What measures can be taken to prevent heart disease?

The core prevention logic of heart disease is actually very simple, which is to reduce blood vessel damage and reduce the extra load on the heart. There is no one-and-done special effect. All useful measures are down to the details in daily life.

I met 52-year-old Uncle Zhang at a community free clinic last week. His physical examination revealed an unstable soft plaque on his coronary artery. He said that he had to drink two taels of white wine every night before, and his food must be braised sausages. It was common for him to stay up late watching football games until 2 or 3 o'clock. The doctor who treated him said that if it takes another six months, once the plaque ruptures and blocks the blood vessel, he will most likely need an emergency stent. Later, he stayed with our health management team for 3 months. Last week, the plaques were confirmed to have stabilized and his blood lipids had dropped to a safe range. He said that he could now climb the fifth floor without stopping midway.

Many people always think that to prevent heart disease, they have to either take expensive health care products or eat bland and tasteless meals all year round. There are even many people who firmly believe that "a vegan diet will definitely prevent heart disease." In fact, there are different opinions in the academic circles. I have encountered people who have eaten 3 My aunt was diagnosed with high blood lipids even though she was a vegan for many years. She likes to cook with coconut oil and palm oil, and drinks two cups of bubble milk tea every day. Her intake of carbohydrates and saturated fat exceeds the standard. Even if she doesn’t eat a bite of meat, blood lipids will still accumulate on the blood vessel walls, causing them to become blocked. The current mainstream view is that the prerequisite for a vegetarian diet to reduce cardiovascular risk is balanced nutrition. It cannot be achieved by just "eating no meat".

There is no need to force yourself to do high-intensity exercise. I treated a 60-year-old man two years ago. He heard someone said that running ten kilometers a day can "clear blood vessels." He ran for two months with knee pain, but he suffered an angina pectoris attack and was sent to the emergency room. In fact, for ordinary people, there is no need to pursue exercise intensity. They can take 30 to 40 minutes a day to briskly walk, do Tai Chi, or even go around the park twice more when shopping for groceries. As long as the heart rate is about 30% higher than the resting state, it is enough to maintain the normal vitality of the myocardium. Overloading exercise will add unnecessary burden to the heart, which is not worth the gain.

Another point that is most easily overlooked by everyone is mood and work and rest. Last year, I received a 32-year-old Internet practitioner. All the indicators in the physical examination at the workplace were normal. However, after working on a project for three weeks in a row, he had a heart attack after an argument with a colleague and was sent to the emergency department. An angiogram showed that 80% of the blood vessels were blocked. Nowadays, academic circles are paying more and more attention to the cardiovascular damage caused by stress response. Staying up late for a long time, frequent rages, and constant anxiety are equivalent to continuously "winding up" the heart. Even if there are no problems with the blood vessels themselves, they may induce emergencies such as coronary artery spasm and myocardial infarction.

People with high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes should pay more attention. Don’t stop antihypertensive drugs and statins without permission because they believe that “drugs are only three parts poisonous.” I have seen too many patients stop taking antihypertensive drugs and statins without authorization after taking the drugs for half a year and feeling that their indicators are normal. As a result, their blood pressure and blood lipids rebounded, directly inducing myocardial infarction and admission to the ICU. You must consult a specialist to evaluate whether you need to adjust the medication or whether you can stop the medication. Making blind decisions on your own will put you at high risk.

After all, heart disease prevention is really not some profound knowledge. It just means putting into practice the health common sense that you have heard countless times. Don’t always take chances and think that bad things will not happen to you. After all, your heart will accompany you for your whole life. If you pay more attention to it, it will work well for you.