5 Lifestyle Habits That Are Increasing Your Risk of a Heart Attack

A stroke occurs when the brain’s blood supply is compromised. Once this happens, brain cells begin to die. Stroke is a disabling and potentially life-threatening condition and millions of Indians are at risk of it without their realization. While the number of stroke patients continues to rise rapidly, like many other brain diseases, there is still a remarkable lack of awareness about it. Many a time this plaque makes it harder for blood to get to your heart, which leads to completely blocks blood flow. Eventually, it can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Besides this, there are several other reasons which can lead to stroke, like unhealthy eating habits, lifestyle factor that increases the risk of death associated with the chronic diseases.

Dr. Sr. Consultant – Neurology, Head – Movement Disorders Clinic and in-charge, DBS Program at  (Mumbai ) shares what are the lifestyle habits that can lead to stroke. 

• Consumption of too much salty food

It is found that the people who consume foods high in sodium are part of your regular diet, are more likely to suffer from a stroke as it directly affects the heart. Eating too many salty foods can increase your risk of elevated blood pressure, a pre-existing condition that is responsible for more than 50 percent of stroke cases worldwide. People who consumed more than 4,000 mg of sodium on a daily basis are at more risk of stroke compared to those who ate 2,000 mg or less

• Not staying physically active

Staying physically active keeps your blood flowing and your heart strong. Everyone should aim to work out at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. There are many reasons why people may not be as active as they should be. However, the covid pandemic has given a lot of time to stay at home and make yourself fit. Exercising regularly is key to maintaining your heart health. Sometimes it can be boring, but you can try to make exercise fun, too.

• Smoking

People who are habitual of smoking are in the category of high risk for heart disease. It includes all forms of tobacco which cause blockages in the artery leading to the brain. The study finds out that nicotine also raises blood pressure and thickens the blood, increasing the amount of plaque buildup in the arteries. Every time a person inhales a cigarette, he/she is putting over 5,000 chemicals into their body. One of these chemicals is carbon monoxide which decreases the amount of oxygen in your red blood cells, which damages your heart. Smoking is the cause of almost one-third of deaths from stroke in recent years.

• Consumption of Alcohol

Drinking alcohol, binge drinking thins the blood, can significantly impact a person’s risk of stroke. In fact, since 1725 alcohol has been linked to stroke risk, likely because long-term drinking of more than two servings of alcohol per day can cause high blood pressure. Consuming one to two drinks a day can increase the risk of stroke by 10 to 15 percent. And more than four drinks a day increase the risk of stroke by up to 35 percent. Lately, it is also found that drinking alcohol is associated with a higher risk for ischemic stroke compared with patients who never drank alcohol or stopped drinking after their diagnosis.

• Too much stressing over things

If you’re wondering if stress can cause a stroke, too, the answer is, unfortunately, yes. It’s known that stress from work, juggling with kids, dealing with your partner are factors that can turn into stress. All these factors can increase the chances of risk for cardiovascular disease, particularly high blood pressure and heart disease. And these days people are stressing over anything to everything due to their lifestyle. Stress can raise your blood pressure, which puts more strain on your heart and arteries and cause permanent damage.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

 

7 of the most dangerous things that put you at risk of a heart attack

Heart disease is the number one killer in the US.

    But many heart attacks are preventable, and they're becoming less deadly and less common than they used to be in the US.

    Some of the most straightforward things that raise your risk of an attack include being overweight, not  getting enough sleep, and smoking.

Heart diseases — chiefly heart attacks — are the number one killer in the US. In 2016, they killed 635,260 people.

The heart is the body's most critical life pump, and a heart attack (or myochardial infarction, by its more scientific name) is what happens when a person's heart can't get enough blood.

When this happens, people often start to feel dizzy, get chest pains that might shoot through the left arm, and become short of breath.

Inside the body, a heart attack is usually the work of a blood clot, which blocks our hardest-working muscle's normal supply of blood. A heart attack can do serious damage to people's heart muscles.

The good news is that by and large, heart attack rates are improving: They're both less deadly and less common than they used to be in the US. According to a study released in March, heart attack hospitalizations have gone down 38% since the mid-90s in the US, and the mortality rate for heart attacks is at an all-time low, though not in every community.

But even as doctors learn more about what causes heart attacks and how to prevent them, attacks are becoming more common in young people. The proportion of heart attack patients under 40 has been climbing at about 2% a year for the past 10 years, according to recent research presented at the American College of Cardiology's Scientific Session.

"It used to be incredibly rare to see anyone under age 40 come in with a heart attack, and some of these people are now in their 20s and early 30s," study author Ron Blankstein, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said in a release. "Based on what we are seeing, it seems that we are moving in the wrong direction."

Here are a few of the most influential things that can your risk of having a heart attack.

Scientists have known for a while that smoking is dangerous for your heart.

Smoking cigarettes has long been linked to more heart attacks, largely because the chemicals that are in tobacco hurt our blood cells and increase the risk of atherosclerosis. This dangerous buildup of plaque in the arteries can make a heart attack more likely.

Secondhand smoke contains a lot of the same dangerous chemicals, which is why it can also hurt our hearts.

"No matter how much or how long you've smoked, quitting will benefit you," according to the National Institutes of Health.

Increasing evidence suggests that it may not just be tobacco that's bad — marijuana smoking might contribute to heart attack risk as well.

Because pot has been an illicit and illegal substance for so long, scientific studies on its long-term effects are still scant. But researchers studying heart attacks in people under 40 are worried about a possible link between two data sets: As heart attack rates have gone up in young people, so has their likelihood to report smoking marijuana. This doesn't prove anything, but it's a hint that more research is warranted. 

Extra flab, especially around a person's mid-section, can also make a heart attack more likely.

Being overweight increases a person's risk of having a heart attack. But even losing a little weight can help: the heavier you are, the more likely a heart attack becomes, especially if you're adding pounds around your mid-section.

A 2018 study of nearly 500,000 middle aged folks in the UK found that those who had bigger bellies were more likely to suffer heart attacks. This was especially true for women with large mid-sections, who had a 10%-20% higher risk of heart attack than others. The find suggests it's more important to take a look at your waistline than hop on the scale, when you're measuring heart health. 

It may seem obvious, but spending too much time on the couch without moving your body can create problems for your heart as well.

You don't have to be an Olympian: Just a 30-minute walk each day can help maintain heart health.
Even cleaning up the house can count. A 2007 Harvard study of female hotel maids famously found that when researchers told certain maids that their work was good exercise and satisfied federal recommendations for an active lifestyle, the women lost more weight than their peers. They also lowered their blood pressure and reduced their waist size, reducing their risk of having a heart attack.

"Even activities of low energy expenditure, such as socializing with friends or housekeeping activities, may have a substantial benefit to your health compared to time spent sitting and watching TV," Sotirios Tsalamandris, a cardiologist at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece said recently in a release.

Not eating enough fresh foods, like vegetables, fish, and nuts, can also up your risk of a heart attack.
One study of over 112,500 people in the US showed that those who followed a healthy, nutrient-rich, Mediterranean-style diet that included plenty of whole grains, healthy fats, and fresh produce had a 31% lower risk of developing heart diseases, including heart attacks.

Nuts specifically seem to be key: A study of more than 81,000 people in North America found that snackers who ate just a handful of mixed nuts or seeds each day reduced their risk of developing heart disease.

Cutting out dairy may not be ideal for your heart. Some evidence suggests that a regular dose of cheese may help protect your heart, but it can't be the low-fat kind.


Scientists are exploring how something called the "cheese matrix" — the special way that protein and calcium are arranged in full-fat cheeses — might help protect our hearts.

More research on this is needed, but one preliminary study from Ireland suggests that middle-aged, overweight adults who eat full-fat cheddar cheese can reduce their cholesterol more than their peers who eat reduced-fat cheese or butter.

Frequent dieting, especially if you're rebounding a lot, can also stress out your heart and prompt a deadly attack.

People who lose and then re-gain weight frequently can put extra stress on their bodies, which shows up in the heart People with heart trouble who yo-yo diet are not only more likely to suffer heart attacks, they're also more likely to die than their peers.

Nutritionists agree that it's best to adhere to a reasonable diet plan you like and can commit to for life, instead of opting for restrictive fads that often set dieters up to fail.

Not getting enough sleep (seven to eight hours a night for most people) is another way to set your heart up for failure.

A wealth of research shows that people who don't get enough sleep put their heart in serious danger of an attack.

Researchers who have tracked sleepers with wristbands found that people who get less than six hours of sleep per night have about 27% more artery-hardening atherosclerosis, a disease that can lead to more heart attacks.

Even in a laboratory study of young, healthy men, scientists observed that sleeping less than five hours a night for five nights in a row had a measurable effect on the participants' heart rates.

If you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, sleep expert Matthew Walker still recommends giving yourself a nice window of "sleep opportunity," which he defines as about eight hours uninterrupted by phones, screens, or other activities.

Just don't overdo it: Studies also show that too much sleep isn't great for our hearts either.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

 

Scientists develop app to monitor patients at risk of heart failure

Scientists  have developed a mobile app that can remotely monitor patients at risk of heart failure and provide them with medical assistance. 

Developed by its Computational Biology group, the ‘Dhadkan’( a Hindi word meaning heartbeat) app can automatically send notifications to both the doctor and the patient, in case of any drastic changes in patient’s data indicating possibility of imminent heart failure. 

The mobile app has been designed to be ‘easy-to-use’ so that people in rural areas can also benefit.
“Dhadkan app will be of immense help to patients who live in distant areas and cannot come at regular intervals to tertiary care hospitals,” said an assistant professor at department of biotechnology.

“It collects patient’s data (at any desired interval) on blood pressure, heart rate, and weight, and transmits it to the authorized caregiver (a doctor, nurse or paramedic) who is linked to the patient during the initial registration,” he said.

The app also provides for two-way communication between doctors and patients. In addition, patients have the freedom to send ECG reports to the doctor if needed. 

The app will be used for conducting a randomized control trial on 100 heart failure patients at a hospital to validate its utility and to suggest any new features that can be incorporated. 

India has about 10 million patients at risk of heart failure. The app will also help in the surveillance of incidence, prevalence and outcomes of heart failure.
 

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                                                                                                                                                                                        PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/  

FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                                                              https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                              
FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 https://my crochet creations.blogspot.com  

Eating 40 gms cheese every day may reduce risk of stroke, heart attacks

Eating 40 grams cheese every day may reduce the risk of stroke and heart attacks, a study claims.

According to researchers, cheese is rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins which help protect against cardiovascular disease.

In the study published, researchers found that cheese increased levels of “good” cholesterol while reducing levels of “bad” cholesterol.

Cheese also contains an acid that can help avert clogging of the arteries, the study reported.

“There has been a lot of publicity over the last five to 10 years about how saturated fats increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and a belief has grown up that they must increase the risk, but they don’t,” said a researcher.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.   

PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO VIEW MY BLOG-                      

HTTP:GSEASYRECIPES.BLOGSPOT.COM/
FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                       

HTTP://KNEE REPLACEMENT-STICK CLUB.BLOGSPOT.COM/
FOR CROCHET DESIGNS
HTTP://MY CROCHET CREATIONS.BLOGSPOT.COM

Higher risk of heart attack for certain blood groups

People in certain blood groups have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke, according to new research presented on Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress. 

 

The study was a meta-analysis that combined a vast amount of data from multiple studies into both O and non-O blood groups in order to reach a more definitive and conclusive answer than one standalone study ever could.

“It has been suggested that people with non-O blood groups (A, B, AB) are at higher risk for heart attacks and overall cardiovascular mortality… If this was confirmed, it could have important implications for personalised medicine,” the lead author of the study, Tessa Kole, said in a press release.

The research, which involved a total sample size in over 1.3 million participants, focused on instances of heart attacks, heart failure, and coronary artery and ischemic heart disease, as well as various other “cardiovascular events,” which damage the muscle tissue in the heart.

Within the overall test group, 23,154 “cardiovascular events” were recorded. The researchers then analyzed the correlation between such events and the blood type of the person.

The analysis of all the data sets showed that non-O blood groups were at higher risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event but, surprisingly, it did not yield any significant difference in fatal coronary events between O and non-O blood groups.

“We demonstrate that having a non-O blood group is associated with a 9 percent increased risk of coronary events and a 9 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events, especially myocardial infarction,” Kole said.

The cause behind the increased risk has yet to be fully determined, though researchers believe it is connected with higher concentrations of a clotting agent known as the von Willebrand factor in non-O blood groups.

However, certain blood groups (A) do have a natural proclivity towards higher cholesterol, which makes identifying one overarching cause across the non-O blood groups difficult to pin down.

“More research is needed to identify the cause of the apparent increased cardiovascular risk in people with a non-O blood group. Obtaining more information about risk in each non-O blood group (A, B, and AB) might provide further explanations of the causes,” Kole added.

Greater insight into the specific risks faced by individual blood groups will greatly improve the preventative healthcare doctors can provide, while affording policymakers the ability to more accurately assign funding as and where it is needed.

“In future, blood group should be considered in risk assessment for cardiovascular prevention, together with cholesterol, age, sex and systolic blood pressure,” said Kole.

“It could be that people with an A blood group should have a lower treatment threshold for... hypertension, for example. We need further studies to validate if the excess cardiovascular risk in non-O blood group carriers may be amenable to treatment,” she added.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations 
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement