“My family has a history of heart disease, and I don’t want it to take me. I take Rovicid as part of my health regimen to boost my heart health and keep my cholesterol low.”

Heart Health Tips

New advances in medicine and technology are helping more people survive heart disease, but preventing heart disease is still much better than treating it. While Rovicid can help boost your heart health, you must also take additional steps to prevent heart disease.

The makers of Rovicid suggest the follow heart health tips to help you maximize your cardiovascular health:

- Exercise and maintain a healthy weight.
- Eat smart for a healthy heart.
- Avoid high blood pressure.
- Lower your cholesterol.
- Prevent and manage diabetes.
- Stop smoking.
- Minimize stress.

Exercise and maintain a healthy weight.

Exercise improves heart function, lowers blood pressure and blood cholesterol, and boosts energy. And being overweight forces the heart to work harder.

Most doctors recommend getting at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most, and preferably all, days of the week. These 30 minutes also don't have to be done all at once, either; break them up into 10-minute intervals throughout the day, if that’s easier for you.

Talk with your doctor about what form of exercise is best for you. Those with severe heart disease, for example, are advised against strenuous exercise.

Eat smart for a healthy heart.

A heart-healthy diet means a diet that's low in fat, cholesterol, and salt, and high in fruits, vegetables, grains, and fiber. Experts point out that a heart-healthy diet should be the routine. That way, when you have high-fat food every now and then, you're still on track. Making a high-fat diet the routine is asking for trouble.

Look at the Nutrition Facts label on the foods you buy for guidance. The general rule of thumb is that foods that provide 5 percent of the daily value (DV) of fat or less are low in fat, and foods that are labeled as providing 20 percent or more of the daily value are high in fat.

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Avoid high blood pressure.

About 50 million American adults have high blood pressure, also called hypertension. And high blood increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Poor eating habits and physical inactivity both contribute to high blood pressure. So can good old table salt, which increases average levels of blood pressure.

The National Institutes of Health recommends a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods, and low in total and saturated fat. The NIH also recommends reducing the amounts of red meat, sweets, and sugary drinks that you consume.

Most importantly, get your blood pressure checked regularly. High blood pressure has no symptoms, so you may not know you have a problem until it’s too late.

Lower your cholesterol.

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance in the blood that can clog arteries and lead to heart disease. As with blood pressure, eating a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet and engaging in physical activity can lower cholesterol levels. Your body turns saturated fats into cholesterol. And the higher your cholesterol level, the more likely it is that the substance will build up and stick to artery walls.

Have your blood cholesterol levels checked regularly by your doctor, and make these heart-smart substitutions to your diet:

INSTEAD OF:	DO THIS:
Whole or 2 percent milk and cream	Use 1 percent or skim milk
Fried foods	Eat baked, steamed, boiled, broiled, or microwaved foods
Lard, butter, palm and coconut oils	Cook with unsaturated vegetable oils such as corn, olive, canola, safflower, sesame, soybean, sunflower, or peanut
Fatty cuts of meat	Eat lean cuts of meat or cut off the fatty parts
One whole egg in recipes	Use two egg whites
Sauces, butter, and salt	Season vegetables with herbs and spices
Regular hard and processed cheeses	Eat low-fat, low-sodium cheeses
Salted potato chips	Choose low-fat, unsalted tortilla and potato chips and unsalted pretzels and popcorn
Sour cream and mayonnaise	Use plain low-fat yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, or low-fat or "light" sour cream

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Prevent and manage diabetes.

About 17 million people in the United States have diabetes, and heart disease is the leading cause of death of those with the disease. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), 2 out of 3 people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke.

One in three people who have diabetes don't know they have it. See a doctor if you have any diabetes symptoms, including frequent urination, excessive thirst, extreme hunger, unusual weight loss, increased fatigue, irritability, and blurry vision.

Stop smoking.

Along with raising your risk of lung cancer and other diseases, the mixture of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke increases the risk that your arteries will harden, which restricts blood flow to the heart.

Smokers have more than twice the risk of having a heart attack as non-smokers. According to the American Heart Association, smoking is the biggest risk factor for sudden cardiac death, and smokers who have a heart attack are more likely to die than non-smokers who have a heart attack.

In the first year that you stop smoking, your risk of coronary heart disease drops sharply. And over time, your risk will gradually return to that of someone who has never smoked.

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Minimize stress.

The link between stress and heart disease isn't completely clear, but what's known for sure is that stress speeds up the heart rate. And people with heart disease are more likely to have a heart attack during times of stress.

Reducing stress isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Simple things like meditation, exercise, or even breathing can help you relax and lower your stress level. Take a close look at what causes you stress, and eliminate or reduce those activities that are most stressful. Even eliminating small stresses can help.

Nothing can guarantee that you won’t develop heart disease, but taking Rovicid every day and living a healthier life may delay heart disease for years or minimize its damage. And if you already have heart disease, taking these steps is even more important to your health.

Source: Meadows, Michelle. "How to Keep Your Heart Healthy." FDA Consumer Magazine, November-December 2003.

These statements have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, and individual results may vary. Individuals shown are paid models and not necessarily Rovicid users. Rovicid should be taken as part of a healthy lifestyle and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

For telephone orders, please call 1-800-965-3989

©2004 www.www-rovicid.com