a lot of time. You can start with as little as 10 minutes a day. Our message is that you can do it, and the sooner you begin, the better it is.