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How Do You Prevent Heart Attacks When 50% Of At Risk For Heart Disease Not Identified

how do you prevent heart attacks

How do you prevent heart attacks when 50% those of at risk are not identified?  Yes, 50% – according to the third report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) of the National Institutes of Health.  No wonder there many cases where the patient’s first experience of a symptom is a heart attack, which is sometimes fatal!

The same report also states that 50% of those who have had heart attacks have normal cholesterol.  It presents a number of new lipoprotein risk factors to help identify those at risk.

Considering the above statistics, how do you prevent heart attacks?  I highly recommend the following 3-step approach:

  1. Learn the underlying causes of heart disease and the common misconceptions.
  2. For your annual check up, get better screening for heart disease risk.
  3. Follow a heart-healthy diet and if you have any of the underlying causes of heart disease developing or progressing, implement therapeutic lifestyle and dietary changes.

I have already written about the underlying causes of heart disease in various articles, prior newsletter issues and my recently published Patient Guide to Heart Disease, so I’ll just give you the summary:  The underlying causes of heart disease are inflammation, oxidative stress and autoimmune blood vessel damage.

Regarding step 2 of my approach for how do you prevent heart attacks, your wellness or annual check up should include:

  1. Lipoprotein risk factors screening
  2. Diabetes screening
  3. Measure body fat composition and waist-to-hip ratio

I recommend the lipoprotein risk factors screening instead of the standard lipid panel (standard cholesterol tests), since the standard lipid panel screening has not proven to be reliable for heart disease prevention.  As mentioned above, 50% of those that had a heart attack had normal cholesterol.

For step 3 of how you prevent heart attacks, your diet and lifestyle should prevent and decrease inflammation 1, 2, oxidative stress, and immune-induced blood vessel damage 3, 4.  If your checkup shows that you have these going on, get consultation for  therapeutic diet and lifestyle changes5, 6 and nutritional supplementation7 to resolve them.

I have compiled some of the most common misconceptions and debunked them with research studies in a Patient Guide ebook.  This guide includes information on the proven natural methods for reversing the cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes.  Get this FREE Patient Guide.

If you have any questions regarding how do you prevent heart attacks, contact me.

References:

  1. Ross R. N Engl J Med. 1999;340:115-126 ↩
  2. Hansson GK. N Engl J Med. 2005;352:1685-1695 ↩
  3. Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension 2011;20:113-117 ↩
  4. Marvar P, Thabet S, Tomasz G, et.al. Central and peripheral mechanisms of T-lymphocyte activation and vascular inflammation produced by angiotensin II–induced hypertension Circ Res 2010;107:263-270 ↩
  5. Ornish D, Scherwitz L, Billings J, et. al. Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease. JAMA.1998;280:2001-2007 ↩
  6. de Lorgeril M., Renaud S., Mamelle N., et. al. Mediterranean alpha-linolenic acid-rich diet in secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. Lancet.1994;343:1454-1459 ↩
  7. Houston, M. The role of cellular micronutrient analysis, nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants and minerals in the prevention and treatment of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Ther Adv Cardiovasc Dis. 2012 (Pre-publication draft). ↩