Sunday, October 17, 2010

Atherosclerosis

In the developed world Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity. What is it? Basically as we age our arteries become harder and develop plaques. This not only impedes blood flow, but these plaques can break off and cause problems like heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and more. The good news is a lot of this damage can be prevented or at least slowed down. Risk factors for this can be broken down into two categories: modifiable and non-modifiable.

Modifiable:
Cholesterol Levels
Tobacco smoking
High Blood Pressure
Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome
Lack of Physical Activity

Non-Modifiable:
Male gender
Aging
Heredity

I will try to focus some future posts on the modifiable risk factors and how to improve on them. This disease is slow to creep up on people. We are constantly hearing through the media about eating better and ways to lower our cholesterol. My biggest worry is that we become sensitized to it and tend to brush it off. We think that it won't happen to us. The truth is we could all benefit from modifications to our lifestyle and eating habits. Learning to eat for better health will not only decrease your risk for future disease it will make your body feel healthier now. t Lastly, if you are a parent, instilling good eating habits on your children and family will teach them livelong lessons about healthy living. I heard a surprising statistic yesterday that 1/3 of the children born in 2000 will end up with diabetes.

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