The cardiovascular disease generally refers to disorders that involve blocked or narrowed blood vessels, which can lead to a chest pain (angina), stroke or heart attack. Other heart disorders, as those that affect the heart’s muscle, rhythm or valves, also are considered forms of heart disease. It is truly important to do your best in order to prevent cardiovascular disease because it is a serious condition that many times can be fatal for your or the life of someone you love.
Most deaths caused by heart disease are premature and can easily be prevented by making certain lifestyle changes, like eating healthy, stopping (or reducing) smoking, and exercising regularly. 
#1 How to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease in Children?
Scientists have clearly shown that the drinking and eating habits you get into as a kid can continue into your adulthood.
Therefore, while some bad eating habits during childhood might not pose a direct health risk, they can lead to severe health issues later in life. The most significant things to consider are the amounts of:
- Salt in the diet of your child
- Fat in the diet of your child
- Sugar in the diet of your child
- Exercise your child does
- Salt
Consuming high levels of salt in childhood has been related to an increased risk of stroke, high blood pressure and some other forms of cardiovascular diseases in adulthood.
The daily recommended (maximum) amount of salt for children is:
- 1 – 3 years: 2g of salt per day (0.8g sodium);
- 4 – 6 years: 3g of salt per day (1.2g sodium);
- 7 – 10 years: 5g of salt per day (2g sodium), and
- 11 years and over: 6g of salt per day (2.4g sodium).
- Fats and Sugar
You should also limit the amounts of sugar and saturated fat your children eat.
Too much sugar and saturated fat in the diet of your child can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
They can also increase the risk of your child to become obese and overweight. A diet that is high in sugar can also cause tooth decay.
Foods that are high in sugar and saturated fats include:
- Sweets
- Chocolate
- Fast food, such as burger, chicken nuggets, and fries
- Chocolate
- Fizzy drinks
- Ice cream
- Crisps
- Biscuits
- processed foods, such as hot dogs, microwave meals, hot dogs, and
- Breakfast cereals, which contain added sugar
- Exercise
Naturally, most of the children are full of energy and active. However, today many children who spend much time doing activities that do not involve a lot of physical activity, such as playing computer games and watching television, do not get the exercise they actually need.
Children under 5 years who could walk on their own should be physically active each day for at least 3 hours. This amount of time should be spread through the day and can be outside and indoors. This can include some light activities, such as moving around, standing up, playing, and rolling, as well as more energetic activities, such as hopping, skipping, jumping, and running.
For kids and young people (from age 5 – 18 years), it is recommended they do at least one hour of physical activities every day. This should include some moderate and vigorous-intensity activities, as cycling and run.
#2 How to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease in Adults?
Most risk factors for most types of heart disease are related, which means that if you have one or two risk factors, you will probably have others.
For instance, people who heavily consume alcohol usually have poor diet habits and are more prone to smoke. Moreover, obese people are also more prone to have other health issues, such as diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes.
Particularly, you should consider:
- Your weight
- Your diet
- How much exercise you do
- How much alcohol you consume
- Whether you need to quit smoking
- Alcohol
In order to reduce the risks of harming your health you should follow these tips:
- men and women should not drink more than 14 units per week
- spread your drinking over 3 days or even more if you drink as much as 14 units per week
Your doctor can give you advise and help if you’re finding it really difficult to moderate your drinking.
- Diet
A high-fiber and low-fat diet, including more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, is truly recommended for a healthy heart.
Your diet should include maximum 6g (0.2 oz./1 teaspoon) of salt per day because too much salt can increase your blood pressure. Avoid consuming foods that are high in saturated fat (as meat pies, lard, hard cheese, butter, sausages and other fatty cuts of meat, biscuits, cakes, and foods that contain palm or coconut oil) because they will increase your cholesterol levels.
Eating foods high in unsaturated fat can help to reduce your cholesterol levels, including:
- oily fish (fish rich in Omega-3 fatty acids)
- seeds and nuts
- olive oil
- avocado
- rapeseed oil
- Exercise
In case you are obese or overweight, you should lose weight using a combination of a calorie-controlled diet and regular exercise. For adults, the recommendation is 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (cycling, walking) each day at least 5 days a week. You can also include running and swimming as a part of your exercise plan.
- Smoking
If you are a smoker, it is strongly recommended that you give up as soon as possible. If you consider this as difficult, you can start by reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke per day and gradually quit smoking with time.
Your doctor can also provide you with support and advice, and may prescribe some medication to help you stop smoking.
Conclusion:
You should try to do your best to protect your child from developing any cardiovascular disease in future. Of course, you need to take care of your health condition as well and include healthy food in your diet, quit smoking, exercise regularly and reduce the amount of salt that you consume.
It is important to visit your doctor for a health check if you have not exercised before, or you’re returning to exercise after a long break. If you have particularly high risks of developing heart disease, your doctor will prescribe medication to reduce your risks.
