The heart is one of the most important organs in the body, if not the largest. All the more reason to take care of it and pay special attention to its condition. Simple habits such as doing a minimum of minutes a day of sports and a balanced diet are some of the best allies to avoid the dreaded cardiovascular diseases.
???? Physical activity in adulthood practiced regularly ⤵️
✔️Improve mental well-being
✔️Reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress
✔️Improves sleep and reduces the risk of depression ✔️Increases the perception of well-being???? https://t.co/HsRZFBNguU pic.twitter.com/qi5Jfo9WAl
– Ministry of Health (@sanidadgob) September 2, 2022
These types of disorders were the leading cause of death in Spain in 2020, according to the latest data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Specifically, the INE records 119,853 deaths for this reason, surpassing tumors (112,741) and infectious and parasitic diseases (80,796). Despite this, Spain has remained in recent years as one of the European countries with the lowest mortality from cardiovascular causes, with 132.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to one of the latest studies published by the Ministry of Health.
Numerous factors influence the increase in cardiovascular risk, although health experts converge on four fundamental points: diabetes, cholesterol level and systolic pressure. There are other aspects that also intervene, although they are determined by age, sex and the race. In fact, the safest thing is that in the numerous health portals that allow calculating cardiovascular risk, these are some of the data that are asked, in addition to whether you are a smoker or not and the minutes of exercise that are performed per day or per week. .
“Over time, high blood sugar levels can damage the blood vessels and nerves that control the heart. people with diabetes They are also more likely to have other conditions that increase their risk of heart disease. High blood pressure increases the force with which blood moves through the arteries and can damage them. Having both high blood pressure and diabetes can greatly increase the risk of heart disease »says the Ministry of Health.
Regarding cholesterol, a person with blood levels higher than 240 are twice as likely to have a heart attack as those with levels of 200 or below.
Both blood pressure and cholesterol are elements that the individual himself can reduce. But it must also be borne in mind that these factors do not act in the same way in men than in women and at different ages.
Framingham Table
Therefore, we leave here a relationship of developing cardiovascular disease according to sex, age, cholesterol level and blood pressure, following the Framingham risk table.
Age: it increases in women after 50 years of age, while over 30 it is greater in men, although the possibility of developing it is very low.
Blood pressure: the chances are very similar in both men and women, although it is more likely to appear in men if the level ranges between 130 and 139.
Cholesterol: if it is greater than 35, the risk is higher in women. Similarly, if the levels are between 35 and 49, the risk is quite even, although with a certain propensity to develop in women.
Tobacco, lack of physical exercise and a poor diet can also significantly affect the development of cardiovascular disease. In fact, if any of these types of disorders are diagnosed, the usual recommendations from specialists will be to stop smoking, do a minimum of 30 minutes of sport a day and avoid foods rich in fat, sugar or alcohol.