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Prevention Index
One of the most powerful ways to improve cardiovascular health is through positive lifestyle choices. These include not smoking, being physically active, and eating a healthful diet, among other things. These changes can be difficult to make—and even more difficult to stick with. The articles here can help you adapt behaviors that will feel good to you and to your heart.
Prevention
Avoid Smoking
Be Physically Active
Eat Healthfully
Maintain a Healthful Weight
Manage Stress
Attend to Other Risk Factors
Get Regular Medical Check-ups
Take Medications, as Advised by Your Doctor
Avoid Smoking
- Seven sizzling ways to stop smoking
-
Tips to help you stop smoking
- Smoking cessation for older adults
- Smoking cessation drugs: nicotine replacement products
Be Physically Active
- Walk this way to fitness
- Exercise that raises more than your heart rate
- The benefits and risks of walking versus running
- The benefits of a fitness partner
- Setting fitness goals
- The dangers of hidden abdominal fat
- Seniors: it's never too late to start exercising
- Building sweat equity: how to start—and stay—on the right fitness track
- Health clubs: getting the most for your money
- Ex 101: Lateral raise using free weight
- Ex 101: Situps
- Ex 101: Step-up using free weights
- Ex 101: Crunches
- Ex 101: Military press using free weights
- Ex 101: Bench press using free weights
- Ex 101: Triceps extension using free weights
- Ex 101: Biceps curl using free weights
- Ex 101: Squats using free weights
- Ex 101: Lunge using free weights
- Safety tips for in-line skating
- Do you need to talk to your doctor before you start and exercise program?
- Staying active to enjoy your older years
-
Starting a regular exercise program
- Exercises to build strong muscles
- Weight-bearing exercise
- Aerobic exercise
- Stretching
- Exercise helps people with chronic disease
- Circuit training: fast, flexible, and fun
- Get strong with strength training
- Safety and injury prevention for runners
- Keep on movin': exercise after 50
- Mind-body walking: medicine for mind and spirit
- What can a personal trainer do for you?
- Finding the health clubs for the 50+ crowd
- Want to play hard? Try racquetball
- Six steps to safe hiking
- Run for someone else's life
- Pilates: a classic workout for a new body
- Cardio kickboxing
Eat Healthfully
- True or false: eating dark chocolate can lower your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease
- Homocysteine and heart disease
- Antioxidants and your health
-
Eating a diet low in saturated fat,
trans fat
, and cholesterol
- The best diet for you
- Avocado: the misunderstood fruit
- Trans fats: the new (bad) fat in town
- Eating healthy: tips to make it easier
- Antioxidants: antidote to aging?
- The Mediterranean diet and good health
- The whole scoop on whole vs refined grains
-
Just how much food is on that plate? Understanding portion control
- Apples: the not-so-forbidden fruit
- The great pumpkin
- The papaya: a little taste of paradise
- Eating well when flying
- Reducing your triglycerides through dietary changes
-
The DASH diet
- On the road again... but with healthful snacks
- Getting to the heart of a healthful diet: overview
- Getting to the heart of a healthful diet:grain products
- Getting to the heart of a healthful diet: protein-rich foods
- Getting to the heart of a healthful diet: fats
- Getting to the heart of a healthful diet: empty-calorie foods
- Getting to the heart of a healthful diet: sodium
- Getting to the heart of a healthful diet: alcohol
- Cruise eating: don't go overboard
- Bulking up on fiber
- Demystifying oil
- Tater talk
- Diet helps maintain a healthy blood pressure
- All about shellfish
- Keeping sodium low when you're eating on the go
Maintain a Healthful Weight
- Internet-based weight loss services: how effective are they?
-
Weight loss: what are your options?
-
Weight guidelines for kids
- Your body fat percentage: what does it mean?
- The dangers of hidden abdominal fat
-
Achieving and maintaining a healthful weight
-
Starting a regular exercise program
- Kids and weight control: the role of parents
Manage Stress
- Animals and your health: the benefits of pet ownership
-
Tips for reducing stress in your life
- How to meditate
- Mind-body walking: medicine for mind and spirit
- Anger: don't put a lid on it
Attend to Other Risk Factors
- Animals and your health: the benefits of pet ownership
- Could you have pre-diabetes?
- New cholesterol guidelines
- Reducing your risk of heart disease when you have diabetes
- The American Heart Association’s guidelines for women
- High blood pressure linked to inflammation
- Progress in stroke prevention
- Guidelines for children's heart health
- Hopelessness and the heart attack: the role of depression in heart disease
- Your heart health: what family history tells you
- Do you have prehypertension?
- Drugs that may lead to heart damage
- How much do you know about triglycerides?
- Diabetes and cardiovascular disease: what's the link
- Recommendations to prevent high blood pressure
- Optimizing your triglycerides
- Total body CT scanning: a new way to look for disease
- Diet helps maintain a healthy blood pressure
- Traveler's thrombosis: when sitting still can be deadly
- Brush your teeth, it's good for your heart
Get Regular Medical Check-ups
- Your heart health: what family history tells you
- Preventive measures—at any age
- Blood pressure recommendations revised
Take Medications, as Advised by Your Doctor