Heart Disease

Caregiver Assistance Tips

  1. Relaxation, Meditation, and avoiding stress are important things to encourage your senior to focus on in their life
  2. Follow doctor recommendations to prepare healthy meals for your senior

Information

According to the Mayo Clinic heart disease can be improved and even prevented by making simple lifestyle changes and choices. Some of these changes are listed below and Assistance In Home Care is here to support you in your efforts to living a healthier lifestyle.


Stop Smoking Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease, especially atherosclerosis. Quitting is the best way to reduce your risk of heart disease and its complications.


Control Your Blood Pressure Ask your doctor for a blood pressure measurement at least every two years. He or she may recommend more frequent measurements if your blood pressure is higher than normal or you have a history of heart disease. Optimal blood pressure is less than 120 systolic and 80 diastolic, as measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg).


Check Your Cholesterol Ask your doctor for a baseline cholesterol test when you’re in your 20s and then at least every five years. You may need to start testing earlier if high cholesterol is in your family. If your test results aren’t within desirable ranges, your doctor may recommend more frequent measurements.

Most people should aim for an LDL level below 130 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or 3.4 millimoles per liter (mmol/L). If you have other risk factors for heart disease, you should aim for an LDL below 100 mg/dL (2.6 mmol/L). If you’re at very high risk of heart disease — if you’ve already had a heart attack or have diabetes, for example — aim for an even lower LDL level — below 70 mg/dL (1.8 mmol/L).


Exercise Exercise helps you achieve and maintain a healthy weight and control diabetes, elevated cholesterol and high blood pressure — all risk factors for heart disease. If you have a heart arrhythmia or heart defect, there may be some restrictions on the activities you can do, so talk to your doctor. With your doctor’s OK, aim for 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week.


Eat Healthy A heart-healthy diet based on fruits, vegetables and whole grains — and low in saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium and added sugar — can help you control your weight, blood pressure and cholesterol.


If you want to learn more, please follow this link to the Mayo Clinic.