At first it may feel overwhelming to think about stopping. If you have a heart condition, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to stop smoking. You will be directed to useful resources and sometimes asked to visit your GP for further tests.īritish Heart Foundation’s tool can help you check your heart age You will also have a chat about your lifestyle, including diet and smoking habits. The assessment consists of discussing your risk factors, and measuring your blood pressure, pulse, height and weight. This score is used in GP surgeries and clinics to assess your risk of heart disease. This can be useful for looking at the risk factors people may have. In Scotland, the risk score health professionals use is the ASSIGN score. When working out the risk of developing cardiovascular or heart disease, we can use a "risk score". You can also work out your "risk score" or likelihood of developing cardiovascular or heart disease. other issues, like high blood pressure, stress and impotence.Making changes to your lifestyle can improve your overall health and reduce your risk of heart disease. Other cardiovascular risk factors are concerned with your lifestyle choices. gender - men have an increased risk of heart disease.ethnic origin - people with an Afro-Caribbean or South East Asian ethnic background have an increased risk of heart disease.
age - the risk of heart disease increases with age. family history of heart disease and/or stroke - father or brother who developed heart disease or a stroke before they were 55, or a mother or sister before they were 65. Risk factors we can’t change (non-modifiable) physical inactivity - being physically active can keep your weight and blood pressure down to healthy levels. too much alcohol - too much can affect blood pressure and cholestorol, and can cause weight gain. It’s also associated with diabetes, respiratory disease, gall bladder problems and some cancers. being overweight - this increases the work the heart has to do, and it leads to high blood pressure and abnormal levels of fat in the blood. poor diet - a healthy diet can help reduce your risk of developing coronary heart disease and stop you gaining weight, reducing your risk of diabetes and high blood pressure. smoking - if you have a heart condition, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to stop smoking. Scotland has a high prevalence of the risk factors associated with heart disease, like: We can break down risk factors into what we can’t change (non-modifiable) and what we can change (modifiable). We can also prevent further illness and death in people who already have heart disease. We can lower the risk of people developing heart disease in the first place. The good news is that if we tackle these risk factors, we can reduce our numbers of people developing heart disease. The disease is caused when the heart’s blood vessels, the coronary arteries, become narrowed or blocked and can’t supply enough blood to the heart. Deaths from cardiovascular diseaseĬardiovascular disease refers to all the diseases of the heart and circulation, including stroke and coronary heart disease.Ĭoronary Heart Disease (CHD) - or heart disease - is preventable, yet it kills, according to the Heart Research Institute UK, around 18,050 people in Scotland each year. The narrowing or blockages within the coronary arteries may be slowed down if a healthy lifestyle is continued. The importance of a healthy lifestyle affects everyone and in particular if you have been diagnosed with a heart condition.
0 kommentar(er)
