These days, it's easy to feel vulnerable when it comes to your health.
这些日子里，说到健康人人都感觉有些敏感。
I talk about that a lot with my patients, many of whom are feeling heightened fear and uncertainty during the pandemic.
我跟我的患者们谈论了很多这个问题，他们中很多都在疫情期间感到特别恐惧和不安。
The best part of my job as a primary care doctor is reassuring them that we're not powerless, even against some of the biggest threats to our health.
作为一名初级保健医生，我工作中最好的部分就是让他们相信，即使面对一些对我们健康的最大威胁，我们也不是无能为力的。
In the case of COVID-19, we can do things like get vaccinated.
例如面对新冠时，我们可以去接种疫苗。
There's even more within our control when it comes to heart disease, which remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., even during 2020.
而直到2020年，心脏病仍然是美国人死亡的主要原因。
On average, it kills about 655,000 Americans each year.
平均每年约有65.5万美国人死于心脏疾病。
Heart disease is indiscriminate — it's the No. 1 killer of men, women and people of most races and ethnicities in the U.S. Coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease, is especially brutal.
心脏病是不分人群的——它是美国男性、女性以及大多数种族和种族的头号杀手，而冠心病是最常见的心脏病类型，尤其严重。
It accounts for about 55% of those yearly deaths.
它约占每年死亡人数的55%。
When plaques made of cholesterol, fat, calcium and other waste build up in the vessels of the heart — what we call atherosclerosis — coronary heart disease develops.
当由胆固醇、脂肪、钙和其他废物组成的斑块在心脏血管中积聚时——我们称之为动脉粥样硬化——冠心病就会发生。
It's the primary cause of heart attacks, which occur when those vessels become completely closed off by a growing plaque, or one that's shaken loose, and stops blood supply to the heart.
心脏病发作的主要原因是，当这些血管被不断生长的或者松动了的斑块完全关闭，停止向心脏供血时，就会引起心脏病发作。
It happens to someone in the U.S. once every 40 seconds.
每四十秒就有一名美国人心脏病发作。
It's startling to think that something so deadly could strike without warning.
如此致命的疾病可能会毫无预警地降临，想想就令人胆寒。
"If we look at people who have had a heart attack or died suddenly from coronary artery disease, half of those individuals never had a symptom before; the very first presentation of their heart disease is an unheralded heart attack, or worse," says Dr. Michael Shapiro, cardiologist and director of Wake Forest University's Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.
“如果我们观察那些心脏病发作或突然死于冠状动脉疾病的人，其中一半的人以前从未有过症状;他们心脏病的最初表现是毫无征兆的心脏病发作，甚至更糟，”维克森林大学心血管疾病预防中心主任、心脏病专家迈克尔·夏皮罗博士说。
Despite the grim statistics, there is one major upside: With our choices, we have a lot of control over the main risk factors for coronary heart disease.
尽管统计数据令人沮丧，但仍有好的一面:通过我们的选择，我们可以在很大程度上控制冠心病的主要风险因素。
Over the past year, it may have been harder to make healthy choices, but it's still possible to take steps toward getting your heart health back on track, even as the pandemic grinds on.
在过去的一年里，人们可能更难做出健康的选择，但即使在疫情期间，我们仍然可以采取措施让你的心脏健康回到正轨。
And perhaps more importantly, making lifestyle changes will be beneficial regardless of your age, and even have the capacity to reverse existing damage.
或许更重要的是，无论你的年龄大小，改变生活方式都是有益的，甚至有能力扭转现有的损害。
Here are some ways to get started.
以下分享一些有用的建议。
1.Establish a baseline and estimate your risk
1.建立基准线，并进行风险评估。
A good first step is to get a baseline reading of three key factors: your blood pressure, average blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
第一步最好就是获得三个关键因素的基准线读数:你的血压，平均血糖和胆固醇水平。
These numbers are sometimes the only clues we have to a patient's risk of heart disease, and that's because three of the most common culprits in heart attacks — high blood pressure, diabetes and abnormal cholesterol levels — are often present without any symptoms.
这些数字有时是我们了解病人患心脏病风险的唯一线索，因为心脏病发作的三个最常见的罪魁祸首——高血压、糖尿病和异常胆固醇水平——通常在没有任何症状的情况下出现。
2.Get moving
2.动起来
While a better diet is invaluable, "exercise is the best medicine," says Shapiro, the Wake Forest cardiologist.
“虽然注重饮食是极重要的，“锻炼才是最好的药物，”威克森林心脏病专家夏皮罗说道。
Mountains of evidence show that the benefits of exercise on heart health are huge and multifactorial.
大量证据表明，运动对心脏健康的好处是巨大的，而且是多方面的。
It helps burn calories, promote weight loss and lower cholesterol, but exercise also conditions the heart just like other muscles in the body.
它有助于燃烧卡路里，促进减肥和降低胆固醇，但运动也可以像锻炼身体的其他肌肉一样对心脏有锻炼作用。
3.It's never too late to quit smoking
3.赶快戒烟不算晚
Smoking is one of the riskiest things you can do when it comes to heart health, since it speeds up the creation of those cholesterol-laden plaques and has other inflammatory effects on our tiny heart vessels.
吸烟是对心脏健康最危险的事情之一，因为它会加速那些含胆固醇斑块的生成，并对我们微小的心脏血管产生其他炎症效应。
4.Investigate your family's heart history
4.调查你们家族的心脏病史
Find out if any of your relatives have had a premature heart attack — before the age of 55 in men and 65 in women — even if they survived.
调查你的亲戚在55岁和65岁之前是否有过过早的心脏病发作，即使他们后来活下来了。
As a rule of thumb, any heart-related medical event in a biologic family member, including the sudden or unexplained death of a young person, is worth telling your doctor.
根据经验，任何与心脏有关的医学事件，包括一个年轻人的突然或无法解释的死亡，都值得告诉你的医生。
问题
文中提到预防心脏病第一步可以监测哪三个健康指标？
留言回复正确答案，前五名朋友可以获得红包奖励哦，赶快来试试吧！
感谢关注
跟Amber一起看世界
联系客服
