It is true that if you lead a healthy lifestyle, it strengthens your heart, improves overall well-being, and helps decrease risk factors of developing heart and circulatory disease. But it doesn’t make you immune to it.
Even if you eat a healthy diet, don’t smoke, and exercise frequently, it doesn’t give you a free pass to miss your doctor appointments to get checked out. You still need to have your blood checked periodically to make sure you don’t have high cholesterol or high blood pressure that could put you at risk for developing heart disease.
Similarly, there are uncontrollable risk factors for heart disease like age, gender, genetics and family history that play a role in your probability of developing heart disease. These things reinforce the importance of getting checked to monitor your heart health.
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Resource:
Discovery Health: 5 Heart Health Myths
USA Today: 10 Myths About Heart Disease
Christine Jeffries is a writer/editor for work and at heart, and lives in a home of testosterone with her husband and two sons. Christine is interested in women’s health and promoting strong women.