We all want to feel young at heart – not only when we think we are even capable of falling in love, but also, regardless of the number of years, to be active, cheerful, lively every day, because the heart is healthy. However, it turns out that it is the least spared of all the organs – and we understand this only when the heart starts to strike for the first time!
Ideally, the age of the heart matches our own age – or even younger. However, in most cases this is not the case; in fact, researchers estimate that it’s about four to eight years older in adults, on average. The most paradoxical thing is: to take care of the heart, you don’t need big investments at all!
What does “heart age” mean?
The concept of “heart age” reflects how much risk we have to develop cardiovascular diseases within 10 years. Expressing this in terms of age allows us to see how our family history and personal choices affect the heart. It is also a way to understand each person’s risk of heart attack or stroke.
Heart age is calculated based on individual risk factors for heart disease, such as age, blood pressure and cholesterol , as well as diet, exercise and smoking. A younger heart age naturally means a lower risk of heart disease.
This concept was developed by the scientists leading the Framingham Heart Study, a very important study that was started immediately after the Second World War, in 1948, in Framingham, USA. It initially enrolled 5,209 men and women aged 30 to 62 years to study the development of heart disease and to determine risk factors for myocardial infarction. The study is still ongoing and has already involved three generations.
Over the years, researchers developed a robust database of prospective risk factors and quality information for clinicians.
Determine the age of the heart
Based on the results of the study, online heart age calculators were developed that calculate the risk of heart disease over the next 10 years, taking into account factors such as gender, age, family history of heart disease, blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index (BMI) and smoking or history of diabetes.
For example, even in non-smokers – as long as they have slightly above normal blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI and someone in the family has heart disease – the age of the heart usually appears to be about five years older than the person’s own age. In fact, one in two men and one in five women have this result.
And although the risk of cardiovascular disease in the next ten years is still relatively low (around 10%), this disease tends to sneak up unnoticed – if nothing is done for positive health changes. Not for nothing, on average, three out of every four heart attacks and strokes are linked to risk factors that increase the age of the heart. Furthermore, although cardiovascular disease usually affects older adults, it can occur at any age.
Main risk factors
The most important risk factors that make the heart older and threaten cardiovascular diseases:
* high blood pressure,
* smoking,
* obesity,
* unhealthy diet,
* lack of physical activity,
* diabetes.
The term “risk factor” in this case should be seen as an alarm signal that calls for an active fight – prevention of the disease. At any age, you can make your heart feel young again by making changes that reduce your risks. Fortunately, most risk factors are preventable, while others are controllable, which helps reduce the risk of developing these diseases, stay as healthy as possible for longer, and live a longer life.
What to do for your heart health?
People often neglect the need to prevent risk factors because risk factors may or may not cause a dangerous deterioration in heart health or an exacerbation of pre-existing heart disease. However, statistics, facts and findings confirm that improving these external or internal human environmental conditions is always beneficial not only for the heart, but also for the overall state of health.
* Quitting smoking . Smokers have a definite chance to reduce their risk of disease by quitting (it will not only help to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked!). Judge for yourself: smokers are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years as non-smokers. In addition, female smokers have a 25% higher risk of cardiovascular disease than male smokers.
* Blood pressure and cholesterol control. Most often, cardiovascular diseases develop secretly, and their signs appear at a late stage of the disease. People often do not realize the existence of their disease and die suddenly, while still quite young and supposedly “perfectly healthy”. Feeling healthy, they also do not go to the doctor, losing the opportunity to detect the development of serious cardiovascular damage in time. Knowledge is power, and when it comes to health, you should definitely know your numbers: blood pressure and cholesterol levels, weight and body mass index. Discussing them with your doctor will give you a recommended plan to improve them.
* Exercise and rest. The physical activity plan is entirely up to us and most directly related to BMI. By reducing excess body weight, elevated cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as blood glucose levels, decrease – all this reduces the risk of developing atherosclerosis and diabetes. Equally important is full-fledged rest – both quality sleep at night and stress reduction during the day. It is a welcome habit to indulge in “chilling” for about 15 minutes every day: turn off the phone, listen to soothing music, go for a short walk in nature or swing yourself in a hammock.
* Healthier diet . Dietary habits are also a risk factor that we can significantly influence. You can always do better, because there is no one who does not allow himself to sin in this respect. You could always eat more healthy fish and vegetables, whole grains and nuts, but reduce your consumption of fast snacks, salty snacks and sugary drinks. This can pay off with better test scores and, subsequently, a younger heart.
* Nutritional supplement. It often takes a lot of patience to achieve a positive effect with nutrition, so it’s worth promoting the good changes with a nutritional supplement once in a while.
For normal cholesterol level – AteroLip® complex caps!
Sometimes healthy lifestyle changes are not enough to lower cholesterol. Your doctor may also recommend over-the-counter or cholesterol-lowering medications. Take them as directed while continuing to make healthy lifestyle changes, which can help keep your medication dose low.
The turmeric extract contained in the cholesterol control product AteroLip® complex caps helps to maintain a normal blood cholesterol level, the functioning of the cardiovascular system, as well as to normalize liver lipids. Choline helps ensure normal lipid and homocysteine metabolism. Vitamin B12 contributes to the normal formation of red blood cells and helps ensure normal homocysteine metabolism. Niacin and vitamin B12 help ensure normal energy-yielding metabolism.
The complex of natural substances AteroLip® complex caps cares for the heart and helps maintain blood vessels in good condition thanks to the fact that it also contains the natural statin monacolin K, obtained from red yeast rice, policosanol obtained from sugar cane, as well as standardized olive (Olea europea) leaf dry extract (polyphenol hydroxytyrosol).
AteroLip® complex caps are easy to use – only one capsule a day! The product is available in 30 capsules and the advantageous 90 capsules package. The best offer on the Lotos Pharma website www.lotos-pharma.ee.
