What are the preventive measures for heart disease?

Try to reduce the extra burden on the heart and blood vessels as much as possible, nip high-risk factors in the bud in advance, and don’t wait for symptoms to occur before you think about remedies.

When I was a volunteer in the Department of Cardiology in the past two years, I saw too many patients who regretted it. There was a 28-year-old programmer whose annual physical examination report was all green. He stayed up until two or three o'clock all year round and ate hot pot fried chicken at least four times a week. When he worked overtime, he felt chest tightness twice and thought it was tired. It wasn't until the third time that he fainted at the workstation and was sent over to be diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction. After he was rescued, he told me that he had always thought that heart disease was a disease only for the elderly. Who knows that young people's blood vessels clog faster.

Many people’s understanding of prevention is “less oil, less salt and more exercise.” This is true, but there is no need to go too extreme. For example, an aunt who was diagnosed with coronary artery calcification was so scared that she did not dare to eat any meat. She only ate boiled vegetables every day. As a result, she fainted once due to lack of nutrition within three months, which put a burden on her heart. In fact, it is enough to change the high-fat and high-sugar food from "daily standard" to "occasionally satisfy cravings." Eating braised pork and drinking a cup of milk tea once or twice a week will not be a big problem at all. On the contrary, it is good for the heart to feel comfortable.

There are actually some heart-protecting rumors that are always buzzing on the Internet. For example, whether drinking coffee will hurt the heart? For people who don’t have basic problems such as premature beats and atrial fibrillation, drinking two or three cups of black coffee a day can actually help metabolism. If you feel flustered after drinking it, don’t drink it.； It is also said that the more you exercise, the better your health will be. For people who never exercise, suddenly running a half marathon or doing high-intensity intervals can easily cause myocardial damage. Follow your physical condition and walk three or four times a week for half an hour each time. The effect is no worse than random exercise. As for the popular heart-protecting health products, such as coenzyme Q10 and deep-sea fish oil, if you have a regular daily diet, there is no need to spend such wasted money. If you really want to take them, consult a doctor first. Don't supplement by yourself, which will burden your metabolism.

You don't need to be too tight at ordinary times. If you really feel your chest feels tight or tight after staying up late or getting angry, don't hold on to it, stop and rest for a few minutes. If it doesn't relieve after ten minutes, don't force yourself to go to the hospital. Call 120 immediately. This is not squeamish, it can really save lives. Also, don’t just focus on the abnormality of the electrocardiogram during the annual physical examination. For people with high blood pressure, diabetes or family history of heart disease, it is best to check coronary CT and blood lipids. The “bad cholesterol” called low-density lipoprotein should be lower than the reference value on the test sheet. There is no need to wait for the indicators to become red before starting to adjust.

To put it bluntly, it's like a private car you've driven for many years. Don't wait until it breaks down before you think of repairing it. Don't slam on the accelerator or brake hard, and do some regular maintenance. It will run smoothly for decades. There are so many unexpected problems. Most of them are small hidden dangers that have been saved and not taken seriously.