Sunday, 11 March 2012

Coronary Heart Disease Prevention and Treatment

15:36  Winston Low  4 comments

Prevention

The best way to prevent coronary heart disease are by monitoring and modifying certain risk factors and live with a healthy lifestyle at a young age.

You can’t change some risk factors such as age and family history but you can change the following risk factors :
  • High blood fats, the bad LDL , good Hdl and triglycerides
  • Diet
  • Smoking
  • Diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Obesity
  • Inactivity
  • Emotional stress
Self-care at Home

The most important ways to reduce the risk of heart disease is yourself and not the control of your health care provider. First way is to change your lifestyle . Lifestyle changes are the most effective way to prevent heart disease from getting worse or reducing the risk of getting heart disease.

Everyone should take the following measures to lower the risk of heart disease:
  1. Eat a heart-healthy diet
  2. Lower your fat intake
  3. Lower your blood cholesterol to a certain level , especially the LDL cholesterol
  4. Engage in regular exercise
  5. Quit smoking
  6. Control high blood pressure and diabetes
  7. Take a low-dose aspirin daily
  8. Eat 1 or 2 servings of fish or seafood each week
  9. Eat nuts that are rich in monounsaturated fats, such as hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, walnuts, and macadamia nuts(small amount)
  10. Cooking foods with garlic, which may have cholesterol-lowering effect
  11. Not more than 2 drinks of alcohol per day for men and 1 drink per day for women is recommended to raise the HDL 
Note: People who have liver or kidney problems, problems with alcohol abuse are not recommended to use alcohol

Medical Treatment

Aspirin
Aspirin will redice the risk of developing angina or heart attack by reducing the tendency of blood to clot
  • It reduces the chance that a clot will form in the coronary artery
  • There are some side effects of aspirin such as bleeding problems or ulcers
Calcium channel blockers
Calcium channel blockers causes the coronary artery to dilate which improves the flow of blood. They also reduce blood pressure and slows down the heart beat rate. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors a.k.a ACE inhibitors works by dilating the blood vessels .Thus increasing blood flow.

Beta- blockers
Beta-blockers will decrease your heart beat rate and blood pressure. Therefore reducing your heart oxygen demand.                                              

Nitroglycerin
This medication reduces angina , both by decreasing your heart’s oxygen demand and by dilating the coronary arteries, increasing the oxygen supply.

Statins
Statin drugs work by reducing the amount of cholesterol and other fats in your blood.
  • This will change the inner lining of the blood vessels so plaques are less likely to form
  • They slow down the progression of coronary heart disease
  • Examples of statins: atorvastatin(Lipitor),pravastatin(Pravachol), simvastatin(Zocor), lovastatin(Mevacor) and rosuvastatin(Crestor) 
Statin drugs
  

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4 comments:

I can get healthy fat from what kinds of food?Please give me some examples.Thanks.

If someone want to reduce the risk of getting this heart disease , does a heart healthy diet include not to take those medical treatment that you stated above often?

Dear Anonymous,
You can obtain "healthy fats" from the intake of food containing monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are also known as "good fats" as they are good for ones heart , cholesterol and also promote ones overall health.

Examples of food containing unsaturated dietary fats are:
1). Olive oil ( Monounsaturated)
2). Canola oil ( Monounsaturated)
3). Sunflower oil (Monounsaturated)
4). Peanut butter ( Monounsaturated)
5). Soybean oil ( Polyunsaturated)
6). Walnuts ( Polyunsaturated)
7). Fatty Fish. eg: salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, herring, trout ( Polyunsaturated)
8). Tofu (Polyunsaturated)

Dear Anonymous(2),
Yes. It is true that a heart healthy diet does not include medical treatment. A heart healthy diet is a diet whereby one limits unhealthy fats ( saturated/ trans fats) and cholesterol, chooses low -fat protein sources and eat more vegetables and fruits.

The practice of a heart healthy diet is actually a preventive measure to reduce the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases whereas medical treatments are only required by those who are already suffering from the disease. Furthermore, you should refer to your doctor before undergoing any sort of medical treatment.

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