Take care of your heart - Planete sante

Consider family history

If a first-degree relative (father, mother, brother, sister) has developed a heart problem, before the age of 55 for a man or 65 for a woman, it is recommended to have a check-up before the age of 40.

A large number of pathologies can affect the heart. The most common is coronary heart disease and one of its consequences, infarction. Several elements (we speak of risk factors) are likely to cause these heart problems to appear. They fall into two categories: 'modifiable' risk factors and those found to be 'unmodifiable'.

Let's start with the latter, those on which we cannot act, either through medication or by modifying our lifestyle. These include age – in fact, the older you get, the greater the risk of developing heart disease – and heredity.

As for modifiable risk factors, tobacco is at the top of the list. Then come high blood pressure, excess cholesterol or diabetes.

Doctor's check-up

It is not always easy to assess yourself what your own risk factors are, because several of them (such as hypertension or cholesterol) can remain silent for a long time. Concretely, it is recommended that men over 40 and women over 50 consult their general practitioner for an update. Discussion around lifestyle habits, measurement of blood pressure, fasting blood test will allow a calculation of the probability (“score”) of the risk of developing a cardiovascular problem over the next ten years and to decide whether treatment is indicated.

Stop smoking

Scientists are unanimous: one cigarette is already one too many. A smoker aged under 50 is four to five times more likely to suffer a myocardial infarction than a non-smoker.

It's never too late to quit. The beneficial effects on health can already appear after six months, even if it takes ten to fifteen years of abstinence for the cardiovascular risk to return to that of a non-smoker.

Watch out for overweight

Numerous studies show that the more a person's weight increases, the greater their risk of developing a heart problem and of dying from it. The ideal is to aim for a body mass index (BMI) ¹ between 20 and 25. Note that people with abdominal obesity are more at risk. The waist circumference should not exceed 94 cm in a man and 88 cm in a woman.

Take care of your diet

To lose weight, take care of your body and a fortiori your heart, the theory is simple: you have to eat less and healthier. In practice, it is obviously more complicated. Most studies recommend the Mediterranean diet. His recipe: eat fruits and vegetables (with a goal of five fruits and vegetables a day), whole grains (no added sugar) and olive oil without limitation; consume eggs and dairy products occasionally; fish once or twice a week and little meat (maximum 350-500 g of red meat per week).

As for fats, the ideal is to favor those called polyunsaturated, which are found in particular in fatty fish (salmon, sardines), nuts or olive oil.

The benefits of sports

Physical activity is also an essential factor in keeping your heart healthy and fighting excess weight. Do not panic, the idea is not to aim for performance: half an hour of brisk walking, five days a week, is already beneficial. Overall, anything that helps fight a sedentary lifestyle reduces the risk of developing heart disease.

Psychosocial factors at play

Some people have more difficulty than others in acting on their lifestyle, getting back into sport or changing their diet. The lowest socio-economic classes are often the most vulnerable, especially because they are more exposed to “junk food”.

Stress at work or within the family, daily burden, depression or even social isolation make people more vulnerable to cardiovascular disease. If no direct relationship between stress and heart attack has been proven, this type of vulnerability often deprives personal resources, which can prevent action on risk factors.

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1. The BMI is obtained by dividing the weight (in kg) by the height (in m) squared.

Adapted from I want to understand… How to take care of my heart, by Aude Raimondi and Olivier Muller, Geneva, Ed. Planet Health, 2021.

Published in Planète Santé magazine N° 42 – October 2021