physicalactivity can include such things as riding a bike, swimming, ordoingyard work or homerepairs. Intense physical the United States. About (NAPSA)—Cardiovascular disease (CVD)is the leading cause of death for adults in 610,000 people die of heart disease in activity can include jogging or running, roughly onein every four deaths—but youare healthy and simply wantto stay that way, ask your doctor about how you playing tennis, or hiking uphill. Even if the United States every year—that’s you canprotectyourself. The most common andserious types of CVDare heart attack and stroke. The good newsis there are steps you can take to help pre- vent CVD.Here are questions you can can develop heart-healthyhabits. Arestatins right for you? Statins are medications that prevent See yourdoctorregularly to protect cholesterol and fats from building up ask yourself—and your doctor—to find against cardiovasculardisease. outif you are at risk and how you can prevent CVD. Whatare yourrisk factors? An important part of prevent- ing CVDis knowing yourrisk factors. Nearly half of American adults have at least one ofthe three majorrisk factors for CVD:high blood pressure, smoking, and high cholesterol. Fortunately, against the inside of your elbow as the air is slowly let out of the cuff. If your bloodpressure numbers are high, talk to your doctor about additional monitoring to see if you have hypertension or another health condition andif you needtreatment. Should you makelifestyle changes? in yourbloodvessels overtime, which lowers your cholesterol and reduces your chances of having a heart attack orstroke.If you are age 40 to 75,talk to your doctor about your CVDrisk and whethera statin mayberight for you. Shouldyou take daily low-dose aspirin? Taking a low-dose aspirin daily can also potentially help prevent CVD in someadults age 50 to 69. When blood There are several risk factors for CVD that you can change, and your clots form in narrow bloodvessels, such as the ones in yourheart andbrain,it can cause a heartattack or stroke. Aspi- sense for you. If you smoke, talk to your doctor aboutgetting help and medications that somerisks associated with taking low- yourblood pressure checked? Blood pressure measures the force of blood pushing against the walls of importantrisk factor for CVD. During an office visit, your doctor will weigh there are several ways your doctor can help you determineyour risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years. Some methodsfor detecting CVD are more effective than others. Talk to your doctor about which method makes Are yougetting the arteries as the heart pumps blood around the body. High blood pressure (also knownas hypertension) is a con- dition in which bloodpressurerises and stays high for an extendedtime,andit raises a person's risk for CVD.All adults should bescreened for high blood pressure, and this is often done during a visit to your doctor's office. During the screening, a doctoror nurse will wrap a bloodpressure cuff around your upper arm,inflate the cuff, and listen to your heartbeat with a stethoscope placed doctor can help. These risk factors include smoking,poor diet, andlack of rin can help keepthese bloodclots from happening, loweringyourrisk. There are physicalactivity. dose aspirin every day, so make sure you can improve your chances of quitting. Your body mass index (or BMI)isalso an talk to your doctor about whetheraspi- youand,if you have obesity or are over- Many of these recommendations were developed by the U.S. Preventive weight, yourdoctorcan offer waysto help you lose weight. Your doctor may also screen for other conditions, such as diabetes, that are related to weight and can increase yourrisk for CVD. To keep your heart and whole body healthy, eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, fiber, and whole grains, and eat meals thatare low in salt, red meat, and saturatedfats. At least 2.5 hours of moderate physical activity or 75 minutesofintense physicalactivity each week is also recommended. Moderate rin is rightfor you. Recommendations to protect yourheart Services Task Force—an independent groupofnationalexperts in prevention. The Task Force makes recommendations, based onthelatest science, about what works and what doesn't work whenit comesto preventing disease and promoting goodhealth. Learn More Forfurtherinformation on theseand other Task Force recommendations, visit ‘www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org.
