This week’s chapter is pretty intense, as it delves into Cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. It provides a great overview for each, and how it comes about in an individual’s life. Cardiovascular disease has been on the decline, but is still a huge epidemic not to be taken lightly. Something that the chapter has enlightened me on, is that CVD has claimed the lives of more woman than it has men. Thanks to early intervention, better diagnoses and better steady treatments, CVD has gone down, and people are being treated in a timelier fashion.
CVD is all encompassing, as there are several diseases within this umbrella, including hypertension and atherosclerosis, stroke, coronary heart disease and many more. All are unique to their name, posing different threats, signs, treatments, and affects. General modifiable factors include cutting back on the bad stuff.
What are the bad stuff? We’ve talked a lot about them this semester, and some of these cut backs may be included in your health journey. For starters, avoiding, if not completely eliminating smoking tobacco, for those who are even exposed to second hand smoke have a 25-50 percent increased risk of heart disease.
Other modifiable factors include making dietary changes and cutting back on LDL, low-density lipoproteins, which are considered “bad cholesterol” as well as cutting back on saturated fats. Modifying your diet, also consists of consuming more fiber rich foods, more greens and less sodium.
Let us not forget being more active! Some of us are already making a point to be more active in our daily lives, and you are already one step ahead of the game. In doing this, you are working on keeping your blood pressure low, increasing HDL, which are high-density lipo-proteins and is reducing the risk of CVD and diabetes alike!
Diabetes runs rampant in my family, and I feel like no matter what I do, I’m bound to get it. Both sides of my family have it in some shape or form; the only ones left are my sister, mother and I. I’ve gotten most of my experience with my grandma, whom I spend most of my time with. Despite everyone else, I have more hopes for myself than either of them, though. I am actively looking for ways to better my diet, I am actually active, and I truly don’t like sweats. I have my cravings here and there, but everything I consume, that normally has sugar, I use sweetener replacements. For my coffee I use honey, or Splenda, depending if its hot or cold, I don’t drink juice or soda, and I eat in moderation, things that normally are high in sugars.
I have never lost someone to Cancer, or any of these horrible diseases, but my heart goes out to anyone that has. It seems impossible to cope with, and harder to handle if ever a time we had to go through it. Breast cancer seems the most tangible for us females, but there are so many techniques and resources to help keep us on top of these things, that we should really put in the extra effort to make sure we’re all set. Checking for lumps on your own, and mammograms are imperative for us, and I make sure, even without a family history, which I am always checking, because it is truly better to be safe than sorry.
Now that we read this chapter together, I’m sure we are more informed than we ever have before, lets continue to be mindful not just for this semester, and not just for our journey, but for our every day lives. This chapter has only reinforced my want to be better and push harder on my health journey.
Monica's Road To Health 