You should regularly adopt a healthy lifestyle and moderation in your online or offline business. This will enable you to effectively prevent stroke and heart attack. Most strokes are caused by the same underlying process that causes heart attack.
The same factors that decrease your risk of heart attack also decrease your risk of stroke. The risk of stroke or heart attack increases with age, however, it can happen to anyone. You should not be afraid. Heart attack and stroke are preventable.
Hypertension is known as a silent killer since most of times, it can exist without symptoms. You should make it a point of duty to do blood pressure checks regularly because when an individual's blood pressure is consistently equal or above 140/90 mmHg, the individual is said to be hypertensive or have high blood pressure.
Hypertension can damage some vital organs in the body like the heart, brain and kidneys. It is a disease that affects the vascular (blood vessels) and heart.
According to medical experts, depending on the levels of the blood pressure, an individual can be classified into any of the three groups: mild, moderate or severe hypertension. Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and strokes, are the world's largest killers. Therefore, you should try to prevent untimely death as much as possible.
Cardiovascular diseases include coronary heart disease (heart attack), cerebrovascular disease, high blood pressure (hypertension), peripheral artery disease, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease and heart failure.
According to medical experts, the major causes of cardiovascular diseases and stroke are tobacco use, physical inactivity and an unhealthy diet. If you control these risk factors, your heart will remain healthy and this will drastically reduce the risk of heart disease. Your healthy lifestyle will lead to a better, longer life.
According to medical experts, heart attack and stroke are mainly caused by a blockage that prevents blood from flowing to the heart or brain. The most common cause is a build-up of fatty deposits on the inner walls of the blood vessels that supply the heart or brain. The blood vessels become narrower and less flexible. This is hardening of the arteries.
If the blood vessels become blocked likely by blood clots, the blocked vessels can not supply blood to the heart and brain. They will become damaged.
Coronary heart disease is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart and it is usually caused by a condition called atherosclerosis, which occurs when fatty material and a substance called plaque builds up on the walls of the arteries. They become narrow and as the coronary arteries narrow, blood flow to the heart can slow down or stop, causing chest pain (angina), shortness of breath, etc.
According to medical experts, many things can increase the risk of coronary heart disease. The risk factors are bad genes (heredity), diabetes, high blood pressure, high or low cholesterol, menopause, obesity, smoking, lack of physical activity or exercise, etc.
According to medical experts, symptoms of a heart attack include: sharp pain or discomfort in the centre of the chest or left chest, pain or discomfort in the arms, the left shoulder, elbows, abdomen, jaw or back. Chest pain comes and goes because the heart is not getting enough blood or oxygen.
Additionally, a victim may experience difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath; feeling light-headed or faint; breaking into a cold sweat and becoming pale. A person experiencing these symptoms should seek medical care promptly in order to avoid untimely death.
A stroke occurs when an area of the brain dies. Eighty percent are caused by a blockage of blood flow while twenty percent are caused by bleeding in the brain. Hardening of the arteries, the same process that causes heart attacks, underlies most strokes.
According to medical experts, as plaque builds up, it narrows the artery, reducing blood flow to the brain. This happens slowly. Therefore, due to the adaptive tendency of the body, even a very marked narrowing might not cause any symptoms for some time.
Carotid artery is the main artery supplying blood to the brain. There is a carotid artery on each side of the brain. Plaque in the carotid artery is dangerous because at any time, it might cause the artery to clot off, starving the brain of blood.
Alternatively, a portion of the plaque might break off, travelling downstream in the blood flow until it wedges in a smaller artery, blocking it and causing the part of the brain supplied by that artery to die. This is what brain surgeons refer to as an embolus.
According to brain surgeons, the exact symptoms of a stroke vary with the part of the brain affected. A sudden weakness of the face, arm, or leg may occur, most often on one side of the body. The victim may or may not lose consciousness. An arm or leg or both may become paralyzed or lose feeling, especially on one side of the body.
Other symptoms of stroke include confusion, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination, severe headache, difficulty in walking, difficulty in seeing with one or both eyes and difficulty in speaking or understanding speech due to damage to language processing areas of the brain.
Sudden loss of vision in one eye can occur due to a tiny bit of plaque (embolus) lodging in the artery to the eye. The first part of the retina to die is the area farthest from the blockage. Vision will fade there and the darkness spreads as more of the retina dies. A fatal stroke can lead to quick death while a survivor will have to live with agonizing disabilities.
A severe stroke survivor will find it very frustrating to speak because what should have been words will come out from his or her twisted mouth as meaningless sounds. He or she will be leaning to one side in his or her wheelchair, unable to use the paralyzed side of the body to straighten himself or herself.
Due to paralysis, a stroke victim will need help with some basic things like getting out of bed, eating, getting dressed and going to the bathroom or toilet. As a business owner or professional, the inability to talk and physical inactivity will be extremely frustrating after years of living a happy and productive life with his or her family, friends and business associates or employees.
Since stroke and heart attack are similar catastrophic events, you should know the effective ways to protect yourself because they are preventable. According to medical experts, if you are a smoker, do whatever you need to do to stop smoking. It is a self-destructive habit that can increase your risk of stroke and heart attack. Ensure that you refrain from heavy drinking of alcohol because it is another risk factor.
You should know your blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels as well as your height, weight and waist measurement. This will enable your health-care professional to advise you on what specific actions should be taken to reduce your risk of suffering from heart attack or stroke. Try to manage job-related stress in your online or offline business very well.
You should control your blood pressure because high blood pressure can contribute to heart attack and stroke, as well as a major cause of kidney failure.
According to medical experts, strive to maintain the systolic blood pressure at 120mmHg and the diastolic blood pressure at 80mmHg or lower. Reduction in your blood pressure will reduce the relative risk of stroke and heart attack drastically. For example, 111mmHg systolic and 75mmHg diastolic.
The balance between sodium and potassium in the body is important for blood pressure regulation because most people get too much sodium from salt and not enough potassium.
According to medical experts, an easy way to add potassium as well as other nutrients to your diet is to regularly drink a no salt or low salt tomato-based vegetable juice with a little potassium chloride salt substitute added. Also, magnesium can contribute to blood pressure control through a reasonable dose of 500mg daily.
You can control your blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle. Eat a balanced diet, low in salt and fat but rich in fibers, fresh vegetables and fruits. Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables is very good for a healthy existence.
You should ensure that you maintain a normal weight and take regular exercise. You should strive to maintain at least 30 minutes of regular physical exercise daily and build physical activity into day-to-day chores. At times, you can take the stairs rather than the lift.
Your home or office should be smoke-free. Don't smoke secretly or hang out in a place filled with tobacco or cigar smoke. Passive smoking is very dangerous because you will be deeply inhaling the toxic carbon-monoxide being exhaled by the smokers around you.
Don't take any psychedelic drug or hard drug like cocaine, heroin, marijuana, etc. They are very dangerous for your health. As a responsible business owner or professional, you should set a good example for your family, friends, business associates or employees.
You should eat healthily, remain physically active on a regular basis and abstain totally from smoking, alcoholism or drug addiction.
Healthy lifestyle will help your heart tremendously and drastically reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Life will be better if you think of your health first. Avoid injury time rush. Don't wait till when it is rather late before you visit your medical doctor. Remember always that health is wealth.
You should avoid worry or do whatever you can do to banish intense worry or anxiety from your mind. Indeed, life is full of so many challenges and frustrating situations. However, in the midst of hustle and bustle of daily existence, you need to take life very easy.
Don't kill yourself through constant worry. Hypertension is a silent killer. Put all your worries and anxieties before God in prayer. God is a sustainer and solution provider. Trust Him to help you. He is able and very dependable. Ensure that you remain hale and hearty always.