Cardiovascular Overview

PHASE: Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes Everyday
Here are useful information and resources to help you prevent a heart attack or stroke.

Diabetes Prevention and Control
Learn more about preventing diabetes, or if you currently have diabetes, learn about keeping your diabetes in control.

Cholesterol

Having high cholesterol puts you at higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke. To learn more about cholesterol please read the following:

High Cholesterol? Here's What You Can Do
Control Your LDL
Low HDL? Here's What You Can Do
High Triglycerides?
Statin Therapy: Preventing Heart Attacks and Strokes
Psyllium - Lower Your Cholesterol
Fenofibrate: Lower Your Cholesterol

Hypertension

Having high blood pressure, also called hypertension, puts you at a higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke. To learn more about hypertension, high blood pressure, and how to lower your risk of having a health problem please read the information that follows.

Blood Pressure - Know Your Number
Hypertension
Hypertension Medications

Exercise

• Check with your physician to get the go-ahead before starting any physical activity. If you had a recent heart event, such as a heart attack, you will receive specific instructions about when and how to begin physical activity.
• Regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your health and it’s never too late to start living more actively.
• Start wherever you are. Gradually increase how long, how often, and how intense the activity. Remember that you should be working hard enough that you feel the effort but not so hard that you become out of breath

Fitness
Walking for a Healthy Heart

Nutrition

• Eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet that includes at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, as well as, whole grains and lean proteins.
• Choose and prepare foods with little salt (sodium). Also select foods and beverages low in added sugars. Added sugars contribute calories with few if any nutritional benefits.
• To learn more about healthy eating please read the following sections.

Nutrition - Featured Health Topic
Fiber Facts
How to Read the Food Label

Smoking

Smoking - Call It Quits!

Stress Management

• If you have an ongoing illness or an ongoing pain condition, stress can make it worse. It is especially important for you to develop and maintain a daily self-care routine. Daily self-care should include attending to small, manageable lifestyle goals, such as taking your medications as prescribed, exercising regularly, and eating healthy foods.
• Whether or not you have control over a stressful situation, you can have control over your reaction to it. Learning and practicing stress reduction techniques can help.
• The five most important stress management techniques are: managing your time effectively, practicing relaxation exercises, engaging in pleasant activities, communicating effectively and spending time with supportive people, and changing thoughts that are negative or unrealistic.
• Kaiser Permanente Health Education classes, books, audiotapes, and videotapes and online programs are also available to help you learn stress management techniques.

HealthMedia Relax - Get personalized strategies for relieving and preventing stress with our online program. (This program is available to our members only.)

Weight

• Even a small weight loss will improve your health. Start with a goal of losing 5% to 10% of your current weight over 6 months.
• To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns. To do this, eat smaller portions and more nutrient dense foods (those lower in calories, fat, and sugars and higher in fiber) and increase your physical activity.

Managing Your Weight