ART heart attack and stroke part 4

Boomers Health – Disease Prevention Series

Heart Attack and Stroke

Part IV

What to Do – Action Steps

3D illustration of Heart - Part of Human Organic.

Glenn Sargent

For Boomers Health

© Copyright Boomers Club Pty Ltd July 2016

INTRODUCTION.

This series has been compiled with minimal use of medical terminology with the aim that those outside of the medical profession obtain a rudimentary understanding of the primary cause of heart attack and stroke.  The subject is extremely complex and this series was designed to just cover the basics of the science in plain language (where possible) and does not even pretend to replace everyone’s need to consult with a qualified medical professional.

Often there are no symptoms preceding a heart attack or stroke, and the first one just might be the last. We care about Boomers, look after yourself, each of us is very special person to someone else.

What to Do

Set Baseline Data

Before instigating any lifestyle changes (diet) initial data is needed. Future data can be compared with it to gauge whether the lifestyle changes are working. Visit your GP to arrange a check up and obtain the following tests.

  • Standard lipid profile plus LDL-Subfractions!
  • Blood Sugars, and
  • Blood Pressure

Your GP will be familiar with the tests above and may order other tests as well. NOTE your GP may not be aware off, or be familiar with, the LDL-Subfraction test. Ensure your GP request includes this test by writing “LDL – Subfraction” on the test request slip. The LDL-Subfraction test is not covered by medicare and at the time of writing it cost $76 if done by a Sonic Healthcare owned pathology centre.

Click HERE to find the name of a centre nearest to you and provide it to your GP.

MAKE SURE YOUR GP INSTRUCTS THE TESTING LAB TO SEND YOU A COPY OF THE RESULTS. Remember this is the baseline data with which to compare future tests in order to find out if lifestyle changes are actually working or not. If you are making lifestyle changes to improve health the only way to check if they are working is to obtain new tests and compare the results!

Reading the test results is easy as they always include the healthy reference ranges and you can easily see where you results fall. If all results are within the guidelines you don’t need to make lifestyle changes, but there is usually always room for improvement.

Even if the results are perfect if you have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 25 then you should consider losing some weight. Determine your BMI HERE.

Lifestyle Changes

I am not listing them here, most us sort of know what they are anyway, quit smoking, eat more vegetables, avoid processed food, sugar and fat (well maybe not fat) are bad for us, exercise more and so on.

More than sixty percent of Aussies are overweight and I suspect most of them know it is not good for them, yet sixty percent still remain overweight. If we said here don’t eat this and do eat that and laid out eating and exercise instructions for you to follow to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, it would be a waste of our time.

Thousands of others have done it; it’s on the TV, in newspapers and magazines, in fact dietary advice is everywhere, it’s ubiquitous and generally it doesn’t work in the long term for the sixty percent of Aussie’s who need it to work.  If it did sixty percent of Aussies would not be overweight.

How to make lifestyle changes work is covered in the under “The New You” and  “Diet Programs“ esctions of the “Lerning Centre” menu. Only when lifestyle changes are understood and mastered does it become natural and easy to permanently alter them and “add more years to your life and put more life into those years”