A Healthier Heart

Based on the latest scientific research, Dr Ashton has developed a strategy for you to protect your heart and to reduce the risk factors affecting you. Now it's down to you.

* Don't smoke
* Have your blood pressure and blood cholesterol checked regularly.
* Follow a diet low in saturated fats, high in polyunsaturates and monounsaturates, and include plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and fish.
* Take good quality vitamin supplements, including vitamin E.
* Keep your alcohol consumption within safe limits: under 14 units a week for women, under 21 for men.
* Maintain a healthy weight.
* Keep your waist measurement below 32 inches for a woman, below 37 inches for a man.
* Take regular, moderate exercise. Brisk walking for between 30 and 40 minutes, four or five days a week, is ideal.
* Women taking HRT should not assume it will protect the heart. The most recent evidence suggests it does not.

According to Dr Ashton, making relatively small changes to a number of risk factors is far more effective than making one big change to one factor - apart from anything else, you're more likely to sustain the effort if the changes you make are realistic. Most coronary heart disease is entirely preventable, and it's never to late to improve your health, so get to work on your lifestyle now.

Published by: Vermilion, 2000
ISBN 0 09 185610 8
Price: £9.99

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