Keep garbage vehicles at bay for a healthy heart

What is meant by risk factors that cause heart disease?” asked my mother’s friend. My mom looked at my dad to answer the question. He shrugged his shoulder, asking mother to continue.

“There are factors that can be changed, factors that cannot be changed and other contributing factors. Risk factors that can be changed include cigarette smoking, high BP, high blood cholesterol and physical inactivity.”

“What are the factors that cannot be changed?”

“The factors that cannot be changed are heredity, gender and increasing age.”

“That means all of us have the same unchangeable risk factors. Then what do we do?” the friend was astonished.

“We can do nothing about the unchangeable, but the capacity to play around with the changeable factors is very alluring and interesting. It has the potential to undo the predisposition to most of the heart problems, provided they are taken as preventive than curative,” my mother said.

“There are other factors that contribute to the risk of developing heart diseases prematurely, like diabetes, obesity, stress, sedentary job etc,” added dad.

“Wait, you said something about premature? I didn’t get that one,” the friend asked.

“The risk factors are accelerated in youngsters owing to change in diet, sedentary lifestyle, high stress and lack of exercise causing premature entry into hospitals,” dad said.

“You mean that we would admit our kids in a hospital during our lifetime and they would reach such a pathetic state in front of our own eyes and we can totally prevent such an untoward event,” she asked.

“Absolutely. But they would not be kids at that time. They’ll probably be in their 30s to 40s but they are our kids and it is preventable.”

“What about the good and bad cholesterol? What problems do they cause?”

“Fat enters the blood from the intestine. They require a transport within the blood that is similar to our transit modes available outside. Like sports cars that are sleek and move fast to the destination!”

“The good cholesterol or the high-density lipoproteins (HDL) are similar to a sports vehicle that carries the fat molecule to the liver and safely let it exit out of the body as bile. This is secreted by the liver to digest fat. Whenever we exercise regularly, the circulation is kept at the best of its capacity. When we fail to exercise, the circulation of the number of garbage collecting vehicles increases. They’re so awful that they drop the fat molecules along the way in the most sensitive areas like the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart. This causes narrowing of the arteries, which is called atherosclerosis.”

“The garbage vehicles do a far superior job these days. It is similar to what used to be the system before the advent of the present cleaning and clearing facilities. They used to drop garbage all around. Sometimes the sewage dripping, it was scary,” mother added.

“The good news is that it is possible to reverse the process if we exercise regularly, as long as they are started at the earliest before the damage is done. Regular intense physical training and proper diet would disintegrate the bad cholesterol in the body. Internal hygiene is top priority for the survival of the species,” father concluded.

“It is imperative that parents then start taking adequate measure to keep the fat mobilising system at its best through the best form of physical exercise that is natural, simple, cheap and with minimal side effects,” she added.