Picture this, one bright afternoon a mother and daughter are having a calm, relaxing day in their local park. They come across a park bench and decide to sit down. Soon thereafter the mother begins to clutch her chest in agony. The pain of having her daughter watch her agony must have been even more excrutiating. She is fully involved in her first ever heart attack. Unlike sudden cardiac arrest, this woman was experiencing a myocardial infarction. The mother was walking, talking and conscious even despite the horrific symptoms that occurred on that horrible day (Hamrick). So don’t let this ever happen to you. Follow the simple steps to get, and stay heart healthy.
The scary truth is that this woman is not alone. An estimated fifteen
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This allows the heart to beat slower and more efficiently to keep blood pressure under control(Moore, Kristine). Some individuals might not have the extra time to do the recommended amount of aerobic activity. Those people should ask themselves, do they have time to have a heart attack?
Another activity that takes up time is eating. Growing up, children are taught to eat three square meals a day. That’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A study done by the United States Department of Agriculture found that on an average day between 2006-08, Americans age 15 or older spend 67 minutes just eating and drinking. They also found that Americans spend 86.5 minutes eating while multi-tasking. That means that the majority of the times that people spend eating, they are distracted by other things and not focused on what they eat. Becoming hearth healthy also requires a diet that is high in fiber and antioxidants. Foods that are quick to eat on the go such as candy bars or potato chips are the exact opposite of what should be eaten. These foods can be detrimental to heart health. Foods that are high in sugar, sodium, trans fats, and ultimately calories are the absolute worst choices to make. However, these foods are the easiest and cheapest to get on the run and that’s why many people aren’t heart healthy. What people should do is carefully watch what they put into
Polyunsaturated fats are found in fish and vegetable oils and are an essential nutrient which reduces the risk for coronary heart disease (Shulman, 2010, pg. 51). The unhealthy fats are the trans fatty acids, saturated and unsaturated, such as butter, cheese and animal fat, should be completely removed from diets. Saturated trans fats contribute to an increased low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, increase inflammation and heart disease. Unsaturated trans fats also contribute to higher LDL cholesterol and lower the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels (Shulman, 2010, pg. 52). A fast paced society has lead to and increased consumption of prepackaged food is because it is a convenient option when people are in a time restraint and for people who are stressed (C.L. Rocks, personal communication, October 11, 2011). A way to overcome this is to spend some time planning meals for a week and by arranging healthy snacks, such as preparing raw vegetables ahead of time, to make it easier to eat healthy when in a time restraint. Trans fatty foods containing hydrogenated vegetable oil, foods such as chips or cookies, typically are high calorie foods and are lacking in essential nutrients (Brandt, 2011, pg 158). Cravings increase over time because people turn to them so often it develops into a habit. These unhealthy habits could unfortunately result in a person gaining weight (C.L. Rocks, personal communication, October 11,
Exercise and physical activity deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently.
Having a bad diet is one of the main reasons why so many people suffer from heart disease. The foods that are high in fat can cause high levels of cholesterol in the blood stream, which can lead to the formation of plaques that can block the arteries. Around the worlds there are large varieties of foods, but in that variety there is also what is known as fast foods. These “fast foods” are prepared in large quantities by a standardized method and can be dispensed quickly at inexpensive restaurants for eating there or elsewhere. They may be cheap, but are not always healthy. They can contain
We need to say away from foods that are unnatural because they have a negative effect on our bodies. There are two different kinds of fats. Hydrogenated fat, which is the worst for you, which includes such foods as crackers. Natural plant based fats, which is good for you that include such foods as avocadoes. We humans tend to misread the difference. If it has a name for something that is good for you in the title doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. An example of this would be high fruit corn syrup. The writers told us that it is like smoking cocaine because even cocaine or high fruit corn syrup is made from something so pure at one time is now super unhealthy. Sugar is like drugs and alcohol addicting and sometimes very harmful. It comes in all forms such as therefore carbonates like bread. Even though it is not in a crystalized form it still is sugar. Humans become habituated to the effect of sugar. The facts are absolutely true because each individual person tends to consume 150 lbs. of sugar per year. Our mood can change and chronic disease can occur just because of this everyday “comfort food”.
However with regular exercise people can reach lower rate of heart beat and can creat tighter muscles and stop the strain on their heart.
According to the WHO, cardiovascular diseases have been the leading cause of death globally claiming 17 million lives a year, more deaths than all cancer combined (Chiu and Radisic, 2013). Cardiovascular disease is responsible for a preponderance of health problems and its impact is expected to grow further as the population ages. In the UK, NHS spends about £7.74 billion as the expenditure to deal with cardiovascular diseases (Barton et al., 2011). Cardiovascular disease in the form of myocardial infarction has become the principle cause of death in developed countries, accounting for nearly 40% of all deaths (http://www.bhf.org.uk/). Congenital heart defects, which occur in nearly 14 of every 1000 new-born children, is another tragic fact that baffles medical industry (http://www.heart.org/). About 61 million Americans (almost one-fourth of the population) live with cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease, congenital cardiovascular defects, and congestive heart failure.
Cardiovascular disease has reportedly been the number one disease killer for men and women in the United States of America. Every one out of four deaths is caused by heart disease in the United States alone (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention). Heart disease refers to the different types of conditions and symptoms that can affect the one’s heart and its functions to the body (Mayo Clinic). Cardiovascular/Heart disease has many causes and conditions, prevention methods and symptoms, and treatment options.
With more intake, a person is susceptible to gain weight, and with less intake, susceptible to lose weight over a given period of time. This is known as the Calorie-in Calorie-out effect. The source of the calorie, however, determines whether it is healthy for the body or not. The same amount of calorie coming from oats and chips are not comparable at all. In the USA, most people rely on processed and fast food, rich in artificial preservatives, Trans fat and sodium content. Fast foods, famous for their low price, large portion and taste are responsible for overeating and weight gain too (Food and Diet). With these foods, we get much more sodium, fat and cholesterol than required by our body, resulting in chronic heart disease, high cholesterol level in blood and gradual accumulation of fat leading to obesity. In addition to that, widespread use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as an artificial sweetener in soft drinks, beverages and desserts is proved to have been related with high-calorie intake and increment in obesity, as mentioned by an article in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Bray).
Exercising stimulates Vasodilation and Vasoconstriction to facilitate the oxygen delivered to the muscles. It also keeps the blood vessels healthy and stops the accumulation of cholesterol and harmful substances. It can also help on warming up and cooling down of the
The role of diet is a very important aspect in the development and prevention of cardiovascular disease. High levels of cholesterol in the blood is strongly associated 3wit coronary artery disease. If you have a high level of cholesterol in your blood, you need to work with your doctor to make it lower, or face a high risk of heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular event. Most circulating cholesterol is produced by the liver and cannot be broken down as easily and by all means you should avoid trans fats which are found in many fast foods, junk foods, and commercial processed foods. Hydrogenated vegetable oils like margarine, certain coffee creamers, and vegetable shortening are also linked to heart disease. Some researchers suggest
Like sleeping, I’m not surprised that eating made the top five for most time consuming activity. But calculating the hours really puts in perspective how much time we use for
Heart disease is the number one leading cause of death in America according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart disease is usually caused by long-term history of an unhealthy eating lifestyle, lack of exercise and being overweight. We begin in the search on what causes us to gain a significant amount of weight at a dangerous rate over time. Nutrition plays a significant amount in our health since it’s what keeps our bodies alive, doing certain activities throughout the day. Fueling our bodies with healthy foods is what keeps are bodies happy, but to the average American, today we tend to feed our bodies excess amount of sodium, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and trans-fat which our diabetics
Mrs. A (pseudonym) is an 83-year-old Samoan female of Christian religion who was admitted to an urban hospital on 02/04/15 by GP referral. She came in with chest pain associated with productive cough and shortness of breath (SOB) on exertion. She also complained of having recurrent episodes of vomiting mixed with saliva and fatigue. She has a history of asthma, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus on Metformin and double incontinence due to a long-standing history of intermittent constipation. Her chest computed tomographic (CT) revealed right lower lobe opacity indicating pulmonary consolidation, which means that her right lower lung has accumulated exudates in the alveoli that would have normally been filled by gas, indicative of bacterial pneumonia. Furthermore, a sputum gram stain sample collected from Mrs. A showed gram-positive bacteria, which is also a characteristic of pneumonia. Her blood tests revealed a high haemoglobin count, which may be caused by an underlying lung disease, as well as high white blood cell count confirming the presence of infection. Considering all diagnostic results, Mrs. A was diagnosed with right lower lobe bacterial pneumonia.
Physical activity has been proven to have phenomenal benefits on the human body and is an important part of a balanced lifestyle. Statistics have shown that regular exercise can prevent illness and lower one’s likelihood of being diagnosed with a series of diseases significantly. It has been ‘medically proven’ that regular exercise can reduce a subject’s chance of being diagnosed with coronary heart disease or stroke by 35%, type two diabetes by 50%, colon cancer by 50%, breast cancer by 20%, early death by 30%, osteoarthritis by 83% and a number of other life threatening illnesses. Regular exercise can improve a person’s overall wellbeing and immunity to common illnesses. During physical activity, a person’s heart rate can increase significantly and allow more oxygenated blood to be supplied to muscles. A person’s breathing rate can increase during exercise and supply more oxygen to the lungs. The increased blood flow during exercise allows the brain to function better. Exercise has many benefits to the human body and is a major factor of disease
As the population ages heart failure is expected to increase exceptionally. About twenty-two percent of men and forty-four percent of women will develop heart failure within six years of having a heart attack. “Thirty years ago patients would have died from their heart attacks!” (Couzens)