Prevention

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the No. 1 killer in America. About 954,000 Americans died last year of CVD, accounting for over 42 percent of all deaths. 

How do you maintain a health heart? 
Here are some important ways:

Lifestyle choices can reduce your risk of heart disease. While not all change is easy, work with your healthcare professional to introduce healthy life habits into your daily routine. Your first steps don't have to be giant ones. Small, gradual changes can lead to big improvements! 

Lifestyle changes you may need to consider are:

• Stop or avoid smoking 

• Monitor and control blood pressure regularly 

• Monitor and control cholesterol levels regularly

• Take medications as prescribed 

• Follow a healthy eating plan and maintain desirable weight 

• Get plenty of physical activity 

• Monitor and control diabetes

• Ask about estrogen replacement therapy 

Exercise:
Lack of physical activity is now clearly shown to be a risk factor for heart disease. 

Scientists have not found a direct link between regular exercise and stroke. But they do know that exercise reduces the risk of other health problems, such as heart disease, which can contribute to stroke. By helping to prevent heart attack, exercise may reduce the risk of some kinds of embolic stroke.

Even low-to-moderate intensity activities, when done for as little as 30 minutes a day, can bring benefits. These activities include pleasure walking, climbing stairs, gardening, yard work, moderate-to-heavy housework, dancing and home exercise. 

More vigorous aerobic activities, such as brisk walking, running, swimming, bicycling, roller skating and jumping rope -- done three or four times a week for 30-60 minutes -- are best for improving the fitness of the heart and lungs. 

Diet: 
The American Heart Association Eating Plan for Healthy Americans is based on these AHA dietary guidelines:

• Total fat intake should be no more 30 percent of total calories. 

• Saturated fatty acid intake should be 8-10 percent of total calories. 

• Polyunsaturated fatty acid intake should be up to 10 percent of total calories. 

• Monounsaturated fatty acids make up to 15 percent of total calories. 

• Cholesterol intake should be less than 300 milligrams per day. 

• Sodium intake should be less than 2400 milligrams per day, which is about 1-1/4 teaspoons of sodium chloride (salt). 

• Carbohydrate intake should make up 55-60 percent or more of calories, with emphasis on increasing sources of complex carbohydrates . 

Total calories should be adjusted to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. 

Some people misinterpret the first guideline to mean that each food or each recipe should have less than 30 percent of its calories come from fat. The guideline applies to total calories eaten over several days, such as a week. If it is applied to single foods, the "30 percent of calories from fat" guideline will cause many foods that fit into a well-balanced eating plan to be excluded.

Examples of these foods include: 

• oil and margarine (100% of calories from fat)

• regular and low-calorie salad dressings (75-100% of calories from fat)

• dark chicken meat without skin (43% of calories from fat)

• salmon (36% of calories from fat)

• lower-fat meats like turkey ham (34% of calories from fat)

• as well as many nuts and seeds (75-90% of calories from fat).

Applying the 30 percent standard to single foods greatly limits the variety of foods in the diet and can be misleading. The only way to maintain balance, variety and enjoyment of the AHA eating plan is to interpret the guideline with emphasis on the words "total calories."