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Adult Cardiovascular Risk Factors

How our adult lifestyles set patterns of behavior for our kids…

Before we examine the risks our children face from obesity and inactivity, lets first profile what a typical adult cardiovascular diagnostic patient history would uncover…

1) Family History

Ask yourself the following questions:

Has anyone in your family been diagnosed with

Disease of the arteries?

Varicose veins?

Lung disease?

Diabetes?

Has anyone in your family had

A heart attack (“myocardial infarction” or “MI”)?
A stroke (“cerebral ischemic attack” or “CIA”)?
Cancer?

Has anyone suffered

Heart palpitations (irregular heart rate, heart pounding or racing)?
Syncope (passing out)?
Near-syncope (severe dizziness)?
Has anyone died at a young age of disease (vs. accidental death)?

2) Personal History

Have you ever been diagnosed with

Hypertension (“HTN” high blood pressure)?
Diabetes (“DM” high blood sugar)?
Cardiovascular disease?
Peripheral vascular disease (vascular disease of the extremities)?
Stoke or TIA (“trans-ischemic attack”)?

Are you overweight?

If you are overweight, the most important thing you can do to lower your risk is to increase your activity level while controlling your intake of high risk foods.

Things You Can Do To Loose Weight This Week!

If you don’t already, eat a meatless meal at least once per week
Substitute low fat foods for high fat foods whenever you can
Take a low-cal lunch to work and walk 20 minutes to a nearby park to enjoy your lunch
Eat more fish!

Obesity combined with inactivity is a recipe for disease. Please consider how
the choices you make today will affect your future! Set an example!

Do you smoke?

      If so, you can quantify the risk associated with smoking by multiplying the
      number of cigarettes smoked per day by the number of years of smoking. For
      example, if you smoke one pack per day for ten years, this could be
      expressed as a “10 Pack-Year Smoker”. Conversely if someone smoked 10
      packs per day for 1 year, they in turn would also be a “10 Pack-Year Smoker”.
      How many pack-years are you? (Try to reduce the number of cigarettes
      by “enjoying them” one by one, i.e. resist unconscious chain smoking
      by “savoring the next one” before you smoke it, step by step delaying the
      amount of time before you light up to ultimately reduce the number smoked per
      day. If you do smoke, smoke less! If you don’t smoke, don’t start! (Consult your
      doctor for more advice and treatment options!)

      Since we know that smoking affects the walls of our arteries, particularly the
      coronary arteries, the more you smoke the higher your risk of heart attack due
      to the plaque that collects on the nicotine roughened arterial walls. To
      underscore this connection, please note that of those who continue to smoke
      after an initial heart attack, over 90% will have a second and much more likely
      to be fatal 2^nd heart attack within five years of the first.

      However! The good news is that with intervention, i.e. smoking cessation
      combined with diet and exercise modification, even at the late stage of an
      initial heart attack, one can reduce the incidence of a 2^nd heart attack
      significantly, to less than 10%! We bring this concern to light now to highlight
      the importance of getting our kids to understand the importance of a healthy
      lifestyle at the earliest possible age! Having looked at our personal and family
      cardiovascular risk factors, we can now better help our children understand the
      importance of a healthy lifestyle and guide them to chart their own path to
      health & fitness.

      The Kid’s Project to fight obesity “ACES” is now in 51 Countries! Soon The
      OpenHeart Community will help develop Len Saunders’ “PACES Project:
      PARENTS AND CHILDREN EXERCISE SIMULTANEOUSLY” to further the
      connection between parent and child, education and healthy lifestyles.