The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., had a family history of heart disease. He successfully avoided the risk of heart disease as a result of clearly understanding heart attack prevention methods. While he succumbed to pancreatic cancer, he steered clear of heart disease. There are multiple examples of people avoiding heart disease through effective prevention methods. Let’s look at the options that can help you prevent heart attack or mitigate the risk of heart attack. Information also includes pre-emptive screening to determine future or lifetime risk of heart disease.
What lifestyle do you suggest to prevent heart attack?
Lifestyle is widely recognised as the best defense against heart ailments. Here are simple lifestyle changes that you need to be aware of, for fully understanding heart attack prevention methods. With these steps you can significantly bring down your risk of a heart attack.
1 Smoking – Quit smoking if you are a smoker. If you do not smoke, but are exposed to the effects of passive smoke or ETS (environmental tobacco smoke), avoid second hand smoke.
2 Nutrition – It is necessary to adopt a healthy diet, to fight heart disease. Your food will be responsible for certain risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose levels and obesity. These can be controlled to a certain extent by the choice of food. Your pick should essentially be food products with vitamins, minerals, fiber. It should be nutrient rich with low calories. Avoid saturated and trans fats, red/processed meats, and added sugars.
3 Cholesterol – You need to keep cholesterol levels in check always, and to do that, you need to know your cholesterol. Total cholesterol score is the sum of HDL + LDL + 20% of triglyceride levels. LDL or Low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol has the tag of “bad” cholesterol. You should target a low LDL cholesterol level, that is less than 70 mg/dL.
HDL or High-density-lipoprotein cholesterol is known as “good” cholesterol. You need to target higher levels, that is 40 mg/dL or higher for men and 50 mg/dL or higher for women. Triglycerides refer to common fat in the body. The desirable levels differ as per age and gender. However, the average healthy triglyceride level is pegged at less than 150 milligrams per decilitre – 150 mg per dL.
4 Blood pressure – A major risk factor of heart attack is high blood pressure. Get rid of salt intake, follow recommendations to keep blood pressure levels at less than 120/80 mm Hg. Understanding heart attack prevention also includes awareness of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
5 Activity – It is important to be physically active on every single day. You need to ensure that you have some of moderate-intensity physical activity. This will work towards lower blood pressure, cholesterol and also keep your weight in control.
6 Weight – Did you know that even a reasonable reduction in your weight can reduce your risk of a heart attack? Control your weight and move away from obesity, as this improves blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Weight reduction also has some impact in controlling diabetes.
7 Diabetes – This chronic condition increases your risk of heart attack. Go in for periodic medical checkups, healthy eating habits, weight control, physical activity and medications to control your blood sugar levels.
8 Adequate sleep – Proper sleep every night is essential for heart health. You need good quality sleep and an average of 7 to 9 hours every night. Reasonable physically activity, proper bedtime routine, and avoiding electronic devices are habits that help your sleep.
9 Stress – Chronic stress can result in high blood pressure levels. Stress also affects lifestyle, and increases your risk of heart disease. Manage stress effectively to reduce your risk of heart attacks.
10 Alcohol – Excessive consumption of alcohol can raise blood pressure levels and your risk of high triglycerides, irregular heartbeats. Limit consumption or kick the habit completely.
How to prevent heart attack?
Prevention of heart attack begins with understanding heart attack prevention and the factors that contribute to risk of heart attack. The points mentioned above offer a good idea of the steps that you need to follow to prevent a heart attack. In this section, let’s look at some additional details of most of the points mentioned above.
# Diet – Choose a low-fat, high-fibre diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables of 5 portions daily along with whole grains. Salt should be lesser than 6g a day, which is about 1 teaspoon. Avoid saturated fats, including:
- Sausages.
- Fatty portions of meat.
- Butter, ghee.
- Cream.
- Hard cheese.
- Coconut or palm oil.
Ensure your balanced diet contains unsaturated fats, including:
- Oily fish varieties.
- Avocados.
- Nuts and seeds.
- Sunflower and vegetable oils.
# Exercise – This needs to be a regular activity, to improve your blood circulatory system, lower cholesterol levels, and control blood pressure. This can be achieved through walking, swimming and also dancing.
How to prevent heart attack at home?
Heart attack prevention methods are more or less the same in all places except the gym. To ensure that you do not get a heart attack elsewhere, clearly understanding heart attack prevention is important. The following checklist is similar to the section above about lifestyle changes.
- Aerobic exercise routine.
- Cholesterol levels – LDL, HDL, Triglycerides.
- Periodic tests – fasting glucose, hs-CRP, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, insulin, HbA1c, Coronary Calcium Score, Blood pressure and BMI.
- Plant based diet.
How to prevent heart attack immediately?
As part of understanding heart attack prevention, it is important to know about actions to be taken if you witness any symptoms or warning signs of a heart attack. Here are some tips that you could follow in the event of witnessing any signs of a heart attack.
#1. Recognize symptoms – Here are some of the common symptoms that may be experienced by a person having a heart attack.
- Pain in the chest or some kind of discomfort. This could be like a squeezing sensation or some pressure on the chest.
- Pain or discomfort in the upper torso – like the arms, the back, neck, jaw, and even the stomach.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Breaking out into a cold sweat, or feelings of nausea, possible lightheadedness.
#2 Urgent Action – You need to undertake certain specific actions in such eventualities.
- Call emergency services.
- Ensure the person has stopped all physical activity.
- Give the person an aspirin, if he or she is not allergic.
- If the person has been prescribed Nitroglycerin for such emergencies, give the recommended dosage.
There are certain risk prevention actions that you need to ensure to prevent the certainty of a heart attack.
i) Avoid smoking.
ii) Cut down on caffeine and alcohol.
iii) Keep stress and anxiety under control.
iv) Periodically monitor certain vitals – blood pressure, heart rate
How to prevent heart attack in gym?
A large number of people have been reportedly having heart attacks during workouts in gyms. This has reached an alarming high rate and is linked to various causes. As part of understanding heart attack prevention, here are simple tips to help you prevent the risk of a heart attack during workouts.
1. Seek medical recommendations – Prior to commencing any exercise regimen that is intense, seek recommendations of a doctor. This is especially for people with existing health conditions or risk factors.
2. Maintain slow and steady progress – Always start with low to moderate-intensity exercises. Depending on the strain and effort, gradually increase the intensity and duration of the exercises. Never opt for any sudden, or intense workouts, especially if you are new to routine physical activity.
3. Proper warm up – Many people skip warm ups and cool down during workouts, which is not advised. You need to spend a minimum of 5-10 minutes warming up and another 5-10 minutes to cool down post exercise.
4. Check intensity – If you have any existing health conditions, or if recommended, rely on a heart rate monitor to maintain a safe heart rate range. This will be as per your age and fitness levels. There is a standard known as the Rate of Perceived Exertion on a scale of 1-10, to monitor the effort while working out. You need to target moderate intensity which is around 5-6.
5. Water – Consume adequate water before, during, and after workouts. Stay away from caffeine and energy drinks, as these increase heart rate and blood pressure.
6. Recognize certain signs – Certain unusual symptoms like chest pain, difficulty breathing, dizzy feelings, or overall fatigue are all possible warning signs. When you experience such symptoms, stop exercises and seek medical attention. Clear understanding heart attack prevention includes paying attention to such symptoms.
7. The right approach – The right approach and form of exercise will help prevent injury and strain on the heart. The services of a certified trainer are a good option to learn and follow the right exercise techniques. Choose a certified trainer who is aware of the effects on the heart.
8. Timing of food intake – Do not eat large meals before working out and choose a light snack. Ideally, you need to wait for 1-2 hours after a meal before you exercise.
