LISTEN TO YOUR HEART!
Help Prevent Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
College Students Affected by CVD?
Poor dieting and excessive drinking may be fine now, but may result in cardio vascular disease (CVD). CVD includes heart disease and stroke. The cause of CVD is the amount of fat and cholesterol you consume. Total fat and cholesterol are made up of fatty acids. If the body is overwhelmed by certain fatty acids, the body results in an imbalanced state. Every young adult should consume at most 35% fat from total calories. If a student consumes more than 35% of fat from total calories, he/she is increasing their risk of CVD.
You Just Can't Help It...
- Family History; It is important to know that if your family members have had a history of CVD, then CVD is most likely to be hereditary. Genes are passed down generation to generation. With genes, comes disease risk factors.
- Increasing Age can also lead in causing CVD. The older you grow, the less immune your body becomes to digesting certain foods and transporting nutrients to the rest of your body.
- Culture/Religion: The way you have been raised, either in certain countries, also have certain diets. The surrounding culture of fellow students affects the way students pick their meals. Many influences around campus can also contribute to this, i.e; taco bell and on-campus burger king.
But What You Can Help:
- Elevated Blood Cholesterol: You can change your cholesterol levels by watching what you eat. Many see this as a factor that cannot change, but that is not true. Cholesterol come from animal products. Dieting is the key.
- Diabetes: Diabetes can also be a modifiable risk factor due to the fact that one is missing something in his/her diet. It is in relation to Blood Cholesterol.
- Excess body fat: It is the result when one has consumed more calories than burning them. A person becomes over weight due to the fact of excess eating and not enough exercise.
MAKE IT PERSONAL!
- Exercise daily! The more fitness you get in once a week, the better your chance of reducing the risk of CVD. Get your heart pumping for at least 30 minutes a day. Either walking for jogging, every minute counts!
- Change your diet! Stop ordering take out fast foods. Create your own salad and cook your own home meal chicken. Eat more fruits and vegetables in substitute of burgers and fries.
- Stop smoking! Tobacco use is one of the greatest risk factors of CVD. Smoking not only exposes you to damage your lungs, but also exposes others to second hand smoking. If one is smoking, dieting will not improve health.
- Drink less or better yet to not drink at all! Drinking causes dehydration! It dehydrates organs and organ systems. Your body needs nutritional value. Don't make your organs thirsty, especially your liver. Your liver is the main organ for cleansing fluids in your body. If you don't treat your liver right, it can collapse on you.
- When cooking, use less salt and bake more often than frying. Bake your foods so that your foods may not dry out, but they will keep base nutrients in their flesh.