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One type of deadly heart disease is coronary heart disease (CHD). Besides being able to endanger lives, this heart disease is also one of the main causes of heart attacks. Therefore, instead of having to treat and overcome heart attacks, it is better to apply ways to prevent heart disease, including heart attacks and coronary heart disease. Then, what can be done to prevent coronary heart disease? Check out the following explanation.

How to prevent coronary heart disease

There are several things you can do to prevent coronary heart disease. You can apply it to live healthier and avoid heart disease on this one. What can you do?

1. Implement a healthy diet

One of the efforts to prevent coronary heart disease is to adopt a healthy diet. Therefore, you can start paying more attention to what foods you eat to maintain heart health.

Heart-healthy foods include foods rich in fiber, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. In fact, if you can, you are advised to eat five servings a day. Not only that, wheat is also a food that is good for the heart.

On the other hand, there are also foods that are forbidden for heart disease, especially if you want to prevent it. For example, foods that are rich in salt content can increase blood pressure.

There are also foods that are too high in saturated fat and trans fat. Both are foods that you should avoid for the prevention of coronary heart disease. The reason is, foods that are high in fat content can increase cholesterol levels in the blood.

The following are some foods that are rich in saturated fat:

Butter.
Cream.
Cakes and biscuits.
Foods that contain coconut oil.
Sausage.

Even so, you are still allowed to consume unsaturated fats to increase the levels of good cholesterol (HDL) in the blood, thereby reducing blockages that occur in the arteries.

Foods that are high in unsaturated fats are:

Fish oil.
Avocado.
Nuts and seeds.
Sunflower oil, olive oil, and vegetable oil.

Apart from having to intake salt, too much sugar intake is also not good for heart health. For this reason, if you want to prevent coronary heart disease, the steps you need to take are avoiding foods that are high in sugar content.

2. Avoid smoking

One way to prevent coronary heart disease is to avoid smoking. Yes, smoking has an impact on your heart health. In fact, according to John Hopkins Medicine, smoking is a lifestyle that can cause various heart problems, especially heart attacks.

One of the ingredients in cigarettes that can endanger health is nicotine. The content of this one cigarette can increase blood pressure, which is a risk factor for coronary heart disease.

Not only is it dangerous for yourself, smoking is also dangerous for those around you. The reason is, when other people who don't smoke inhale cigarette smoke, they will still be passive smokers and still feel the effects.

Smoking habits can increase your risk of developing atherosclerosis, which is narrowing of the arteries due to plaque buildup in the arteries.

So, one of the prevention you can do against coronary heart disease is not smoking. If you are already doing this habit, you can make efforts to prevent coronary heart disease by stopping this habit.

Quitting smoking is not an easy matter, but as long as it is accompanied by a strong determination, over time you will get used to it and can completely quit habits that are not good for overall health.

3. Exercise regularly

Don't wait for the symptoms of coronary heart disease to appear first to start exercising regularly. Try, start an active exercise routine from now on. Besides being good for heart health, being diligent in physical activity is also good for maintaining body weight.

Meanwhile, having an ideal body weight can also help you reduce your risk of developing high blood pressure, a risk factor for coronary heart disease. In other words, regular exercise is one of the right ways to prevent coronary heart disease.

In addition to reducing high blood pressure, regular exercise can also help the heart and blood flow system in the body work more efficiently. Not only that, exercise can also lower cholesterol levels in the blood.

However, pay attention to the type of exercise you do. Make sure that you are doing exercise that is good for the heart. In addition to the choice of types of exercise, to maximize the prevention of coronary heart disease, you can do sports with the right duration or length of time.

For example, it is recommended that you exercise 150 minutes or two and a half hours each week if you do moderate exercise. However, if you do vigorous exercise, it may take only 75 minutes a week.

You can divide it into five days of the week. So, you only need to do 30 minutes of physical activity or exercise a day. However, before that, it would be better if you consult a doctor about the options for preventing coronary heart disease. Make sure the choice of exercise is in accordance with the physical abilities you have.

4. Maintain ideal body weight

In taking care of coronary heart disease, you also need to maintain your weight. As stated, maintaining your weight can help you control various risk factors for coronary heart disease.

For example, maintaining an ideal body weight can help lower cholesterol levels in the blood, lower blood pressure, and lower blood sugar levels. Moreover, being overweight or obese is a risk factor for heart disease.

If you find you are obese or overweight, try to lose at least 5-10% of your current total body weight. That way, your risk of developing coronary heart disease also decreases.

To find out if your body weight is considered ideal, you can calculate your body mass index using the BMI calculator from Hello Sehat.

5. Maintain normal blood pressure

You can prevent coronary heart disease by keeping your blood pressure from increasing. This is because high blood pressure is a risk factor for coronary heart disease.

How to prevent coronary heart disease can be done by continuing to suppress blood pressure to keep it at a normal rate. You can do this by adopting a healthy diet. For example, eating a diet low in saturated fat and improving your exercise habits.

In fact, if necessary, you can take drugs that can help lower blood pressure. Your blood pressure is within normal limits if it is below 140/90 mmHg. If your blood pressure is at this number, you are considered to have high blood pressure.

Therefore, to prevent coronary heart disease, check your blood pressure regularly to your doctor.

6. Control normal blood sugar levels

In addition to maintaining blood pressure, prevention of coronary heart disease can be done by maintaining blood sugar levels. Your risk of developing coronary heart disease will be much higher if you also have diabetes.

Therefore, a powerful way to prevent coronary heart disease is to control blood sugar levels. You can do this by actively moving and exercising, losing weight, and lowering blood pressure. Yes, maintaining normal blood pressure affects blood sugar levels.

As mentioned, your blood pressure is considered normal if it is below 140/90 mmHg. However, if you have diabetes, your blood pressure should be below 130/80 mmHg.

7. Reduce alcohol consumption

In addition to quitting smoking, you also need to reduce alcohol consumption. It would be even better if you stopped using it. The problem is, consuming alcohol can increase your risk of various heart diseases, including a heart attack.

8. Taking medications prescribed by a doctor

Other prevention of coronary heart disease can also be done by taking various medicines given by doctors. If your doctor diagnoses you have heart disease, take the prescribed medication to relieve your symptoms. In addition, these drugs can also reduce the risk of disease progression.

Meanwhile, if you are not diagnosed with coronary heart disease, you still have to take precautions by taking drugs prescribed by your doctor to reduce various risks of coronary heart disease.

For example, drugs that can lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and other drugs that can be used as a coronary heart prevention. However, you should only take these medicines if their doctor prescribes them.

Follow the rules for using the drug that has been given by the doctor or pharmacist. Make sure you have followed the correct dosage. Don't stop using the drug without your doctor knowing.