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Cardiovascular Treatment – Eliminating Certain Risk Factors Play A Major Role
Cardiovascular treatment revolves around four approaches; lifestyle changes, medications, angioplasty, and surgery. In this article we will focus on lifestyle changes and natural medications leaving prescription medications for others more knowledgeable to discuss. The major risk factors for cardiovascular disease are smoking, elevated blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, diabetes, and physical inactivity. But the list doesn’t stop there with stress, high blood homocysteine levels, and low levels of essential fatty acids being a few of the other cardiovascular risk factors often mentioned. Certainly, smoking is at the top of everyone’s list of causes of cardiovascular disease but the ranking of the others can vary dramatically from doctor to doctor and from medical specialty to specialty. While there may be some disagreement as to which risk factors are the most important everyone agrees that when multiple risk factors are present a dangerous situation exists. In fact one study concluded that when smoking, high blood cholesterol, and high blood pressure are all present the risk of cardiovascular disease is increased by 720%. Three Risk Factors That Must Be Eliminated *Smoking: When a person smokes toxins are introduced into the bloodstream and carried through the bloodstream by LDL cholesterol molecules. As they make their way through the coronary arteries they either damage the interior lining of the arteries or damage the LDL molecule itself. Smoking also is thought to damage the control mechanism in charge of how much blood cholesterol the liver produces. The bottom line is that if your goal is successful cardiovascular treatment you just cannot smoke. *Elevated blood cholesterol: Cholesterol provides the building blocks for artery clogging plaque deposits. Seventy five percent of blood cholesterol is produced by the liver. The other twenty five percent is derived from the foods we eat. While there are a number of ways to manage blood cholesterol perhaps the easiest is to watch what we eat, specifically saturated fat and high cholesterol foods. According to the AHA a heart healthy diet consists of 10 percent or less of calories from saturated fat and less than 30 percent from cholesterol. Generally speaking this type of diet will consist of more vegetables, less meat (4 oz servings or less), and two servings of cold water fatty fish per week. *Inactivity: Would it surprise you to know that according to the CDC almost 40 percent of heart attack victims were classified as inactive. But eliminating this risk factor is tricky business and most agree that working with your doctor to create an exercise plan that fits with your personal limitations will ultimately be the safest and most effective way to go. What else? For those who are looking for a natural path for cardiovascular treatment supplementation will play a valuable role. The three supplements most often mentioned are omega 3 fish oil, vitamin B complex tablets, and natural cholesterol reduction supplements. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com R.D. Hawkins is an enthusiastic advocate for the use of natural health products and natural living with over 10 years experience in the field. Learn more about natural remedies and natural health at Purchase Remedies.com |
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