Heart Diseases: A Disease That Can Be Prevented

According to I.Martin, physician responsible for the cardiovascular area at the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 15 million deaths per year, corresponding to 30% of the world total of deaths. Alone, strokes caused in 1997 about 25% of deaths from vascular causes. However, if we add myocardial infarction with ischemic heart disease, manifestations of the same disease, we will see that coronary atherosclerosis was responsible for 33% of deaths

Myths about Cardiovascular Diseases

Some of the existing beliefs regarding heart diseases are wrong, which can have a negative effect regarding, for example, the search for health care, the adoption of healthy behavior or even the quality of life.

1. "Rest is the best medicine for heart disease"

Rest is sometimes confused with inactivity, leading to leves of sedentary lifestyle that are detrimental to cardiovascular diseases.

2. "Stress is the main cause of my illness"

Since the relationship between stress levels and the occurrence of illnesses is known, it is important to clarify that it is difficult to conceive a life without stress.Therefore, this is often "responsible" when what is at the base of the illness episode are the behaviors we adopt to deal with stress, from smoking, drinking or having an unhealthy diet.

3. To be healthy I have to do sports"

There is a very important difference between sport and physical activity. The main purpose of physical activity is to promote a healthy lifestyle and maintain health. This activity must be adjusted to the individual's physical condition and characteristics and defined based on the assessment by a qualified professional.

What are the risk factors?

Cardiovascular diseases can have different risk factors , from genetic, physiological, behavioral or environmental.

• Immutable

These are coronary risk factors, considered fixed, such as increasing age and genetic factors such as family history of cardiovascular disease. Anyone who has this type of disease or is at risk for it due to known risk factors (such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes) should be diagnosed as soon as possible and treated by professionals.

• Controllable

Are factors that are directly or indirectly related to lifestyle and beliefs about diseases, significantly influencing the probability of the individual to develop this type of disease (such as smoking habits, high cholesterol, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption.