When heart specialists talk about prevention, they usually mean one of three types: secondary, primary, and primordial prevention. All three have similar elements but different starting points and different effects.
Secondary prevention. These efforts begin after someone has had a heart attack or stroke, had angioplasty or bypass surgery, or developed another heart disease. It includes taking medications such as aspirin and statins to lower cholesterol, quitting smoking and, if necessary, losing weight, exercising more, and eating a healthy diet. While secondary prevention might sound like “closing the outbuilding door after the horse is gone,” it isn’t. These steps can help prevent a second heart attack or stroke, slow the progression of heart disease, and reduce the risk of premature death. For example, the number one killer of first heart attack survivors is a second heart attack.
Primary prevention. Primary prevention aims to prevent a person at risk for heart disease from having their first heart attack or stroke, requiring angioplasty or surgery, or developing another heart disease. Primary prevention usually focuses on people with cardiac risk factors such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Secondary prevention and primary prevention focus on controlling these risk factors by making healthy lifestyle changes and taking medication if needed. However, the emergence of relevant cardiovascular risk factors means that inflammation, atherosclerosis, and endothelial dysfunction may already be developing.
Primordial prevention. The word “primitive” means from the start. Primordial prevention involves working to prevent inflammation, atherosclerosis, and endothelial dysfunction, thereby preventing risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, excess weight, and cardiovascular events. Once rarely discussed, primordial prevention is now an important part of the American Heart Association’s concept of ideal heart health and its efforts to help people achieve it. As the name suggests, the sooner you start practicing prevention, ideally from childhood, the more likely you will be successful in protecting yourself from heart disease.
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Steps for Early Preventing Heart Disease
Three key lifestyle steps can significantly reduce your chances of developing cardiovascular risk factors and, ultimately, help with preventing heart disease:
1. Not Smoking
One of the finest things you can do for your health is not to use tobacco. Tobacco use is a hard habit to break, slowing you down, making you sick, and shortening your life. Smoking is also a major contributor to heart disease.
Researchers who examined the relationship between smoking and quitting during a decades-long prospective study of more than 100,000 women found that approximately 64% of current smokers and 28% of deaths among former smokers were attributable to smoking.
This study also described that much of the excess risk associated with smoking can be significantly reduced after smoking cessation. In addition, the risk of death from all causes falls toward the level seen in people who have never smoked over time after quitting.
Nicotine in tobacco products is one of the most addictive substances. It makes tobacco use one of the most difficult unhealthy habits to break. But don’t be discouraged; many smokers successfully quit smoking.
2. Maintain a Healthy Weight
Excess weight and an excessively large waist size contribute to heart disease and other health problems. In a study of one million women, body mass index (BMI) was an important risk factor for coronary heart disease. Furthermore, the incidence of coronary heart disease increases progressively with BMI.
Maintaining a healthy weight is also closely related to the way the body processes and uses energy. Healthy metabolism plays an important role in maintaining overall metabolic health and managing factors such as body weight and blood glucose.
3. Exercise
Exercise and physical activity are excellent ways to help prevent heart disease and many other diseases and conditions, but most of us become less active as we age.
Regular physical activity is one of the finest things you can do for your health. It reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and certain types of cancer. It may also help manage stress, improve sleep and mood, control weight, reduce the risk of falls, and improve reasoning function.
No marathon training is required to see real health benefits. A short 30-minute walk five days a week can benefit most people significantly. Any amount of exercise is better than none.
While exercise and physical activity benefit the body, a sedentary lifestyle does the opposite: it increases the chances of becoming overweight and developing some chronic diseases.
Diabetes is also an important cardiovascular risk factor. Managing blood glucose and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can help reduce the risk of complications associated with diabetes. You can learn more about diabetes and how it affects overall health.
