Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
Preventing heart disease begins with understanding and controlling risk factors before complications arise. This includes assessing blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight, and lifestyle, along with developing an appropriate plan for physical activity, nutrition, and medical follow-up.
A balanced diet, regular physical activity, abstaining from smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight help reduce the risk of heart disease.
An assessment may be helpful, especially when there are risk factors or a family history of heart disease, to determine the level of risk and develop an appropriate prevention plan.
The most important of these are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, lack of physical activity and weight gain.
Yes, high levels of certain types of cholesterol can lead to plaque buildup inside the arteries and increase the risk of heart disease.
Prevention is important at all ages, and assessing risk factors becomes more important with advancing age or the presence of multiple risk factors.