Lifestyle modifications to reduce risk

As we previously in discussed in PCL, the major contributing factors of Heart Disease include;

High blood pressure (hypertension), High cholesterol levels, Diabetes, Obesity, Smoking, Inactivity, Hereditary, age, gender, alcohol intake, OCP and stress.
Although it is impossible to control some of the contributing factors such as age, gender etc there are many lifestyle modifications suggested in order to minimise the risk of developing heart disease:

Exercise
Regular exercise increases muscular strength including of the heart resulting in the ability to pump more blood around your body with less effort. The risk of a patient who exercises regularly is about half that of a sedentary patient.
Quit Smoking
Smoking speeds up the clogging and narrowing of coronary arteries. Smoking also damages other blood vessels. This can prevent blood circulation, particularly to your hands and feet. Peripheral arterial disease can result in blood clots, infection, gangrene and even amputation. Smokers have a 70 per cent greater risk of death from coronary heart disease than non-smokers.
Keep at a healthy weight or lose weight
Being overweight or obsess increases risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol levels and induces diabetes. All of which are causes of heart disease.
Reduce salt intake
Increases blood pressure
Learn to relax and reduce stress
There is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that chronic emotional stress can be associated with heart disease and early death.
Reduce alcohol intake and maintain a “healthy” diet- all food groups, minimal amounts of processed and salty foods.

Also a patient may choose to monitor blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels in order to ensure they remain in a low risk area. The maintenance of desirable readings can be achieved by following the lifestyle modifications discussed above.