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" When it comes to preventing heart disease, lifestyle rules. People who follow just five habits are significantly less likely to die of it than those who skip four or all five of them, an analysis of national health survey data has found. The habits: not smoking, getting regular exercise, avoiding obesity, eating well (with five or more daily servings of fruits and veggies), and enjoying one to seven alcoholic drinks a week. Strikingly, even though everyone started the study with normal blood pressure and cholesterol, that didn&amp;#039;t protect the rule-skippers. &amp;quot;A healthy lifestyle is more powerful than medicine,&amp;quot; says study leader Dana King, M.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina. Moving up from &amp;quot;pretty good&amp;quot; (three out of the five good habits) to &amp;quot;perfect&amp;quot; (all five) reduced people&amp;#039;s mortality risk over the two-decade study period by a whopping 50%. It&amp;#039;s a whole package: &amp;quot;Some women think they&amp;#039;re safe as long as they don&amp;#039;t gain weight, but that&amp;#039;s not true. A good diet and exercise are separate elements that do a hundred other healthy things for you,&amp;quot; says Dr. King. Here, based on the latest research, the best ways to start. 1. Set a brisk pace If your bike, skates, and tennis racquet are collecting dust, now&amp;#039;s the time to brush them off. In a large 10-year Dutch study, people who got at least moderate exercise reduced their risk of heart attack significantly, while those who did only lower-intensity walking and gardening did not. So grab your girlfriends and enjoy some grown-up playdates. When you walk, make sure your stride hits beneficial levels: Aim for 90 to 113 steps per minute (based on your height and fitness level) or, more simply, use the &amp;quot;slightly hard to talk&amp;quot; test (you can speak, but you wouldn&amp;#039;t want to tell a long story). If you like a heart-pounding sweat, go ahead and make your workout more intense. But it&amp;#039;s not necessary \u2014 and research has shown that women are more likely to stick with their routine if it&amp;#039;s moderate. 2. Enjoy life If you&amp;#039;re not happy with your job, family, sex life, or self, it can make your heart hurt \u2014 literally. In a long-term study of British government workers, those with lower levels of satisfaction racked up higher rates of heart disease. You don&amp;#039;t need to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety, or have superhigh stress, for there to be an impact \u2014 just a lack of joy in key areas of your life could do it. So find ways to boost yourself out of the blah zone: In the study, every big step toward the positive \u2014 improving family relationships or finding more engaging work \u2014 was marked by lower heart disease risk. 3. Let greens outsmart your genes  Whether good or bad, you can&amp;#039;t change the DNA your mom and dad passed on to you, but it turns out you can keep some dangerous genes from undermining your heart health. In two large international studies, researchers looked at heart disease rates in people with gene variations on chromosome 9 \u2014 known to significantly increase odds. Sure enough, people with the risky variations had more heart disease, but here&amp;#039;s the kicker: That was true only if they also ate a crummy diet (the investigators referred to their eating as &amp;quot;non-prudent&amp;quot;). Those who followed the healthiest diets had no more heart disease than those without the risky gene variations. That involved consuming several servings a day of two out of the following categories \u2014 fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, and berries. The most powerful food: raw veggies. So pass the crudit\u00E9s before dinner, and slice plenty of raw carrots and cucumbers on your leafy greens. Next:   4. Find out what the (eye) shadow knows If you have trouble applying eye shadow or concealer smoothly because of yellowish eyelid bumps, the problem may be more than just cosmetic. In a long-term Danish study, people with lipid-filled bumps around eyes had a 48% higher chance of having a heart attack within the next three decades than those with smooth lids. The finding was especially true for women under the age of 55. In general, those with eyelid bumps also had higher levels of bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and lower levels of good HDL cholesterol. But researchers were surprised to find that even when those blood tests were normal, heart attack risk was still elevated. So make sure your doctor takes a peek at your face while your eyes are closed. If she spies the eyelid sign, it may mean your body is prone to depositing cholesterol where it doesn&amp;#039;t belong \u2014 including in blood vessels \u2014 and that you&amp;#039;d benefit from a more aggressive approach toward all your risk factors. 5. Get a wake-up call People who get too little sleep (six hours or less a night), plus have poor-quality rest, face a 65% higher risk of heart disease, a Dutch study of 20,400 people found. So take your zzz&amp;#039;s seriously. Tell your doctor if you&amp;#039;re having trouble sleeping or if you&amp;#039;re waking up without feeling refreshed. And adopt good sleep hygiene \u2014 no caffeine after lunch, regular bedtimes and wake-up times, plenty of exercise in the early part of the day, no television or computer in bed \u2014 to help you get the rest your heart needs. (For more tips, read 25 Ways to Sleep Better Tonight.) 6. Just say no...to soda Sugary drinks aren&amp;#039;t on anyone&amp;#039;s good-health list, but in data reported last November, researchers noted that sweet sodas are particularly risky for women. A University of Oklahoma study of 4,166 women, age 45 and over, found that those who drank two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day were nearly four times as likely to develop high triglycerides as those who drank one or fewer. They were also more likely to add to their waist sizes and develop impaired glucose levels, setting themselves up for diabetes. The researchers aren&amp;#039;t sure why females are harder hit than males, but it may be as simple as calories \u2014 because women need fewer, two sodas make up a greater proportion of their daily calorie intake. But don&amp;#039;t wait for the definitive why: Quench your thirst with water or unsweetened iced teas, and get your fizz from seltzer (add a spritz of lemon or lime if you like a little flavor). 7. Dose with D daily In the latest installment of &amp;quot;Is there anything vitamin D doesn&amp;#039;t do?&amp;quot; a new review of 75 studies found that not getting enough of the sunshine vitamin raises your chance of a heart attack and ups many cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure, general inflammation, and metabolic syndrome (a triple whammy of hypertension, high triglycerides, and extra weight around your middle). You can get D from sun exposure, but depending on your skin tone and how far north you live, that can be tough in winter months (plus, too much sun ups your risk of skin cancer \u2014 and wrinkles). Getting vitamin D from food is also a challenge \u2014 fortified milk, fatty fish, and eggs are recommended sources. Most of us will have to rely on a supplement to meet the goal of 600 IU a day set by the Institute of Medicine, or the higher amount \u2014 1,000 IU \u2014 that many other experts advise. Next:   DIY Heart Test Fancy scans can look for risky calcium buildup in the arteries that feed your heart. But two easy-to-get numbers can give you a clue as to what the scan would find. Let your doctor know if your numbers match these (or are higher):  Blood pressure of 140 (upper number) + heart rate of 80 (resting) = 2.7 times more likely to have calcium detected on a scan.  2 Tests You Need \u2714 Cholesterol Check \u2022  How often? At least every five years, more frequently if you&amp;#039;re over 50 (45 for men) or have any heart risk factors like a family history of the disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, being overweight, or smoking. \u2022  Make it more reliable While you can pop over to a local health fair, you may get only your total reading, not the breakdown of bad LDL and good HDL cholesterol levels or triglycerides. Also, even if you&amp;#039;re given a breakdown, your LDL and triglyceride readings may not be reliable if you haven&amp;#039;t fasted for the previous nine to 12 hours. \u2714 Blood Pressure Measurement \u2022  How often? At least every two years, and more frequently if your pressure goes above 120/80. \u2022  Make it more reliable Take it yourself \u2014 with a home monitor \u2014 and discuss your readings with your doctor before starting any treatment. In a recent Spanish study of 8,295 patients, more than one-third of those thought to have hard-to-treat high blood pressure were actually suffering from &amp;quot;white-coat hypertension,&amp;quot; pressure-raising anxiety triggered by the medical surroundings. An App for Your Heart Hit your target heart rate or check your resting pulse with Azumio&amp;#039;s Instant Heart Rate, a smartphone app that&amp;#039;s virtually as accurate as fancy monitors. To get a reading, just hold your finger steadily against the phone&amp;#039;s camera lens for about 10 seconds; you can also store readings for comparison (99 cents for iPhone, $1.99 for Android). Sweet Medicine Here&amp;#039;s an Rx that&amp;#039;s easy to swallow: Eat chocolate, and you can cut your risk of heart problems by one-third. Make sure it&amp;#039;s got a high cacao content (70%), and keep your indulgences to two ounces or less a day if weight is an issue \u2014 excess pounds are still a powerful contributor to heart disease. Next:   3 Tests You Can Probably Skip EKG (electrocardiogram) \u2022  What it is: A recording of your heartbeat and electrical activity obtained from electrodes placed at various points on your body. One in five annual physicals includes an EKG routinely, even if there&amp;#039;s no reason for the doctor to suspect a heart problem. \u2022  Why avoid it? For people who are at low risk for cardiovascular problems, there&amp;#039;s little evidence that routine cardiograms lead to fewer heart attacks. But there is a greater chance of harm from interventions and medications given after a false positive. Cardiac CT Scan \u2022  What it is: 3-D X-ray imaging that can detect calcium buildup in coronary arteries. \u2022  Why avoid it? Even if nothing&amp;#039;s wrong, a suspicious sighting or a poor-quality scan will require an invasive procedure to clear up questions. A recent study of 2,000 patients \u2014 half of whom had been scanned \u2014 found that both groups did well, but over the next 18 months, the scanned subjects were over 10 times likelier to undergo more tests, including angiography. Heart CT scans deliver more radiation than other scans, so unless you&amp;#039;re at high risk or have symptoms, spare yourself the rays. Exercise Stress Test \u2022  What it is: An EKG taken while you work out on a treadmill or stationary bike. \u2022  Why avoid it? These are notoriously less accurate in women than in men. The result: high rates of both false negatives and false positives, and many more invasive tests ordered for the latter. The test isn&amp;#039;t recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force \u2014 or by many prominent heart disease physicians. If you have multiple risk factors, your doctor may order a stress test before you start a new exercise program, but even that is of questionable benefit. One-Minute Lifesaver You&amp;#039;ve probably frittered away many minutes watching laughing babies or funny cats on YouTube, but selecting this 60-second video could help you save a life: Watch the simple instructions on hands-only CPR (handsonlycpr.org) or download the free app, and it&amp;#039;s far more likely you&amp;#039;ll take action if you witness someone in cardiac arrest \u2014 and you&amp;#039;ll be more effective, too. In one study, volunteers still performed the maneuver correctly two months after viewing the video: They pushed hard and, on average, got within 10% of the recommended 100 compressions per minute; untrained folks managed only an ineffective 74 less-forceful pushes per minute. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/advice/a14144/how-to-prevent-heart-disease/>