Kathmandu:

September 25 was World Heart Day. The day advocates a healthy heart for all. Can doctors prevent a heart attack? They cannot. They can only give you information about heart attack and advise you on how to prevent it. You and only you can prevent a heart attack.

A heart attack is caused by the blockage of the blood vessel (coronary artery) that supplies blood to the heart. Fatty deposits in the vessel wall cause arteries to narrow and block ultimately. Most of the time blood also gets clotted in this narrow part completely blocking the artery.

The fatty deposits are nothing but cholesterol. Whenever there is excessive cholesterol in the blood, it tends to deposit inside the walls of the blood vessels. Heart attack strikes both men and women, claiming 50,000 lives every day worldwide. However, some persons are more likely than others to suffer a heart attack because of their ‘risk factors’. Risk factors are behaviours or conditions that increase the chance of a disease. Some of the risk factors are beyond your control, but most can be modified to help lower your risk of having a first-or repeat-heart attack.

Risk factors you cannot control

• Pre-existing coronary heart disease: You already have the disease including prior heart attack, angioplasty or bypass surgery

• Age: In men, the risk increases after the age 45 years, in women, after 55.

•Family history of early heart disease: Your father or brother is diagnosed with this disease before the age of 55 years, or a mother or sister diagnosed before the age of 65. However,

this does not mean that you will have it.

Factors you can control

• Smoking

• High blood pressure

• High blood cholesterol

• Overweight and obesity

• Physical inactivity

• Diabetes

Prevention of heart attack is basically preventing or modifying your risk factors. It is divided into two:

1. Primary prevention: Prevention of coronary artery disease and prevention of risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity.

2. Secondary prevention: It is when you already have coronary artery disease, fatty deposits exists in your blood vessels, but take measures to prevent a first or repeat heart attack.

Maintaining a healthy weight and physique will help reduce the risk of a first heart heart attack by four to eight years. This will also reduce the chance of high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

How to have healthy heart

• Stop smoking

• Healthy diet — Avoid eating a large amount of fat and cholestrol, avoid fast food, advocate eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and low fat containing dairy products, ensure a fibre-rich diet, avoid too much sweets and salt.

• Increase physical activity: Walk 4-6 km in one hour everyday.

• Check and control your blood cholesterol

• Keep your blood pressure less than 140/90 mmHg

• Keep diabetes in check

You are responsible for maintaining a healthy weight and physique. If you do so, you can prevent the possibility of suffering a heart attack. So, live healthy and gift yourself a healthy heart.