How has your heart been lately? Is it ticking like it should be? In a world where heart disease continues to be the number one killer of men and women, how can you be so sure that your heart is functioning properly? Even people who don’t have certain risk factors for heart disease, like hypertension, high cholesterol, or family histories of heart disease are becoming susceptible to heart-related problems.
That lead medical professionals to ask the question, “What is the fastest and easiest way to predict and prevent heart disease?”
Sure, there are a lot of methods out there, and many of them deal with lifestyle choices, like how often you exercise and what you put on your dinner plate. You should also get routine medical checkups to make sure everything internal is working optimally.
The Better Heart Blueprint
Fortunately, there is an easy way to remember what to do to protect yourself from heart disease and other heart complications. The Better Heart Blueprint was created by Dr. Julie McLaughlin. The plan features 5 steps that starts with a comprehensive lab test to see what you total cholesterol levels are, a breakdown of the LDLs and HDLs, and your triglycerides.
Once you know your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, you can create a plan to make lifestyle changes.
Here are the steps laid out:
- Step 1: Visit the doctor for a comprehensive lab test called an advanced lipid profile to know your numbers.
- Step 2: Make the appropriate lifestyle changes. Your LDLs are affected by a change in diet. HDLs are affected by exercise. Triglycerides, or fats, are affected by the balance of both. Therefore, once you are 100% committed, you need to stick to these lifestyle changes for life.
- Step 3: Give yourself an appropriate amount of time to make these changes and habit. It usually takes about 3 months to get into the new groove of your life.
- Step 4: After your 3 months of lifestyle changes goes by, it is time to retest your numbers. This will show if your efforts were effective or if you need to fine tune your program further. Don’t get discouraged!
- Step 5: Sometimes you need a little extra help. In that event, you can hire a health or life coach to guide you.
Why The Blueprint Works
The reason why the Better Heart Blueprint works is due to the first step—the most crucial step. An advanced lipid profile gives an in-depth look at the total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides, just like a cholesterol blood test. However, it goes a step farther. The test also looks at the size of the particles. Small, dense particles in the veins tend to stick to the artery lining and may form those dangerous lumps of plaque that cause clots. Furthermore, the more Lp(a), or triglycerides, present in the blood, the sticker those tiny particles become.
If more than 15% of the particles in the blood are dense, you could be at risk of heart disease. The risk increases if more than 30mg/dl of triglycerides are present.
Right there, you get an eye-opening snapshot of your health; and with the Blueprint from Dr. McLaughlin, you know what to do immediately to prevent heart disease.
While there are indeed other ways to discover your risk of developing heart disease, the testing and the Blueprint work together to give you a great framework. Protect your heart. Get tested, and start changing your life around today.
