February 16, 2011
Some Ways to Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease
By Josh Goldstein
Do you know your risk of developing coronary artery disease – heart disease?
Here’s an online tool that can get you started on finding the answer.
And while many of the factors that impact your risk of a heart attack are out of your control – your age and your family history – you can modify others like smoking and high cholesterol levels.
Smokers can quit – yes it’s hard, but it’s doable. If you’ve been trying and want some additional help, check out JeffQuit.
If you’ve got high cholesterol, there are lots of medications available that can help, particularly so-called statins. But many people are reluctant to go on life-long drug regimens. If you fall in that category, alternative approaches could help.
Cardiologist David H. Wiener, MD, director of clinical operations for the Jefferson Heart Institute, says that a good place to start is diet and exercise.
If you fix your diet – reduce the amount of saturated fats you consume, increase your fiber intake to between 5 grams and 10 grams a day, and make other heart-healthy food choices – you can reduce your cholesterol level by 15 percent to 20 percent, Dr. Wiener explains.
And he said if you add in weight loss – often a result of combining better diet and exercise routines – and you can push your numbers down even further. Lose 10 pounds and you could drop those cholesterol totals an additional 5 to 8 percent!
Want to learn more about alternative approaches to control your cholesterol? Read “How to Lower Your Cholesterol Levels without Medications” article in the February issue of the Keep In Touch with Jefferson newsletter. There, you can also brush up your knowledge of the different types of cholesterol and what the numbers mean. Then test your knowledge with this interactive Cholesterol quiz.