A complete list of heart disease prevention methods

The prevention of heart disease does not have as many complicated folk remedies as those spread on the Internet. The core is three things - control the high-risk indicators of blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar, and weight within the standard line, change the habit of staying up late, overeating, long-term smoking and drinking, which are clearly harmful to the heart, and conduct regular screening according to your own risk level, which can prevent more than 90% of sudden cardiac events.

When I was doing a free clinic in the community, I met a 28-year-old Internet programmer. He rarely even caught colds. He always thought that "heart disease is a disease of old men and old ladies." After working on a project for a week, he suddenly suffered a myocardial infarction and was sent to the emergency department. An angiogram showed that his coronary artery was 80% blocked. When I asked him, I found out that his blood pressure had been around 145/95 for three consecutive years. He had never bothered to take medicine. Don't take youth as a golden ticket to avoid death. Nowadays, there are more and more patients with myocardial infarction in their early 30s in clinical practice, and most of them are people who don't care about minor problems.

When it comes to indicator control, don’t think that you don’t need to take care of it if you don’t feel dizzy or uncomfortable. “Silent killers” such as high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, and high blood sugar can injure blood vessels. For ordinary healthy people, the low-density lipoprotein should be controlled within 3.4mmol/L. If If you already have atherosclerotic plaques or have a family history of coronary heart disease, it is best to drop it below 1.8. Many people do not get this standard right, thinking that everything will be fine within the "normal range" of the physical examination form. In fact, the compliance lines for different risk groups are fundamentally different.

There is another question that everyone has been arguing about for a long time: Should we take aspirin and coenzyme Q10 to prevent heart disease? Objectively speaking, both viewpoints are valid. The current consensus in the academic community is that people who have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease and have had a history of myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction, as long as they have no contraindications to bleeding, will clearly benefit from long-term aspirin consumption. ； But if you are a healthy person with no underlying diseases and want to prevent heart disease, taking aspirin will increase the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and cerebral hemorrhage, which is completely unnecessary. As for coenzyme Q10, if you usually take statins and have muscle soreness as a side effect, or have a history of myocarditis, supplementing it can indeed relieve the discomfort. ； But healthy people can get enough by eating some pork and deep-sea fish. Spending hundreds of dollars on imported products is purely an IQ tax. There is really no need to follow the trend.

Many people always ask me how many steps should I walk every day to protect my heart? You really don’t need to take the 10,000-step KPI. I met a 62-year-old patient who had degenerative disease in his knees. In order to support his heart, he forced himself to walk 15,000 miles a day. In the end, his knees were so worn that he needed surgery, and his heart was not much better. For an elderly person with bad knees, walking slowly for 20 minutes a day, doing Tai Chi, or even doing some exercise at home is better than carrying the injured joint. ； If young people don’t have time to go to the gym, getting off the car two stops before get off work and walking and climbing a few flights of stairs is better than doing high-intensity exercise for two hours on weekends. Excessive exercise will put extra burden on the heart. In the past, there was a young man who trained 10 kilometers every day in order to qualify for a marathon. In the end, he was found to have excessive cardiac enzymes, which was not worth the gain.

There is no need to go to extremes when it comes to diet. No one can endure eating boiled vegetables every day. Do not add more salt than a beer bottle cap when cooking. When ordering takeout, please note "less salt and less sauce". Those noodles, candied fruits, and processed meat products that are not salty actually contain a lot of sodium. I used to have an old patient who ate noodles with pickles every day, and his blood pressure soared to 160 without knowing why. There is no need to completely give up "happy foods" such as braised pork and milk tea. It is perfectly fine to eat an occasional meal to satisfy your cravings. Just don't eat it every day. Eat deep-sea fish two or three times a week and eat more whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. It is more reliable than any health-preserving diet. Oh, by the way, if you can quit smoking, quit as soon as possible. Not only first-hand smoke, but also people who smoke second-hand smoke all year round, the growth rate of coronary plaque is 30% higher than that of ordinary people. There are many female patients who do not smoke, that is, their husbands smoke at home all year round, and finally they are diagnosed with coronary atherosclerosis. You really need to pay attention to this.

There is another point that is easily overlooked: emotions have a greater impact on the heart than you think. I have seen several aunts come here with chest pains after quarreling with family members. Long-term anxiety, sulking, and stress are more harmful to the heart than staying up late once in a while. If you are really overwhelmed, just go out for a few laps and chat with friends. Don't bear it. Of course, there is no need to be too anxious. The occasional premature beat or palpitation is mostly caused by poor rest. Don't frighten yourself and blame heart disease. If the attacks occur frequently and are accompanied by chest tightness and pain, it is not too late to go to the hospital for examination.

As for screening, there is no need for excessive medical treatment: for ordinary healthy people, annual physical examinations such as electrocardiogram, blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar are enough.； If you have a family history of coronary heart disease, smoke all year round, or have high blood pressure, you should have a heart ultrasound every year. ； For high-risk groups over 40 years old, a coronary CTA every two years is completely sufficient.

After all, the heart is an organ that stays with you for a lifetime. It will treat you the same way you treat it. There is no need to engage in fancy health care routines. Doing these little things well is better than anything else. If you are really unsure about something, don’t frighten yourself by searching blindly. Ask a cardiologist in a regular hospital. It won’t take much time and you will feel more at ease.