5 Crucial Ways To Avoid a Cardiac Event for Firefighters- Part 5

In this series I’m explaining the 5 most important things firefighters must do to avoid suffering a fatal cardiac event; because heart attack is still the leading cause of death in the fire service and these events are completely preventable. To start from the beginning click here.

Eat More Good Fat

One crucial thing you can do to lower your risk of having a heart attack is to eat more good fats. Good fats tackle inflammation in the body which is believed to majorly contribute to the progression of heart disease.

What Is a Good Fat?

The “good” fats are unsaturated fats. These are found in lots of foods like nuts and seeds, olive and canola oils and meats. The very best of these unsaturated fats are called omega-3 fatty acids. They are only found in a few foods: soybeans, flaxseed, walnuts, avocados and fatty fish like salmon and tuna.

Scientists figured out that it must be important to eat these fatty acids by observing that populations who eat a lot of fish have an extremely low incidence of heart disease. Another beneficial result of eating more fish is weight loss, since itís a lower calorie protein source than other meats.

Another way that the good fats lower heart disease risk ñ hence, your risk of having an on-duty heart attack ñ is by raising your HDL ìgoodî cholesterol. Having high HDL is just as important as having low LDL and total cholesterol. Exercise also raises HDL.

Many of the good fats like avocados and nuts also have fiber in them. Eating more fiber helps you avoid heart disease and heart attack in several ways. First, it controls your blood glucose so you donít develop type II diabetes. Second, it reduces your LDL/total cholesterol. Last but not least, it helps you feel full so you can avoid being obese.

Firefighters who suffer from diabetes, poor cholesterol and obesity are 10.2, 4.4 and 2.2 times more likely to experience a fatal heart attack on duty, respectively.

In light of the heart healthy benefit of the good fats in fish, the current recommendation is to shoot for 2 servings of fatty fish per week. You can also take fish oil pills but donít take more than one small pill per day unless prescribed by your physician (fish oil helps to prevent blood clotting, therefore can lead to bleeding in very high doses).

Next week I will explain the #1 most important thing firefighters must to do avoid a heart attack.

Next Part 6   (when released)