Valentines Special : The Truth about your heart

What's your risk of having a heart attack or stroke?

Your answers to the following questions can help determine your risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years. Based on your answers, we've also included recommendations to help keep you healthy.

Click HERE to take the test.

1. Stop smoking. Quitting smoking is the single most important thing a person can do to live longer. If you are a smoker, you are twice as likely to have a heart attack than a non-smoker. But from the moment you stop smoking, the risk of heart attack starts to reduce. With public smoking bans recently introduced, there has never been a better time to give up.

2. Cut down on salt. Too much salt can cause high blood pressure, which increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Avoid foods like crisps, salted nuts, canned and packet soups and sauces, baked beans and canned vegetables, pork pies, pizzas and ready meals. Many breakfast cereals and breads that appear healthy also contain high levels of salt, so keep your eye on these too.

3. Watch your diet. A healthy diet can help to reduce the risk of developing heart disease, and can also help increase the chances of survival after a heart attack. You should try to have a balanced diet, containing plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, oily fish, starchy foods such as wholegrain bread, pasta and rice. Avoid foods like biscuits, cakes, pastries and dairy products that are high in saturated fats and sugar.

4. Monitor your alcohol. Too much alcohol can damage the heart muscle, increase blood pressure and also lead to weight gain. Binge drinking will increase your risk of having a heart attack, so you should aim to limit your intake to one to two units a day.

5. Get active.The heart is a muscle and it needs exercise to keep fit so that it can pump blood efficiently round your body with each heart beat. You should aim for 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a day. If this seems too daunting, start off gently and build up gradually. Keeping fit not only benefits your physical health - it improves your mental health and wellbeing too.

6. Manage your weight. The number of people who are overweight in Britain is rising fast - already more than half of the adult population is overweight or obese. Carrying a lot of extra weight as fat can greatly affect your health and increases the risk of life-threatening conditions such as coronary heart disease and diabetes. If you are overweight or obese, start by making small, but healthy changes to what you eat, and try to become more active.

7. Get your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked by your GP. The higher your blood pressure, the shorter your life expectancy. People with high blood pressure run a higher risk of having a stroke or a heart attack. High levels of cholesterol in the blood - produced by the liver from saturated fats - can lead to fatty deposits in your coronary arteries that increase your risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and diseases that affect the circulation. You can help lower your cholesterol level by exercising and eating high-fibre foods such as porridge, beans, pulses, lentils, nuts, fruits and vegetables.

8. Learn to manage your stress levels. If you find things are getting on top of you, you may fail to eat properly, smoke and drink too much and this may increase your risk of a heart attack.

9. Check your family history . If a close relative is at risk of developing coronary heart disease from smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of physical activity, obesity and diabetes, then you could be at risk too.

10. Make sure you can recognise the early signs of coronary heart disease . Tightness or discomfort in the chest, neck, arm or stomach which comes on when you exert yourself but goes away with rest may be the first sign of angina, which can lead to a heart attack if left untreated.

Its "Go Red for Women" Day, wear your Red and promote awareness of deadly heart disease

From:  Women's Health Blog

Mind-numbing fact: More women die of cardiovascular disease than from all forms of cancer combined, according to the American Heart Association.

Eye-opening fact: 80 percent of cardiac events in women—which include heart attacks and strokes—could be prevented if women made the right choices for their hearts involving diet, exercise and abstinence from smoking, according to the AHA. And nearly half of American women have no idea that heart disease is their number 1 killer.

The American Heart Association wants to change that. Its Go Red For Women campaign educates women about their heart disease risk, how they can reduce their risk, and how to identify the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke (check out the info below). Today, February 3, is National Wear Red Day and women are encouraged to don something red to raise awareness that heart disease is not an “old man’s disease.”

Women’s Health staffers are going to get decked out in red and we invite all of you to join us. But simply wearing crimson won’t accomplish much—you’ve got to tell other women why you’re doing it. Our suggestion? Post a picture of yourself wearing red to your blog or Facebook or Twitter profile, along with a link to this story. (Twitter-ers: The hashtag is #GoRedForWomen.) Who knows? One of your friends might learn something that could save her life.

How to Protect Your Ticker
“It’s important to take care of your heart even before you have any symptoms,” says Arthur Agatston, M.D., a Miami cardiologist and author of The South Beach Heart Program. “Quite simply, the earlier you start, the easier it is to prevent heart disease.” The best ways to reduce your risk for heart disease:

1. Eat More Plants and Fish: Certain fruits and vegetables are good sources of heart-protecting antioxidants and potassium, which regulates blood pressure. Omega-3 fatty acids in fish decreasing your blood pressure and triglycerides.
2. Cut the Fat: Reduce your intake of saturated fat and trans fat; the latter can raise levels of bad cholesterol and also lower levels of good cholesterol.
3. Know Your Risk: have your physician to check for high cholesterol, elevated blood sugar, and signs of diabetes. Know your family’s medical history.
4. Be Active: The AHA recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity each week
5. Quit Smoking: Besides the fact that cigarettes cause cancer, are expensive, and just plain smell bad, they could very well kill you.

Warning Signs
What exactly does a heart attack look like? Actress Elizabeth Banks, who graces the March cover of Women’s Health, teamed up with Go Red For Women on a 3-minute video in which she plays a mom having a heart attack. “This little film is about a super mom who takes care of everyone except herself and learns the lesson that she better look at herself as well,” Banks says.

Heart attacks are no laughing matter, but Banks manages to make viewers smile when her son in the video looks up heart attack symptoms on her iPhone and hands it to his chest-clutching mom, who previously insisted that she was fine. Banks finally calls 911. Study up on the signs of heart attack and stroke from the AHA so you know when to make that important call. Read more about Signs of a Heart Attack and Signs of a Stroke