RISK FACTORS FOR HEART DISEASE AND AILMENTS IN THE BLOOD VESSELS

The battery of risk factors for circulatory disease is a complicated interplay of many single factors. Some of these are basic. These basic facors create new risk factors. Both the basic factors and the newly created factors work together to cause diseases in the circulatory system. It is important to recognize these basic factors, because one can eliminate much of the chanse of getting such diseases by reducing them.

Many of the basic facors are a part of the lifestyle, and can easily be redused in great extent:

- Smoking is perhaps the most potent risk factor of all

- High total amount of fat or cholesterole in the diet

- A high intake of sugar and charbohydrates. - Constant stress over a prolonged period. - Consuming great amounts of sugar and charbohydrates that are taken up into the blood quickly, as in refined cereals or added pure sugar.

- High intake of saturated fat as found in red meat, fat milk, fat diary products, coconut oil and palm oil.

- Intake of chemically altered fat often added to margarine, bread, snacks, fast food, and other ready made food - trans-fat.

- Too much fat of the type omega-6-fat as found in soy oil, corn oil and most other oils used for cooking.

- Too little intake of omega-3-fat as found in fish, seafood and flax oil.

- Too little intake of mono-unsaturated fat as found in olive oil, almonds and rape oil.

- Lack of regular exercise.

Some basic factors are not directly or easily connected, to lifestyle, and can not be eliminated, but perhaps compensated for. These are:

- Being of male gender gives a somewhat higher risc than being female.

- High age.

- Heriditary tendency for heart disease in certain families.

- Hereditary tendency for high fat and cholesterole content in the blood

The basic factors create secondary risk factors that often will be the direct cause of heart and circulation disease, like high cholesterole levels, high homocystein levels and bad HDL-LDL ballance.

The first kind of disease that arises is often atherosclerosis, that is clogging of vessels by deposits, and there wil also often be inflammatory processes in the tisues of the circulatory system.

Atherosclerosis and inflammation togeather with the risk factors can then cause blod clots and infarction in the heart, brain or other tissues. In the following there is some information of the secondary risc factors created by the primary ones, like bad homocystein levels and bad HDL-LDL ballance.


About high and low density lipoprotein (HDL and LDL)

When fat and cholesterole are transported in the blood it is bound to protein molecules. This combination of protein and fat is called a lipoprotein.

Some of these lioproteins have a law density and are called low density lipoproteins (LDL). These lipoproteins tend to deliver the fat and cholesterole to fat cells where it is stored or to other tissues where it is utilized and also to the blood vessel walls.

Some of these protein-fat-combos have a high density and these are called high density lipoproteins (HDL). These protein units take fat and cholesterole from tissues in the body, including vessel walls, and deliver them to the liver where they are converted to bile salts and brought out of the body.

HDL also inhibits inflammation and protects cells from damage and death. HDL therefore protects the vessel walls from accumulation of artherosclerotic plaque and other types of degeneration.

A too high content of LDL and too low content of HDL in the blood therefore increase the risk of heart and circulatory diseases.

The lipoprotein composition in the blood is dependent upon the lifestyle. To read more about lifestyle factors that can cause heart disease, please see further down.


About high homocystein levels - a risk factor for heart disease

Homocystein is an amino acid that the body itself produces. It is used as a building block in more complicated structures and as a tool in physiological processes. In those processes it often work together with vitamin B12, B6 and B9.

A too high content of homocystein effects a bad ballance of low-density (LDL) lipoprotein against high dencity lipoprotein (HDL), that is too much LDL and too little HDL.

A high content of homocystein irritates the walls in the blood vessels and weakens them so that further damage more easily occur.

A high content of homocystein increases the tendency to get blood vessels clogged by atherosclerosis.

Too much homocystein increases the tendency in the blood to produce blood clots that narrow or tighten a blod vessel.

All these basic effects increases the risk of getting bad heart function, bad circulation and dangerous heart attacks, like heart infarction.

It is however not quite clear how much of the listed effects that homocystein itself produces, and how much both the listed effects and high homocystein content are produced by other unnown factors.

In either case, a high content of homocystein in the blood is an indicator of higher risk for trouble with the heart and blood circulation and for heart attacks.

A too little supply of the vitamins B6, B12 and B9 seems to increase the level of homocystein.

A supply of these vitamins may therefore help to decrease the level of homocystein and the risk og getting trouble with the blood circulation.

For people allready having had a heart attack, however, an immediate increase of the supply of these vitamins do not seem to have an effect against the risk of a new attack.

In either case, a generally healthy lifestyle will tend to decrease the level of homocystein and thereby decrease the risk of getting heart and circulation trouble.


A summary of all risk factors for heart disease.

Certain factors can cause heart disease connected to clogging or hardening of blood vessels in the heart or connected to the heart, like atherosclerosis, angina pectoris, heart infarction and congestive heart failur.The combination of risk factors for heart disease are complicated, because some risk factors causes others and together the total combination of the factors will cause the disease. Here are the principle risk factors for heart disease listed:

Lifestyle factors

- Smoking

- High total amount of fat or cholesterole in the diet

- A high intake of sugar and charbohydrates.

- Constant high stress level over some time

- Consuming pure sugar and charbohydrates in refined sereals that are taken up into the blood quickly.

- High intake of saturated fat as found in red meat, fat milk, fat diary products, coconut oil and palm oil.

- Intake of chemically altered fat often added to margarine, bread, snacks, fast food, and other ready made food - trans-fat.

- Too much fat of the type omega-6-fat as found in soy oil, corn oil and most other oils used for cooking.

- Too little intake of omega-3-fat as found in fish, seafood and flax oil.

- Too little intake of mono-unsaturated fat as found in olive oil, almonds and rape oil.

- Lack of regular exercise.

Factors that are wholly or partly caused by the mentioned lifestyle factors and often can be avoided

- High content of fat and cholesterole in the blood (hyperlipidemia)

- Too much of the fat and cholesterole in the blood is a part of low density lipoprotein and too little is a part of high density protein. Low density protein delivers the fat at the wrong places like the walls of blood vessels.

- Diabetes type 2 (Especially diabetes type 2 can be avoided and controlled with a right lifestyle)

- High blood pressure (hypertension)

- Over-weight, and especially a high fat deposit on and in the stomach area

- High blood pressure or hypertension

- High levels of certain chemical factors in the blood, like homocystein.

Factors that are not directly connected to the lifestyle

- Diabetes type 1 (An overall good lifestyle may help to avoid the disease, but not in a simple way as by the type 2)

- High age

- Being male may give higher risk than being female

- Heriditary tendency for heart disease in certain families

- Hereditary tendency for hig fat and cholesterole content in the blood


To read more about how you can prevent heart disease, please click here


What causes high blood fat and cholesterole?

Fat and fat-like substances are called lipids. High blood lipid content or high colesterole content may have these causes:

* Too much total fat in the diet.

* Too much sugar or carbohydrates in the diet.

* Too much carbohydrates and fat combined.

* Too much saturated fat in the food.

* Too much colesterole in the food.

* Too little physical activity.

* For some individual high blood cholesterole content is inherited, but will still also depend upon lifestyle factors.