Your Health

The idea of health is something black and white, you are either ill or well, is an out dated notion. Most people nowadays know that there are times when they feel ‘just fine’ and there are days when they feel ‘really well’. The difference usually has nothing to do with a doctor and far more to do with how they look after themselves, whether they are well rested, eating well and so on.

The concept of all of us being responsible for looking after our health on an ongoing basis makes a lot of sense. Wearing ourselves out with too much of this, to little of that, work, relaxation, food, exercise and the rest and then rushing off to the doctor to sort us out, is, to some extent , shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. We can all be much fitter and healthier if we take a proactive approach to our own health by leading healthier lifestyles, getting regular check ups and taking part in health assessment programmes designed to detect health problems at an early stage, before they are serious and when there’s still time to do something about them.

Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean never seeing a doctor, or seeking the advice of other health professionals. It is important to report any physical illness to your GP for treatment. Before starting on any exercise or weight loss programme it is suggested that you discuss this with him/her and ensure that there are no particular health reasons that would put you at risk.

Heart Disease

Heart disease is a major cause of disability in this country and is the single most common cause of death in men and women.

What is it?
The heart is a powerful muscular pump and the action of the heart muscle depends on its own supply of blood from the coronary arteries. The left and right coronary arteries provide essential oxygen to the heart muscle. The lining of these arteries is perfectly smooth at birth, but the development of the disease process called atheroma, which initially takes the form of a fatty streak on the lining of the coronary artery, leads to the development of symptoms of heart disease, either angina or heart attack.

As the coronary arteries get narrower with atheroma so the blood supply to the heart muscle is gradually reduced. When people exert themselves physically under these circumstances the heart’s muscle’s demand for oxygen cannot be met and this produces pain in the chest, the classical symptom of angina pectoris. There are now effective treatments for angina including drugs and surgery, which can relieve symptoms and increase life expectancy.

When someone has a heart attack the atheroma lining in the blood vessel wall ruptures and releases fat into the coronary artery, which can result in a blood clot completely blocking the blood supply to one part of the heart muscle. This causes severe chest pain and is a medical emergency requiring urgent admission to hospital.

This next section concentrates on the factors known to be associated with heart attacks. It tells you what these are, why you should take heart disease seriously, how it is detected and what you can do to change these risk factors.

Who is at risk?
Coronary heart disease causes approximately one in four deaths in men and one in five deaths in women. In women cardiovascular disease causes twice as many deaths as cancer.

What causes heart disease?
The way we live, the way our body works (which is partly the result of our lifestyle) and our family inheritance are the most important causes of this disease.

Lifestyle risk factors include:

• Smoking
Smoking dramatically increases your risk of developing heart disease. The greater the number of cigarettes smoked and the more years you have smoked, the greater the risk of developing heart disease.

• Diet
Eating too many foods rich in saturated fats, too few foods high in un-saturated fats, and too little fresh vegetables and fruit, increases your risk of developing heart disease.

• Physical exercise
Taking little or no physical exercise increases your risk of developing heart disease.

• Stress
Although it is more difficult to assess, too much stress in your life may increase your risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Other risk factors include:

• Family history
A family history of premature (before the age of 55 years) in a blood relative (e.g. a parent, brother or sister) increases your own risk of developing this disease. Whilst this may partly reflect the genetic inheritance, it can also be due to the social environment of families where a common lifestyle can pre-dispose to coronary disease.

• Blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood glucose
These factors are all essential to the normal working of our bodies but the higher your blood pressure, the higher your blood cholesterol and the higher your blood glucose, so the risk of developing heart disease increases. Our diet and the amount of physical exercise we take can influence blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels.

Preventing heart disease
Reducing your risk of heart disease can mean making quite radical lifestyle changes and it may not be possible for you to attempt to make too many changes all at once. Work out a strategy for yourself which allows you to take in one step at a time and gradually introduce other changes as you feel confident to do so.

• Stop smoking cigarettes
Stopping smoking reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and other disease as well, and this benefit is quickly apparent. It is possible to return to the risk level of a life long non-smoker, although it may take several years. There are numerous tapes, books and videos available to help you quit. Try stopping with a friend or join a group.

• Take up regular exercise
Including exercise into your daily routine will not only reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease, you will start to feel less tired, less stressed and more energised. It will take your mind off smoking if you are trying to stop and help you to shed pounds if you need to lose weight.

• Avoid diabetes
A high blood glucose increases your risk of heart disease. Risk factors for diabetes include family history and being overweight. Try to keep your weight under control.

• Learn to de-stress
Important for your well-being generally, de-stressing should be an important part of your daily routine and may help in the prevention of coronary heart disease. Again there are numerous books, tapes and videos available on how to deal with stress which you can use at home.

• Blood cholesterol
Your GP will advise whether you blood cholesterol should be lowered and if this cannot be achieved by lifestyle changes (losing weight, reducing saturated fat and increasing the consumption of polyunsaturated fats) then drug therapy may be required.

• Keep your blood pressure down
In susceptible people, salt, excessive alcohol consumption and being overweight can make your blood pressure go up. Some people just develop high blood pressure for other reasons.

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