Are You at Risk for Heart Attack or Stroke?

 

May is the American Stroke Awareness month.

You may be at increased risk of stroke if you have a family history of stroke or any of the following medical conditions:

• High blood pressure
• Obesity
• High triglycerides
• Elevated homocysteine levels
• Low levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol
• Elevated LDL (“bad”) cholesterol
• Smoking

But don’t let that get you discouraged! Many of the risk factors for stroke can be reduced through dietary and lifestyle changes. If you believe you’re at risk for stroke contact us at Healthy Living Dallas and we’ll run some of the advanced tests listed below to help identify risk factors and specific lifestyle changes that you can make now to help prevent heart attacks and strokes in your future:

Labwork that is typically run:

-          Triglycerides (generally part of an annual physical)

-          LDL Cholesterol (generally part of an annual physical)

-          HDL Cholesterol (generally part of an annual physical)

-          Vitamin D levels (often part of an annual physical, but not always)

Additional Labwork that we run at Healthy Living Dallas to assess heart attack or stroke risk:

-          Genetic factors like Apolipoprotein E, Factor II, Factor V and MTHFR

-          LDL-Cholesterol and LDL-Particle number, size, density, and ratios (better indicators if your “bad” cholesterol is dangerous)

-          Inflammatory markers associated with higher incidence of heart attack like hs-CRP and LP-PLA2

-          Vitamin D and other nutrient panels

-          Homocysteine Levels

-          Omega-3 and Omega-6 Panels

When it comes to your risk for heart attack and stroke… test- don’t guess!

 

Until we know your specific results, here are some tips that you can do to reduce your risk of strokes and heart disease risk:

1. Choose lean meats and poultry (skinless) skin and prepare them without added saturated and trans fat. 

2. Increase the number of vegetables and fruits you are consuming. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables may help you control your weight and your blood pressure.

3. Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars.

4. Cut back on foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.

 

 

 

 

Written by: Stacey Chmiel, RD and Stephanie Olivares