Heart Health Series - Part 1

Do we ever take a moment to pause and ponder about the marvel behind this body which makes it function so seamlessly? We barely do, right? Yet, it continues to work tirelessly beating about 2.5 billion times in an average life time – It’s our HEART, you guessed it right! It’s our lifeline.

The heart pushes millions of gallons of blood to every part of the body carrying with it oxygen, fuel, hormones, other compounds, and a host of essential cells, while simultaneously whisking away the wastes arising from the body’s metabolism.

All it takes on our part is to care for it by adopting a healthy lifestyle and help it to function efficiently. But we end up bringing its efficiency down or allow it to fail with unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, poor stress management, habits like smoking, et al.

Although many people develop some form of cardiovascular disease as they get older, it can be well prevented with a healthy lifestyle especially from a young age.

Lifestyle changes and medications can control heart-harming trends, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, in the early stages before they cause damage.

One of the key heart problems is atherosclerosis. This is the accumulation of pockets of cholesterol-rich gunk inside the arteries. These pockets, called plaque, can limit blood flow through arteries that nourish the heart and other arteries throughout the body. When a plaque breaks apart, it can cause a heart attack or stroke.

In this heart-health series we will talk about various heart-related problems and strategies to prevent them. Watch this space for more…