PREVENTIVE MEASURES AGAINST HEART ATTACKS

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 | General health

• Eat more fish oils. Studies of people who consume large amounts of fish (notably the Japanese and the Eskimos) show that they have very low heart-disease rates. Both groups have low blood-fat levels, high levels of high-density lipoproteins (the good, helpful kind) and a reduced tendency for their blood to clot. These people also have a high level of a particular type of fatty acid called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). This and its close relative, DHA, are found in fish, fish oils and the fat of marine animals. Many research groups have now looked at the role of fish-oil supplements and found that various risk factors for heart disease can be altered beneficially. The main advantage appears to be that the blood becomes less sticky and so less likely to form clots. This must reduce the risk of heart attacks because they are so often triggered off by a clot in one of the arteries that supply the heart. It is especially encouraging to find that the higher the blood fats before taking fish oil, the more they are affected by the treatment. So far there do not seem to be any drawbacks to taking fish-oil supplements-for example, the blood does not go on getting thinner and thinner. So, by increasing your fish consumption and possibly taking a food supplement of EPA, you can almost certainly reduce your chances of having a heart attack.

• Eat more magnesium-containing foods. Recent work suggests that it is brief spasms of the coronary arteries rather than clots that trigger a significant number of heart attacks. It appears that a deficiency of magnesium could be behind this problem. Eat more fruit, whole grains, vegetables and pulses to enrich your diet with magnesium.

• Make friends and be sociable. Social isolation has been found to be a factor in heart attacks, according to a study of 4,000 men in the US. The most sociable people had fewest heart attacks. In parallel with this an Israeli study found that men who had a good sex life were much less likely to have a heart attack. There is also evidence that loving care reduces the arterial disease that makes a heart attack more likely by narrowing the coronary arteries.

• Control your diabetes if you have Type I (insulin-dependent diabetes) and cure it if you have middle-age onset diabetes. Diabetics have a very much increased risk of having a heart attack and this preventive measure is very worth while.

• Don’t take the contraceptive pill if you have a history of heart disease in the family. It is not known why women have so much less heart disease than men-the hormonal differences are not an adequate explanation-but taking the Pill definitely raises the risk unacceptably for susceptible women, especially after the age of 35.

• The weather, particularly the invasion of cold fronts and rapid falls in barometric pressure, has been linked to admissions to hospital with heart attacks. Things you can do to prevent heart attacks occurring in these circumstances are to avoid exposure to cold, especially the combination of vigorous exercise and cold. It is no coincidence that so many men die from heart attacks every year shifting snow from in front of their homes. The use of a light face-mask helps maintain temperature and humidity and can be a useful preventive.