By Shelly Hanson

We all know heart disease is a scourge in our American population.  Our fast paced lives, poor diet, tendency towards diabetes, ever increasing incidence of  obesity and our overall highly stressed lives, contribute to the problem.  What do we do about it?  How do we prevent the national problem from becoming our own? 
We follow our doctor’s advice and care about the risk factors that are connected to the problem.  What are they?  Cholesterol levels, tobacco usage, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and family history, are the main ones.  Being male over the age of 40 is also relevant.

What can we do as individuals to decrease our risk of having heart disease?

• Eat right.  That’s not rocket science, but it is challenging, and we all know it when we are eating foods that are not wholesome. Take the time to truly enjoy your food, and be grateful you have been blessed to have it.  Receive all the pleasure from its flavor.  When we do this, we tend to eat more appropriately, and stop when we’re full.
• Stop smoking.  Everyone today knows that smoking is a contributor to many deadly diseases including heart disease. 
• Control your blood pressure.  Caffeine, high salt foods and high stress over a long period can all raise blood pressure. Your doctor may prescribe specific medications to lower your blood pressure if it is deemed necessary.
• The most potent and overall healthful thing a person can do to lower their risk for heart disease is to exercise regularly.  An interesting study was done on men who all had documented blockages in their arteries that went to their hearts.  For one year they exercised for an hour, five days a week.  After a year the blockages had shrunk in every case, from exercise alone.  

Every human can enjoy exercise because we all know it feels good.  We need to like ourselves enough to take the time each day to do something physical that we really enjoy . . . that is the key. It has to be something we enjoy and look forward to doing.  Weight lifting, walking, riding a bike, playing a game of ball, swimming . . . or climbing the dune at Pacific City to catch the beautiful Oregon sunset, are all examples.

Written by Dr. Hal Mitchell, Grand Ronde Health & Wellness Center