"Heart attacks aren't just for older, overweight men with high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Doctors are seeing patients in their 40s come in with heart disease due to self-inflicted risk factors, according to Ilan Wittstein, M.D., an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute. Middle-aged men need to be on guard. Even if you work out and eat healthy, you could still be at risk.
Beware of Risk Factors
"In half of the cases of heart attacks, the heart attack is the first time the patient finds out about heart disease," says Richard A. Stein, director of preventive cardiology at Beth Israel Medical Center and spokesperson for the American Heart Association. More than 60 percent of heart attacks have to do with simple lifestyle issues, such as diet, exercise and cigarette smoking, and easy to detect and treat medical issues such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. "Men need to know about the risk factors that predict the majority of heart disease cases," Stein says. "
- Stress Less
- Release the Pressure
- Modify Your Lifestyle:
- Be aware of major risk factors
- Make a lifestyle change
- Make an appointment to be evaluated:
- Don't deny cardiac symptoms:
- Use medication: Asprin is great.
- Extra: Take up meditation, yoga, tai-chi