A healthy heart is vital to overall wellness, and critical to readiness and optimizing performance. Cardiovascular disease — including heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure — is the number one killer of men and women in the United States. Lowering your risk factors for heart disease is critical to your health and helps improve readiness and mission performance.
Knowing the risk factors, warning signs, and symptoms of heart disease is key to avoiding serious health complications, including death, but many people don’t know the signs.
High blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, and smoking are key risk factors for heart disease.
Warning signs of heart disease include fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, among other symptoms.
The four most common symptoms of heart attacks are:
Chest pain or discomfort.
Upper body pain or discomfort in the arms, back, neck, jaw, or upper stomach.
Shortness of breath.
Nausea, lightheadedness, or cold sweats.
There are well understood ways of minimizing the risk and impacts of heart disease.
Eat a balanced, healthy diet, low in sodium, cholesterol, and saturated fat (the Mediterranean diet is considered an excellent model).
Get at least 2.5 hours a week of physical activity.
Get seven to eight hours of sleep.
Manage stress.
Don't use tobacco.
Keep alcohol consumption low.