A HEALTHY HEART
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Prevention is definitely better than cure, so keeping your heart healthy is really important. There is now overwhelming evidence that modifying certain aspects of your lifestyle can significantly reduce the chances of you developing heart problems. Some of the key things to consider are:
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Smoking cessation: if you are a smoker then stopping smoking is arguably the most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of having heart problems as well as many other diseases. This can be difficult to achieve, but there is a lot of support available to see you through giving up.
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Treating underlying conditions: we know that a high blood pressure, diabetes and a high cholesterol all increase your chances of having heart problems so tight control of these is really important. All three of these conditions are treated with lifestyle modifications (see below) and medications.
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Lifestyle: a healthy diet and regular exercise are both important to maintain and improve the health of your heart as well as treatment of several other conditions. A healthy diet, low in sugar (and carbohydrates in general) and unsaturated fats can be beneficial in a number of ways. Furthermore, reducing your portion sizes combined with regular aerobic exercise may help control your weight and improve cardiovascular fitness.​ It is worth considering obesity here also as it may lead to or make worse ones blood pressure control and glucose handling (leading to diabetes). Obesity is when ones weight to height relationship is not healthy (BMI or 'body mass index).
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