1. What is cardiovascular disease?
Cardiovascular diseases (coronary heart disease and stroke) is caused by lack of blood supply to certain organs and are the principal manifestations of atherosclerosis and thrombosis. Currently, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in industrialized countries like ours.

2. What are the risk factors?
Risk factors for these diseases can be classified into:

• Personal factors coded

Non-modifiable personal factors: sex (male), age (45-55 years) or a positive family history.

• Risk factors that can be corrected

Risk factors that can be corrected: notably elevated blood levels of total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol, low levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and type of food.

Other factors that are influencing the physical inactivity, obesity or stress.

3. The diet influences health
Despite the importance of controlling these risk factors, diet is perhaps the one on which you can exercise greater control and is clearly proved that his amendment would affect a very important part of the other factors involved.

4. What is the heart-healthy diet?
The diet should be as balanced as that of a healthy person, trying to maintain or achieve a healthy weight: the base must be comprised of foods such as bread, potatoes, pasta and rice and at least twice a week, legumes.

The day is important to consume two or more servings of vegetables or salad and three pieces of fruit, plus 1.5 or 2 liters of water.

This balanced diet for any healthy person should have some restrictions in the event of a cardiovascular disease:

• Reduce fat intake in general and especially the consumption of animal and vegetable preferably, especially olive oil.
• Try cooking with minimum fat as possible, preferring cooking, roast or grilled to fry.
• Try not to eat meat and fish in excess and preferably more fish than meat, including blue.
• Consume best birds like chicken and turkey or rabbit red meat.
• The sausages are rich in saturated fats, so we need to moderate their consumption.
• Do not take more than 2 or 3 egg yolks a week. Consumption is clearly limited, so we can mix the yolk with two whites for omelets, scrambled eggs or sauces.
• Prefer the skimmed milk to whole milk, cream, butter and derivatives, suitably supplemented by consuming low fat dairy and eating fresh cheese instead of fat.
• The drinking never exceed 30 g per day (two glasses a day). Always prefer wine to other alcoholic beverages, for its antioxidant properties.
• It is very important physical exercise because it helps them lose weight and is good for health. Should increase the performance in activities of daily living (taking the stairs instead of elevators, public transportation instead of the car …) and at least walk, if possible, an hour a day, always follow your doctor’s instructions .

If a person is overweight or are pursuing an unbalanced diet (with a high intake of saturated fat, simple sugars and alcohol), the concentrations of triglycerides in the blood may be elevated. This results in a thickening of the blood which can encourage the development or progression of damaged arteries.Multiple factors trigger cardiovascular disease … We have to distinguish the modifiable uncontrollable factors.

Uncontrollable factors:

Age: the older, increases the risk.

Gender: male, higher risk than females, except for postmenopausal women who equate their risk to man (this can be reduced with estrogen replacement therapy).

Heredity: There are certain types of hypercholesterolemia that are inherited and cause a disproportionate increase in LDL cholesterol in blood, this occurs by a reception failure in tissue, by increasing their production or disposal errors. Some of the family hypercholesterolemia also tend to produce high triglycerides and low HDL. People suffering from these diseases have high cholesterol levels, regardless of their diet. This can be reduced partially with certain changes in lifestyle.

Family history of cardiovascular disease.

Diabetes: the peaks high blood sugar (glucose) tests may favor the progressive deterioration of the inner walls of arteries, contributing to the formation of atherosclerosis. This is especially acute when there is a good control of the disease.

Modifiable factors:

Smoking: Nicotine and other substances that enter the body with cigarettes, assists in the development of atherosclerosis.

Overweight and obesity: the further away a person of ideal weight range, the greater the chances of having high LDL, low HDL and diabetes and / or hypertension.

Hypertension: when not well controlled, blood is pumped with a force that may damage the artery walls, increasing the risk of formation of atheromas (plaques of atherosclerosis). These accumulations can be dragged to other locations, creating the obstruction of other arteries. High level of stress in these circumstances and without the individual being perceived, the body produces an amount of stress hormones (like cortisol and adrenaline) in a very negative influence on blood pressure and resistance of the immune system.

Sedentary: promotes overweight and deprives the body of the benefits of physical activity.

Dietary factors:

-Consumption of foods high in cholesterol.
“Excessive intake of foods rich in saturated fats. It has been shown that this type of fat contributes to increased LDL (bad)
-Consumption of foods rich in trans fats, which are harmful to raise bad cholesterol, in addition to lowering the good.
-Follow a diet low in fiber, the benefits of cholesterol lowering expand later on.
-Incorporate more calories than we need, favoring the occurrence of overweight.

How to prevent cardiovascular disease?

• Decreasing the consumption of foods high in cholesterol, saturated and trans fats.
• Controlling the body weight to avoid the undesirable effects caused by the overweight
• Eating a source of omega 6 is found that the omega 6 can help reduce bad cholesterol (LDL), but its excess can also reduce HDL (good).
• Including diet foods rich in omega 3.

This type of fat has many benefits:

• Reduce levels of triglycerides and LDL and increase HDL.
• Lowering blood pressure and improve blood flow.
• Owning an important anti-inflammatory effect, improving the symptoms of diseases such as lupus, ulcerative colitis and Cronh disease, among others.
• There must be a balance between intake of omega 6 and omega 3. The ideal relationship established for the consumption of omega 6 and omega 3 is 5 to 1 (5 n-6 every 1 omega 3). Being a relationship tolerable 10 to 1. In this way the two types of nutrients can fulfill their roles and are better utilized by the body.