Читать книгу Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease For Dummies - James M. Rippe - Страница 2

As you read this book, your heart is beating away in your chest, sustaining your life. Although it’s about the size of a clenched adult fist and weighs less than a pound, your heart beats 40 million times a year and generates enough force to lift you 100 miles into the atmosphere. What an amazing – and absolutely essential – machine!

So consider these facts:

✔ One American dies of heart disease every 40 seconds – amounting to almost 600,000 deaths every year.

✔ Almost every American adult has at least one of these risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol, smoking, being overweight, diabetes, stress, physical inactivity, or nutrient-poor diet. Not one family in America is left untouched by heart disease.

But here’s the good news: Regardless of your age, sex, ethnicity, and current heart health, you can acquire the knowledge and take action to work toward a healthier heart and the benefits that go with it. This book will help.

About This Book

Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease For Dummies is a commonsense guide for everyone. It discusses simple things that you can do every day to maximize your cardiac health and prevent heart disease. You’ll also find some basic strategies and lifestyle practices to reduce and reverse the risk factors you may have for the major forms of heart disease.

If you (or a loved one) already have heart disease, you also have come to the right place. I explore some facts related to coronary heart disease, angina, heart attacks, hypertension, heart failure, and many other cardiac conditions. You’ll discover ways to work with your doctor to control these conditions and possibly to reverse many of their consequences. Lifestyle modifications provide the foundation for effective change.

There are a few things that you should know about how I put the book together. First, you can read the first part of the book (Chapters 1 to 3) for a brief but comprehensive introduction to heart disease and then go to the chapters that interest you most. Or you can go right to a specific chapter that you need, such as Chapter 5 on creating a beneficial nutrition and physical activity plan or Chapter 9 on managing cholesterol problems. Part V contains more than 40 dishes you can choose from to start making more heart-healthy meals right away. If you want to skip sidebars (where I provide additional tips) or Technical Stuff icons, that’s okay, too. Think of this book as a tool that you can use any way that works best for you.

You will find it helpful to note a few conventions I use:

✔ Atherosclerosis is the medical name for the cardiovascular disease process that starts with fatty streaks in the arteries and progresses to large lesions that narrow the arteries and may rupture and form clots that block arteries.

✔ When atherosclerosis occurs in the arteries of the heart, it is called coronary heart disease and abbreviated CHD. This is the common term I use throughout the book, although this condition is also called coronary artery disease (CAD).

✔ In the recipe section, temperatures are Fahrenheit, olive oil is extra virgin olive oil, and pepper is ideally freshly ground (but that’s optional). (See the appendix for a metric conversion chart.)

This icon highlights vegetarian recipes.

Within this book, some web addresses may break across two lines of text. If you are reading a print copy of this book and want to go to the website, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s printed in the text, ignoring the line break. If you are reading this as an e-book, just click on the link to go directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions

Every writer envisions the people who will read his (or her) book. Here are some qualities that I think you have:

✔ You care about your heart health and that of your family. And you want up-to-date and practical information that will help you take steps to ensure heart health.

✔ You are not afraid to take action to improve your health. And you want practical steps.

✔ You wish to increase your knowledge about heart disease and how to decrease your risk of specific conditions that lead to heart disease.

✔ You want to work as a partner with your doctor(s).

✔ You realize that a healthy lifestyle, not medicines or medical procedures, is the foundation of overall health, including heart health.

✔ You are ready to commit to creating new healthful habits and taking control of your heart health.

Icons Used in This Book

This book uses the following icons to point out different kinds of information:

This icon provides detailed information about how the heart works, what is going on in the body and heart when a cardiac event happens, or how a procedure works or what it does. But don’t worry – all technical stuff is presented in plain English.

This icon signals key information about the conditions that are risk factors for heart disease and about specific heart diseases. It also highlights key information about heart health that is worth remembering long after you put this book down.

This icon indicates practical suggestions you can put to work to help you reach your heart-health goals.

Think of this icon as a caution flag. It points out things or practices that may be harmful to heart health or overall health.

Beyond the Book

“But wait there’s more … !” Don’t you hate those infomercials? I’m happy to say that the extras that come with this book actually give you brief “stuff” you can use.

Need the basic steps and tips for keeping your heart healthy? Need to refresh your memory of nutrient-rich foods before you hit the deli? Need a little inspiration to work some exercise into your day? Got a check up and need to know what to ask the doctor? Access the Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/preventingreversingheartdisease.

Each part of the book also has additional online articles. You can find tools for managing weight, tips for eating out, a checklist of essential equipment for your kitchen, and more. Head to www.dummies.com/extras/preventingreversingheartdisease.

Where to Go from Here

As I note earlier, you can start with any chapter you like in this book. The simplest approach – and one that refreshes your understanding of the basics of heart health and the risks of heart disease – is to start by reading (or skimming through) Part I and then go to the chapters that most interest you or answer your current questions.

If your primary interest is adopting a heart-healthy way of eating and increasing your physical activity, then start with Chapter 5 which tells you how to embrace a healthy diet and lifestyle. If you also want to lose weight, then head on over to Chapter 10 on managing weight. Or if you have received a diagnosis of high blood pressure (Chapter 8) or of high cholesterol problems (Chapter 9), you can get immediate information and tips in those chapters.

Couples starting a family or raising one want the best health for their children. Overall health and heart health are family affairs. Chapters 7 and 23 give you invaluable tips.

Just as there are many habits and conditions that put your heart as risk, there are many pathways to heart health. This book opens the gate to these pathways. So here’s my invitation to take the first step on the path that works for you.