Prevention of cardiovascular diseases

How can the risk of cardiovascular disease be reduced?

In principle, it is easier than you might think to prevent cardiovascular disease by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Prevention can be compared with protection against sunburn: If you put on sunscreen and get out of the sun in time, you protect your skin. And if you adopt a generally healthy lifestyle, you can prevent cardiovascular disease without having to make any special effort.

Three factors play a special role here: sufficient exercise, a balanced diet and good stress management.

Sufficient exercise

Humans are not made to sit a lot, have an abundance of food, and avoid exercise. In fact, a big factor in cardiovascular problems is lack of exercise.

Getting enough exercise is important for several reasons:

• Stamina: Good stamina means the body can withstand stress. Improving fitness therefore also strengthens the heart and lungs. Increased exertion requires the heart to pump faster and more vigorously to supply the body with oxygen. This targeted load trains the heart. Although the heart is called an organ, it is actually a muscle. Lung capacity also increases as a result of exercise: As a result, the lungs can oxygenate the blood faster and better.
• Removal: Pollutants and carbon dioxide are better removed from the blood and thus from the body during exercise. This sometimes prevents arterial deposits, which can be quite dangerous. Those who have problems with swollen ankles will notice something else: Exercise causes the body to break down lymphatic fluid that collects in the tissues of the lower legs and causes swelling. In particular, the work of the calf muscles is important for this.
• Weight: More calories are burned through exercise. At the same time, the body draws on stored fats to maintain energy levels. Exercise therefore basically helps to prevent obesity and reduce weight.

Those who engage in muscle-building sports are very less likely to lose weight and more likely to gain weight. This is not tragic in terms of the cardiovascular system. Muscle promotes the maintenance of a healthy body and burns many more calories than simple tissue, even at rest.

A balanced diet

The health of the cardiovascular system is inevitably related to nutrition. A healthy and balanced diet is therefore incredibly important. But what does that mean?

• Appropriate: The first step in nutrition management is to determine one's energy needs and calculate the necessary amount of calories based on that. Ultimately, even the most balanced diet is harmful if too much or too little is eaten on a permanent basis.
• Nutrition: A healthy and balanced diet is not directly based on dietary patterns. It is about the body getting all the nutrients and fats it needs. Thus, vegans and vegetarians must also pay attention to their needs to avoid deficiencies.

For the prevention of diseases of the cardiovascular system and also during the therapy of an existing disease, the following foods are recommended:

• Fresh vegetables and fruits: five handfuls of fruits and vegetables should be consumed per day. Due to the fructose in fruit, however, the vegetable portion should predominate.
• Fish: Instead of meat,fish should be eaten twice a week.
• Vegetarian diet: In general, it is advisable to eat less and preferably lean meat. Several times a week, meat should be avoided completely and vegetarian food should be eaten instead.
• Oils as healthy fats: Instead of bad fats, high-quality oils are the healthier choice. The unhealthy dietary fats like trans fatty acids increase bad cholesterol in the blood, which can build up on artery walls. These bad fats are found especially in fried and deep-fried foods. The advantage: Many bad fats can be replaced well by healthy oils. Olive oil, rapeseed oil or hemp oil contain unsaturated fatty acids that strengthen the cardiovascular system.
• Whole grains: Products made from whole grains should replace a large part of white flour products.
• Legumes and nuts: They are healthy, make you feel full, and nuts are great as a healthy snack between meals. They are also rich in unsaturated fatty acids and offer a good mix of fiber, minerals and vitamins.

Salt should be avoided as far as possible as a preventive measure. Of course, this is not 100 percent possible in food, but it is advisable to reduce salt consumption. Salt binds the fluid in the body, causing the blood to thicken and increasing the pressure in the blood vessels. However, the evaluation of the German Adult Health Survey (DEGS) of the Robert Koch Institute showed that people in this country consume too much salt overall: Instead of the recommended maximum of 6 grams a day, women consume an average of 8.4 grams and men as much as 10 grams of salt.

And what about alcohol? The fact is that there are quite a few myths on this subject, but studies also look at heart health in connection with alcohol.

In the end, red wine is considered to be the alcoholic beverage which, unlike others, can actually benefit the cardiovascular system under certain circumstances. Red wines contain an ingredient called resveratrol, which is said to have a heart-protective effect. For this reason, the Mayo Clinic in the USA has classified moderate consumption of red wine as "heart-healthy". However, these are merely indications that such a connection might exist. This has not been definitively proven.

Basically applies:

Quantity: Drunk in moderation, red wine probably does no harm. However, there is a common misconception about what this actually means in units. As yardstick 0.125 liters of wine per day are valid for women, for men the double quantity. At the same time, at least two alcohol-free days are taken into account.

Taboo: white wines, beers, sparkling wines, fruit wines (sugar) and harder alcohol have a rather negative effect on the cardiovascular system and should be enjoyed at most very rarely.

The healthy diet is designed for the long term. If you eat a generally healthy and balanced diet, you can feel free to drink beer or enjoy grilled meat in between meals.

Stress Management

The damaging effect of stress on health and the psyche has long been suspected, but in recent years it has been studied with particular clarity. But what is stress actually? Biologically, stress means that the body is in a heightened state of tension and alert, releasing adrenaline and getting ready to fight or flee. These processes date back to the dawn of mankind. Today, however, stress is often a sign of high or false stress, demands and excessive requirements.

If the stressed state persists for a long time, there are consequences:

• Circulation: Permanent stress can cause high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. If arteries are already pre-damaged, they cannot withstand the increased blood pressure.
• Side effects: In addition, chronic stress has side effects such as inferior sleep and irritability and not infrequently ends in false attempts to relieve stress: Frustrated eating, increased nicotine consumption and the use of alcohol and drugs.
• Psyche: Those who are permanently stressed can also suffer from mental illnesses. These include burnout syndrome, depression, and anxiety and panic.

Good stress management is therefore an important form of prevention. The goal is to consciously integrate phases of relaxation into everyday life. Many people use techniques such as meditation or progressive muscle relaxation for this purpose. It also helps to delegate or refuse tasks, to exercise, to start the day calmly or to pursue a hobby. However, it is always important to find the stress trigger and work on it.

Symptoms, causes and risk factors

Many people fear cardiovascular disease. The concern is justified, because in the worst case, a disease leads to death. Therefore, it is important to know the risk factors, causes as well as symptoms.

Important modifiable and preventable risk factors

The preventive measures already suggest which risk factors are modifiable and preventable. Basic ones are:

• Obesity: being significantly overweight damages the entire body. It is often accompanied by deposits in the arteries and high blood pressure, so that the cardiovascular system is damaged even more.
• Lack of exercise: Lack of exercise not only leads to obesity, but also puts a strain on the cardiovascular system because it is not exercised. But be careful: those who already suffer from high weight and are untrained must approach exercise with caution.
• Alcohol: Regular alcohol consumption damages the entire body. Among other things, it attacks the heart cells, weakening one of the most important organs.
• Smoking: It is well known that vice is unhealthy. Nicotine is a neurotoxin and damages cells, the harmful substances from tobacco cigarettes not only deposit in the lungs, they also lead to constricted blood vessels. Vaporized tobacco or liquids are probably less harmful compared to tobacco cigarettes, but the best prevention is to give up smoking altogether.

Causes of cardiovascular disease

There are definitely congenital or genetic weaknesses of the cardiovascular system. If significant diseases already occurred in the family, the risk of being affected increases. The causes are usually found in the following areas:

• High blood pressure: Increased blood pressure strains the heart and veins. The blood is pumped through the arteries at high pressure, which damages them in the long run.
• Arterial calcification: Deposits on the inner walls of arteries behave similarly to deposits in a sewage pipe: The blood has to be forced through the bottlenecks with greater force, while more and more particles are deposited at the narrow points. The end result is that the artery becomes clogged. In the case of smaller blood vessels, the body can still compensate for this to some extent, but it is precisely in the case of a blockage in the coronary arteries that the risk of a heart attack increases.