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Heart attack or stroke is what kills more women between the ages of twenty- five and forty- four each year than breast cancer. This does not sound very encouraging, but the good news are that eighty two percent of heart disease can be prevented through lifestyle changes.

We all know that sport is good not only for your shape, but for your heart too. Stress stresses out your heart and your risk rises by twenty one percent if you smoke. Changing the way you live includes also what you put in your mouth and there are foods that are not only right for you, but they can save your heart.

Blood pressure that is 140/90 or higher(hypertension) is the most common risk factor for heart disease. To maintain a healthy blood pressure (120/80 or lower) you need to include Swiss chard, fresh herbs and low fat or nonfat yogurt in your menu.

The Swiss chart contain potassium which keeps the blood pressure low. The greens are also rich in calcium and magnesium, which also prevent hypertension. If you are not a Swiss chard lover, than you can try the rainbow variety, with stalks that are red, yellow or hot pink. They taste less bitter that other types.

One teaspoon of salt has two thousand and four hundred milligrams of sodium and this is more than you should get in an entire day. The perfect way to control your blood pressure is instead salt to sprinkle your dishes with fresh herbs. They are rich in antioxidants that protect your cells against the kind of damage that can lead to heart disease.

The closer you can get your blood pressure to a healthy level of 120/80 the better off your heart will be. Yogurt is the snack that can help. It has about fifty percent more blood pressure- lowering calcium and potassium than low fat milk. Use yogurt as an ingredient in your cooking. If you are not a yogurt fan, drink low fat or non fat milk instead.

Without enough blood reaching the heart, you can suffer chest pain or heart damage. You need to learn to control your cholesterol. "Bad" cholesterol, LDL, accumulates in artery walls, hardening into plaque that can block blood flow and you want to lower this one. HDL, the "good" cholesterol is the one that need to be raised and the foods that will help are garlic, extra virgin olive oil and almonds.

You need to consume several cloves of garlic a day, because it has mild cholesterol- lowering effect and keeps LDL from building up in the arteries and contributing to plaque. Garlic pairs good with all kind of food and you should fit it into your

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