Can heart disease be prevented?
A. Stop smoking, and if you don’t smoke, don’t start. People can also lose excess weight, exercise regularly, eat a low cholesterol diet, and take medications to reduce cholesterol if prescribed. It’s also important to maintain a healthy blood pressure, control diabetes, and avoid excessive alcohol consumption. Talk to your physician about taking aspirin if you have major risk factors for heart disease. Get regular checkups, and if you have a family history of heart disease, it’s especially important that you maintain a healthy lifestyle. To help your physician assess your risk of heart disease and other diseases, you should prepare a list of your blood relatives (parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, children, aunts and uncles not by marriage, and cousins) and any known medical problems, and for those who have died, the causes and ages at death.
