Heart Health at All Ages
In order to stay healthy and prevent cardiovascular disease, there are some steps you need to take, like getting screened for certain conditions, practicing healthy risk-reducing habits and, if necessary, taking preventative medications.
Starting in childhood, it's important to promote regular physical activity and a healthy diet. These lessons can last a lifetime, and they may also help prevent childhood obesity, an increasing problem in the United States.
As you get into adulthood, newfound independence includes taking charge of your own health. Be sure to make room in your routine for regular physical activity and healthy eating habits, while eliminating harmful habits like smoking. Tests that you should begin getting include:
- Blood pressure: At least every other year, starting at age 18.
- Cholesterol: Every 5 years, starting at age 20.
Continuing with a healthy diet and regular physical activity, plus getting routine blood pressure and cholesterol tests throughout life, are effective ways to prevent heart disease. You also need to be aware of your risk of developing diabetes, and a blood glucose test is the best indicator of this condition.
- Blood glucose: Every 3 years, beginning at age 45.
For the elderly, staying young at heart means doing all of the above while maintaining a close relationship with your physician. This will ensure that you're on track for the longest, heart-healthiest life possible!
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Gender
Biological differences between men and women go beyond the obvious and affect everything from muscle structure to heart health. Even heart health risks change over time between the two sexes. Before menopause, women have a much lower death rate from coronary attack than men. Women's risk rises sharply after menopause, but it still remains lower than men's in the same age group. Each year more women than men have a stroke, but men have a greater risk of heart attack than women do, and they have attacks earlier in life.
Men's Heart Health
Being a man automatically puts you at increased risk for heart disease and stroke. In fact, in the U.S., 1 in 4 males has some form of cardiovascular disease and about 7.1 million males alive today have a history of heart attack, angina pectoris or both. Taking care of yourself and reducing as many other risk factors as you can is the best road to take in the fight against heart disease.
Women & Heart Health
Cardiovascular disease claims more women's lives than the next
six causes of death combined — about 500,000 lives a year.
According to an American Heart Association survey, only 13% of women consider cardiovascular disease (CVD) their greatest health risk. But statistics show that no disease, not even cancer, claims as many women's lives as CVD. That's why it is so important to spread the word and recognize it as a very serious problem.
Women develop symptomatic heart disease an average of 10 to 15 years later than men. Once a woman reaches the age of 50 (about the age of natural menopause), the risk of heart disease increases dramatically. In young women who have undergone early or surgical menopause, the risk of heart disease is also higher, especially when combined with other risk factors.
Heart Disease and Menopause — What's the Connection?
As estrogen levels decrease after menopause, the natural protection women have against heart disease is also reduced. A lower level of estrogen causes:
- Changes in the walls of the blood vessels, which make it more likely that plaque and blood clots will form.
- Changes in the level of lipids in the blood. LDL levels increase and HDL levels decrease.
- An increase in fibrinogen (a substance in the blood that helps the blood to clot), which is related to heart disease and stroke.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
There is much debate and ongoing research about the benefits and risks associated with hormone replacement therapy; therefore it is a subject that is best left for you and your physician to discuss. |
