Irish Independent Broadsheet
Monday 20 February 2012
By Dr Deirdre Ward
Consultant Cardiologist at Tallaght Hospital
• Exercise is the most obvious way to keep your heart healthy – but in these recessionary times, you don’t have to join a gym. Walking at a reasonably brisk pace for around 30 minutes five times a week is the best way to optimise the efficiency of the heart muscle.
• It’s difficult to measure the long term effect of stress on the heart and I think people often overestimate it – you’re unlikely to suffer from a heart attack from stress alone.However, research shows that major stressors such as moving house or losing a loved one can raise blood pressure – so it’s important to discover your own relaxation technique such as meditation and strike a work-life balance.
• You can’t change a family history of heart disease – but you can become more aware of it. It’s a good idea to sit down and make out a “family tree” of conditions like stroke, cancer and diabetes – your family doctor should be able to help you with this.Coronary heart disease often takes years or even decades to develop – so even children as young as 10 should be monitored for early warning signs.
• Although high cholesterol is usually associated with being overweight, lots of slim, active people have high cholesterol.Irrespective of your size, reduce your intake of red meat, fatty foods such as cake and processed foods which are often laced with salt.Don’t rely on cholesterol-lowering foods such as Flora proactive or benecol alone to keep your total cholesterol below 5mmol/L (millimoles per litre).
• Women tend to develop coronary heart disease around 10 years later than men as the female sex hormone oestrogen is believed to slow down production of the fatty deposits that build up on the arteries.However, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) used to treat the symptoms of menopause doesn’t have the same protective factor as natural estrogen – and has actually been associated with increasing the risk of CHD – so it’s not advisable to stay on it for more than five years.