HOW
TO PREVENT CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES
Cardiovascular
diseases are those that affect the heart and arteries and are the leading cause
of death and disability worldwide. Every year 17.5 million people die as a
result of heart disease. In Spain they affect a quarter of the population and
those with the highest incidence are:
-Hypertension:
It is the increase in blood pressure continuously. It increases the risk of
suffering a stroke and an acute myocardial infarction. A person is hypertensive
when they repeatedly have a systolic (maximum) pressure equal to or greater
than 140mmHg, or a diastolic (minimum) blood pressure equal to or greater than
90mmHg. Hypertension is the easiest risk factor to detect and the easiest to
treat.
-Ictus:
Alteration of blood circulation in the brain that causes a plug or rupture of
an artery. This obstruction prevents blood from reaching part of the brain and
causes brain cells to die.
-Acute
myocardial infarction: Death of the heart tissue due to the decrease or
interruption of the coronary circulation attributed to a thrombosis of the
artery (to a plug). Due to its severity - it can cause death - prevention is
very important.
-Heart
failure: The heart is unable to expel the blood that reaches it in each cardiac
cycle and provide blood to all organs and parts of the body. People who suffer
from it have difficulties to carry out the activities of daily living.
The most
important causes of cardiovascular diseases are an unhealthy diet, physical
inactivity and the consumption of tobacco and alcohol, among others. For this
reason, if we want to try to avoid them, we must act on these risk factors
through adequate prevention.
Guidelines to follow
Mainly,
it is about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, it is in our best
interest to follow a healthy diet, quit tobacco and alcohol, reduce stress, and
do physical exercise on a regular basis. The World Health Organization
estimates that the incidence of these diseases could be reduced by 80%, if
these habits were followed and risk factors were controlled.
There
are a number of risk factors that cannot be controlled: such as age, gender, or
family history. For this reason, it is important from a certain age -45 in the
case of men and 55 in women- to carry out routine checks of the entire
cardiovascular system to control blood pressure, blood sugar level and blood
pressure. cholesterol. These controls must be at least once a year. This
recommendation is even more advisable if we have family members who have
suffered a cardiovascular accident, especially at an early age.
Regarding
sex, being a man increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, but women are
not exempt, especially after menopause. Statistics show that in the world a
third of women die from this cause.
