My name is Gabriella Bath and I'm a first year Health Sciences student at SFU. Through this blog, I hope to educate at-risk people about the impacts of cardiovascular disease and to discover specific interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) that can be applied to everyday life. CVD is a disease of the blood vessels supplying blood to different parts of the body; such as the heart (coronary heart disease, also called ischaemic heart disease), brain (cerebrovascular disease), arms and legs, (peripheral arterial disease) stroke (the interruption of blood supply to the brain) and heart failure (failure of the heart to function properly).
Most of the risk factors for CVD are behavioural, therefore, they can be changed. These risk factors include:
- elevated blood cholesterol
- fatty foods
- physical inactivity
- tobacco usage
- high blood pressure
- excess weight
Behavioural risk factors are responsible for about 80% of CVD around the world. This means that you can change your likelihood of getting a cardiovascular disease by following these ABCs in the image above: avoiding tobacco, being more active and choosing good nutrition. It is possible to change your risk of cardiovascular disease and to keep your heart happy and healthy!
