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Prevention
There
are several important steps you can take to keep your heart healthy:
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Learn about your heart health
Know
your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers, and work with your
health-care team to achieve your goals:
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Normal
blood pressure is 120/80 to 130/85.
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Your
total cholesterol count should be 5.2 or less.
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Women should have a fasting blood test, to measure their LDL
(“bad”) cholesterol, HDL (“good”) cholesterol, the ratio of
these to their total blood cholesterol, and their triglyceride
levels.
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LDL should be 45 mmol/L (or 2.0 mmol/L if you are at high
risk of a heart attack or have heart disease)
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HDL should be 1.29 or higher
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total blood cholesterol should be less than 5.2 mmol/L
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blood
triglycerides should be less than 1.7 mmol/L
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Newer blood tests that cue markers for heart disease include
homocysteine and C-reactive protein tests. High levels of
homocysteine and C-reactive protein may increase your risk
of stroke and certain types of heart disease.
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Have blood tests done, to rule out diabetes or, if you have
diabetes, to check to see how well your diabetes is under
control.
Although
we cannot change some of our risk factors for cardiovascular disease,
such as our age and family history, there are many things we can
do to reduce our risk of developing heart disease or having a
stroke.
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