Understanding Heart Disease and Stroke

Heart disease and stroke are both incredibly serious ailments, and are both alarmingly common afflictions worldwide. Although there is no surefire way to protect yourself against heart disease and stroke, there are certain things that you can do to try to prevent it, which will be discussed here.

Risk Factors for Heart Disease and Stroke

Increasing age is one of the biggest risk factors, and this is obviously impossible to avoid, as we all get older whether we like it or not. People, especially women, as they get older, their risk of heart disease and stroke begins to rise and continues to rise with age. Gender also plays a role as a major risk factor, as men have a much greater risk of heart attack than women do.

Family history also plays a role here, as both men and women are more likely to develop heart disease and stroke if it runs in their family. Race is also a factor because black women are at much greater risk than white women, and compared with whites, African-American women and men are both much more likely to die of stroke than Caucasian women and men.

Modifiable Risk Factors

Although some risk factors, such as family history and age cannot be modified or reversed, there are certain risk factors that can be. Cigarette smoking, for instance, is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, however smoking is preventable. If you do not smoke, then you should certainly not start, and if you do, you should find treatment and quit as soon as you possibly can.

High blood cholesterol is another of the most major risk factors for heart disease and for stroke that can be treated or controlled, and the best way to do this is to ensure that you are living a healthy lifestyle, including eating a nutritious diet and getting plenty of regular exercise.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack and is actually the most important risk factor for stroke. The best way to lower your blood pressure is to reduce or even completely eliminate sodium from your diet, and as well you want to stop drinking alcohol, if this applies to you, because in most people alcohol causes blood pressure to rise quite a lot.

By taking all of the previously mentioned facts into consideration and following through with them, you will be able to greatly protect yourself against both heart disease and stroke, as well as various other heart and health conditions.