Prevention of heart disease

Understand the heart

The "engine" of the human body

●The heart is a strong, tireless, hard-working powerful pump. The heart is to the body what the engine is to a car.

●If a person’s heart beats an average of 70 times per minute and his or her life span is 70 years, the heart will beat nearly 2.6 billion times in a person’s lifetime. Once the heart stops beating and cannot be restarted through rescue, it means that a person's life has ended.

●Heart disease is the number one killer of human health. 1/3 of the world's population deaths are caused by heart disease, and in our country, hundreds of thousands of people die from heart disease every year.

Early Symptoms

Early detection by observing the appearance

As the saying goes, if you are not sick, prevent it early and nip it in the bud; if you are sick, treat it early and you will make up for it. Night. The key to heart disease prevention and treatment is "early".

So how to detect heart disease at an early stage? That is to look at the appearance: in addition to the common symptoms of heart disease such as palpitations and precordial pain, there are often some physical signs of heart disease. Pay attention to these aura symptoms, so you can detect them early and treat them early.

These physical signs include:

◆Shortness of breath occurs when you do some slight breathing activities or when you are in a quiet state, but it is not accompanied by coughing or sputum production. This situation is likely to be a manifestation of left ventricular dysfunction.

◆If the face is gray and purple, and the expression is indifferent, this is the face of a critical illness in the late stage of heart disease. If the face is dark red, this is a characteristic of rheumatic heart disease and mitral stenosis. If it is pale, it may be a sign of mitral valve insufficiency.

◆Nose If your nose is hard, it indicates that there is too much fat accumulation in the heart. If the tip of the nose is swollen, it may indicate that the fat in the heart is also enlarged or that the heart disease is expanding. In addition, a red nose often indicates heart disease.

◆Skin The skin of patients with chronic heart failure and advanced pulmonary heart disease may appear dark brown or dark purple, which is related to long-term hypoxia in body tissues and decreased adrenal cortex function. The skin, mucous membranes and extremities are purple, indicating that the heart is hypoxic and the reduced blood protein in the blood is increased.

◆Patients with ear heart disease all experience tinnitus to varying degrees in the early stages. This is because the microvascular dynamics of the inner ear are abnormal, and the inner ear receives a warning signal before the disease causes a systemic reaction. If your earlobe has a continuous wrinkle, it is most likely caused by coronary artery sclerosis.

◆If there is a protruding tendon on the head and neck extending from the clavicle to the earlobe, as thick as the little finger, it is likely to be right heart insufficiency.

◆The weather on my shoulder is obviously good, but there are bursts of pain in my left shoulder and the inside of my left arm. This may be coronary heart disease.

◆The ends of the fingers or toes of the hands and feet are obviously enlarged, and the nail surface is raised like a drumstick. This is common in patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease or congenital cyanotic heart disease.

◆Lower limb edema in middle-aged and elderly people is often a symptom of cardiac insufficiency leading to obstruction of venous blood return. In addition, if you often have heart palpitations and asthma that can only be relieved by squatting, this is a unique manifestation of purple-clamp heart disease.

Pay attention to chest tightness and palpitation

I found that many elderly people lack awareness of some of their own symptoms, while some young people do not pay much attention to symptoms such as chest tightness and palpitation, and often I thought it didn't matter, so I just tolerated it and let it go. It is these thoughts that delay the optimal time for treatment. There was a university leader who was about 40 years old. He usually felt that his heart was unwell, but he did not pay attention to it. As a result, he died suddenly and died young. It was a pity. If he had been seen and treated promptly, the outcome would have been very different. Therefore, as long as active treatment is given, the cure and alleviation of heart disease are still very optimistic.

High-risk groups

1. Men over 45 years old, women over 55 years old.

2． smoker.

3． Hypertensive patients.

4. diabetics.

5． Patients with hypercholesterolemia.

6． Those with a family history of hereditary disease.

7. Obese people.

8． Those who lack exercise or work stress.

Lifestyle

Although risk factors such as age, gender, and family genetic history are difficult to change, certain heart diseases can be effectively prevented if other risk factors are effectively controlled. It is crucial for heart disease patients to learn to manage themselves in daily life and establish a good and healthy lifestyle.

In 1954, Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, suffered from severe heart failure. His personal physician, Dr. White, advised him to make certain lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, quitting smoking, and exercising regularly. Although he was busy with government affairs, Eisenhower accepted the doctor's advice and persisted. Soon after, he actually resumed full-time work and became active in the political arena. It can be seen that a scientific lifestyle will not only prevent diseases, but also reduce the severity of the disease. It is also entirely possible for the patient's quality of life to return to the level before the disease, or even be healthier than before.

It is recommended that everyone pay attention to the following:

Control your weight

Research shows that if the weight increases by 10%, the cholesterol will increase by 18.5 on average, and the risk of coronary heart disease will increase by 38. %; a 20% increase in body weight increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 86%. The prevalence of coronary heart disease in hypertensive patients with diabetes is doubled compared to hypertensive patients without diabetes.

Quit smoking

The nicotine in tobacco can accelerate the heartbeat, increase blood pressure (excessive smoking can also decrease blood pressure), increase cardiac oxygen consumption, vasospasm, and abnormal blood flow. and increased platelet adhesion. These adverse effects make the incidence of coronary heart disease in smoking men aged 30-49 three times higher than that of non-smokers, and smoking is also an important cause of angina pectoris attacks and sudden death.

Quit drinking

An experiment by American scientists confirmed that ethanol has a toxic effect on the heart. Excessive ethanol intake can reduce the contractility of the myocardium. For people with heart disease, alcohol abuse will not only increase the burden on the heart, but may even cause arrhythmia, affect fat metabolism, and promote the formation of arteriosclerosis.

Improve living environment

Places with serious pollution and high noise intensity may induce heart disease. Therefore, the living environment should be improved, the green area should be expanded, the noise should be reduced, and all kinds of pollution should be prevented.

Avoid crowds

Avoid going to crowded places. Whether it is viral myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, coronary heart disease, or rheumatic heart disease, they are all related to viral infection. Even heart failure often causes acute exacerbation due to upper respiratory tract infection. Therefore, be careful to avoid going to crowded places, especially during cold season, to avoid getting infected.

Reasonable diet

There should be reasonable dietary arrangements. Hyperlipidemia, unbalanced diet, diabetes and obesity are all related to dietary nutrition. Therefore, it is very important to look at nutritional factors from the perspective of prevention and treatment of heart disease. In principle, the "three lows" should be achieved: low calories, low fat, and low cholesterol.

Moderate exercise

Actively participate in moderate sports. Maintaining regular and appropriate exercise will help enhance heart function and promote normal body metabolism. It is especially important in promoting fat metabolism and preventing the occurrence of atherosclerosis. For patients with heart disease, they should engage in an appropriate amount of physical activity based on their heart function and physical strength to help increase blood circulation, enhance resistance, improve the functions of various organs throughout the body, and prevent thrombosis. However, it is also necessary to avoid overly strenuous activities, and the amount of activity should be gradually increased so as not to cause symptoms.

Live a regular life

Develop healthy living habits. Live a regular life, be in a happy mood, and avoid emotional excitement and overwork.

Special reminder

Reminder 1: Eat more vegetarian foods

Many people think that we humans are carnivores because we basically eat meat every day. However, research on human evolution and human history has proven that human body structure and physiological functions are more like herbivores. You must find it strange, so you might as well take a look at the comparison between herbivores and carnivores.

Main differences in body structure between carnivores and herbivores (table)

Carnivores Herbivores

limbs with claws hands or hooves without claws

p>

Sharp, flat and blunt teeth

Short and long intestines

Drinking by licking

Puffing by lowering body temperature (no sweat glands) and sweating (with sweat glands) )

The way to obtain vitamins is to produce them from food

It is clear from a comparison - humans are not like carnivores but more like herbivores. Although humans have gradually become omnivores in the long process of adapting to nature, the basic characteristics of herbivores have not changed significantly and have been retained to this day. However, in the past 200 years, economic development has caused great changes in human diets. In particular, people have begun to stay away from vegetarian foods and cereals and eat too much meat. Compared with the history of human evolution, this change is so rapid that human genes and physiological functions characterized by "herbivory" cannot adapt to an environment dominated by meat. This maladaptation eventually led to the creation of many new diseases, including modern heart disease.

Epidemiological studies have proven that "economic development→the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles→the prevalence of cardiovascular disease" is a trilogy with obvious causal relationships. The most typical example is Nauru. Nauru was originally a poor island. When rare minerals were discovered in the late 1960s, the country became the richest country in the world overnight. Unexpectedly, a few years later, Nauru would see a pandemic of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. 70% of people over 50 years old had diabetes, making it the highest in the world. The government and people paid a heavy price for this.

Economic development provides material possibilities for unhealthy lifestyles. Therefore, we must be clear that although the epidemic of cardiovascular disease cannot be said to be an inevitable result of economic development, it is a punishment for human beings who violate the laws of nature. For example, Western-style fast food, which is regarded as garbage by Western countries, is rich in high calories and high saturated fatty acids. It is now widely popular in our country and has won the favor of many children. In the long run, it will seriously affect health. We should follow our ancestors more and eat more plant-based foods (including cereal starches, vegetables and fruits) and less animal-based foods (except fish). In particular, we should eat less foods containing saturated fat and cholesterol, and stay away from McDonald's, KFC type "unhealthy" food.

Healthy diet standard table

(A healthy diet should meet the following requirements)

1. Daily cholesterol intake should not exceed 300 mg.

2． Fat intake should not exceed 30% of total calories.

3． Eat less or no refined sugar foods such as sucrose and glucose.

4. Eat more foods rich in vitamin C, such as fruits, fresh vegetables, and vegetable oils.

5． Eat less foods high in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, such as fatty meats, egg yolks, animal oils, and animal offal.

6． The diet should be high in potassium and low in sodium, and it is encouraged to eat soy products and drink tea.

7. Eat regularly and don't be too hungry or too full.

8. Appropriate intake of fiber foods (including cereal starches) to maintain smooth bowel movements.