There are other lifestyle changes that can affect your risk for heart disease. These lifestyle changes include limiting alcohol and to stop smoking. Both of these criteria will affect your body’s ability to cope with stress, a major factor in the development of heart disease.
New guidelines have been proposed by SHAPE (Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education) task force that they believe will prevent 90,000 sudden cardiac deaths and save 21 billions dollars annually. The guidelines call for non-invasive screening of asymptomatic men between 45-75 and women between 55-75 to assess for coronary plaque or carotid wall thickness.
SHAPE Task Force has developed the first national guidelines for screening subclinical coronary heart disease. Heart attacks and strokes account for more disability and death than all cancers combined. These new screening guidelines are designed to find people at high risk early so that lifestyle changes and medications might decrease their risk and therefore the number of deaths suffered.
SHAPE Task Force estimates that nearly half of the people who suffer heart attacks or sudden death don’t even know they have heart disease until they suffer a cardiac event.
Heart prevention screenings are designed to evaluate risk for patients and help people to avoid heart disease or to decrease their risk of heart attack. You can find heart prevention screenings at health fairs or they can be done at your doctor’s office. Make it your goal to have one done this week. It just may save your life.
Resources:
University of Maryland Medical Center: Tips for Prevention
http://www.umm.edu/features/tips_prev.htm
University of Maryland Medical Center: Maryland Heart Center
http://www.umm.edu/heart/preventive.htm
Cedars-Sinai: Give a Heart Screening to Someone You Love
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