Heart Health and Disease Prevention
Heart disease is a term used to describe any disease which is related to the human heart. 
It's the number one cause of death in Canada, England, the United States, and Wales. In fact, it's found that roughly a quarter of total deaths in the United States are caused by heart diseases. Here are the top 5 types of heart disease:
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Heart Failure
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Coronary Artery Disease
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Congenital Heart Disease
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Heart Rhythm Related Disease
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Cardiomyopathy
Among these heart diseases, coronary artery disease account for about 500,000 deaths in the United States each year. Coronary arteries transport oxygen and other vital nutrients to the heart. The coronary artery can become affected by atherosclerosis, or a kind of plaque formed by calcium, fatty acids, or other substances. It blocks the smooth flow of blood, depriving the heart of its nutrients and oxygen supply.
Other disease called angina is when the heart muscle is temporary deprived of oxygen and it causes the body to react with left-sided chest pain.
Can Smoking Cause Heart Diseases?
Most definitely! Even if you maintain a healthy workout routine, and have a BMI below 24.9, you endanger yourself with every cigarette you smoke. When you smoke, the toxins from the cigarette mix with the blood, causing the walls of the arteries to become stiff and form plaque that potentially can block blood flow to the heart. Smoking causes a lot of other diseases including lung disease and decreases the ability to reproduce as normal.
Does Having a High Body Mass Index (BMI) Counts as an Increase in the Risk of Heart Disease?
Research has proven that simply having a high BMI index does not increase your chances of contracting heart disease so long as you maintain a healthy cardio vascular routine. What is more important than your BMI is your hip-to-waist ratio. People with low BMI will have a lower hip-to-waist ratio, signifying that they maintain a healthy cardio vascular regime and probably have a lower chance of contracting heart disease. People with a high BMI who partake in little to no healthy cardio vascular activities will have higher abdominal fat and a higher, possibly unhealthy BMI. They will be at a greater risk of heart disease and other diseases.
What Must be Included in a Healthy Diet?
Try to avoid any sort of food high in oil and in fats, especially trans fatty acids and saturated fats. Consuming foods that are high in carbohydrates can be poor for your diet if you are not using the carbohydrates that you are consuming. Your body does need oils, fats and carbohydrates in order for muscle growth and repair, and to enable efficient exercise. By eating foods with Omega-3 fats such as seafood, fish, nuts, and even some fruits your body can still receive the nutritional elements for it do carry out its daily activities. Also be sure to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits as they contain many vital vitamins that help with the absorption of other nutrients and giving you energy to workout. Vegetables and fruits are also important for digestive health, memory, and completing day-to-day tasks.
How Much Exercise is Needed to Maintain a Healthy Routine?
If you are a healthy adult, you should maintain an exercise routine of at least 150 minutes of moderately intense exercise each week. Older people still need to exercise everyday to the best of their abilities in order to maintain healthy muscles and joints as well as an active mind. Older people need to talk with their physicians about daily exercise especially if they have a current health condition or a physical problem that prevents them from doing a lot of activities. Young children and adolescents, need at least 60 minutes of vigorous exercise and possibly more, every day of the week. People who decide to live a sedentary life are potentially putting themselves at a higher risk of heart disease and other diseases and a shorter life altogether.
How Does Stress Affect My Heart?
There are two types of stress that affects people: physical and emotional. While some level of physical stress is good, such as exercise, other physical stresses, like being hostile, excessively competitive, high blood pressure, or binge eating, can put a person at a higher risk of getting heart disease. Emotional stress has not been proved to cause heart disease but some researchers claim that emotional stress in acute degrees can cause heart problems for people already suffering with heart diseases.
Follow these links to learn more about heart disease.
