Are You At Risk For Heart Disease? Take The Test!

Blood tests might be used in the future to test patients for their potential for heart disease years down the road.

Three new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of heart attack have been discovered recently by researchers.

Given that heart disease tends to run in families, it seems natural that researchers would attribute heart disease to a genetic cause. But careful researchers have made an effort to single out other causes such as shared unhealthy habits.

Now that this cause has been singled out, doctors will be able to conduct blood tests in order to determine if an individual has some of the genetic factors that lead to heart disease.

Doctors predict that this test will be cheaper than standard tests done to test for cholesterol.

This test can be done at an early age, giving patients a heads up on the lifestyle they will have to lead in order to avoid heart disease.

Heart disease prevention regimen

If you find that you are prone to heart disease, there are many steps you can take to lower your risk.

  1. Exercise: Yes, exercise seems to help with solving almost anything. Exercising (cardiovascular exercises) moderately for 30 minutes a day can lower your risk of heart disease.
  2. Carbohydrate consumption: Avoid foods that are greasy, fatty and full of sugar. Instead, have carbohydrate-rich foods such as cereals.
  3. Get fiber in your meal: In addition to being great for your digestive system, fiber-rich foods are great for your heart. Try adding high-fiber foods like, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, rye, broccoli, green beans, apples with skin, spinach, beet greens, kale, collard, Swiss chard, turnip greens, almonds, brazil nuts, peanuts, walnuts, cherries, and brussel sprouts.
  4. Eat garlic: To get the maximum heart benefits from garlic, be sure to have at least one clove of garlic per day.
  5. Eat seafood: Omega-3 fatty acids have been found to lower both stress and heart disease risk.
  6. Drink orange juice: All that’s needed is one glass of orange juice a day or a supplement of 1000 mg.
  7. Drink red wine: If you do not like drinking wine, grape juice works just as well.
  8. Take Vitamin B and E supplements: These have been shown to lower risk if taken once a day.
  9. Keep your stress low: Be sure to talk to friends and family about things that bother you. Generally, a healthy lifestyle will go a long way towards helping with stress. But generally talking about your problems can also help lower your heart disease chances.
  10. Sleep: Sleep has been found to lower stress and sleep also lowers your risk of heart disease. However, recently studies have found that those who sleep for too long often have a shorter lifespan. A solution to this is to take naps.