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If your family history includes coronary heart disease, you are wise to look at ways to reduce your risk for heart disease. Coronary heart disease although affected by genetic makeup, is also related to your lifestyle.

Think of the more common risk factors for coronary heart disease:

* Cigarette smoking ' a lifestyle choice

* Elevated cholesterol ' in part, a lifestyle choice

* High blood pressure ' affected by life choices

* Obesity ' resulting from lifestyle choices

* Prolonged periods of inactivity ' a lifestyle choice

You probably know that changes to your lifestyle can readily reduce the risk for heart disease. Such changes do not require a physician's help, although you will want to seek your physician's advice. Nor do actions to reduce the risks of heart disease require participation in a program.

A report in the "American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine" for March/April 2007; 1(2): 79-90 called for practical steps doctors could take to help you change your lifestyle. That report states that most individuals who change lifestyle do it without any program, and gives these examples:

* "'more than 90% of individuals who have stopped smoking have done this without a formal smoking cessation program."

* "The majority of individuals who lose weight also do this on their own."

You can make lifestyle changes that will reduce heart disease risks.

Reduce Heart Disease Risks with These Steps

You can reduce the risk for heart disease by making a few changes in your current lifestyle.

1. Chocolate First

Can eating chocolate reduce the risk for heart disease? You have heard reports of it on television. You may have heard it discussed at the office. Is it true?

In 1996, University of California-Davis researcher Andrew Waterhouse found that chocolate contains phenols, chemicals that might reduce heart disease risks. Waterhouse wrote about his findings in the British medical journal Lancet, telling how he had used laboratory experiments to measure the amount of phenols in such products as baker's chocolate, cocoa powder, and milk chocolate. He found that it took less than 2 ounces of milk chocolate to provide the same amount of phenols as a 5-ounce glass of red wine, which was already known for reducing heart disease risks. He reasoned that not only can eating chocolate reduce the risk for heart disease, but that more research would show that it actually does.

In 2003, Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and his colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany published a further report on chocolate in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Dark chocolate, they found, lowers high blood pressure and reduces that risk associated with heart disease. They had done clinical research to show the effects in humans. Milk chocolate and white chocolate did not have this effect. Milk, whether blended into the chocolate or used to wash down the chocolate, diluted the effect.

Why dark chocolate? The answer is the phenols that Waterhouse discovered in chocolate back in 1996. Cocoa phenols are known to lower blood pressure.

In addition, phenols lower the risk of heart disease by keeping fat-like substances from oxidizing in the bloodstream and clogging the arteries.

So can eating chocolate reduce the risk for heart disease?

It can reduce some risks ' if it is dark chocolate ' the darker the better ' and is not washed down with milk. European made chocolates appear to be better than American made, since they contain more cocoa phenols.

2. Smoking

Another lifestyle change that can reduce the risk of heart disease is to stop smoking. Those who say they can't stop smoking have not been determined or committed enough. As quoted above from the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, " more than 90% of individuals who have stopped smoking have done this without a formal smoking cessation program."

If you are serious about reducing heart disease risks, stop smoking.

3. Obesity

Overweight sounds nicer than obesity, but whichever way you look at it in the mirror, it is a lifestyle change you can make to reduce heart disease risks. You don't need to join one of the many programs advertised on television, or ask your doctor for prescription medication. You need to change your way of eating and get exercise.

4. Exercise

While the industrial age, followed by the information age, brought us many benefits, they also took away the benefits of farm work. A great number of us have developed a sedentary lifestyle that increases heart disease risks. To reverse that, and reduce the risks of heart disease, we need to follow a regular exercise program.

5. Cholesterol

Your genetic makeup may predispose you to higher levels of cholesterol. To reduce this risk of heart disease, you can change your diet to one of the many that reduce cholesterol intake.

Conclusion

There are other risks for heart disease, but these are examples of those that can be reduced by making simple changes in the way you live. Can they be eradicated without medication? Sometimes they can. Can they become less of a risk for heart disease without medication? Yes. It certainly is worth making the necessary changes.

CAUTION: The author is not a medical professional, and offers the information in this article for educational purposes only. Please discuss it with your health care provider before relying on it in any way.