11 proven ways to prevent coronary artery disease

You don't just wake up one day with heart disease. As early as your teens, habits like not exercising and eating too much of bad fats begin to do damage. Changing your ways can change your future.

Damage to the inner layers of arteries in your heart due to high blood pressure, smoking and high blood sugar.

• Fatty plaque accumulates in artery walls, narrowing arteries and leading to the formation of heart-threatening blood clots.

Chest pain, or angina, which occurs when the heart muscle can't get enough oxygen-rich blood.

• Angina can feel like pressure or squeezing in your chest, but you may also feel it in your back, jaw, shoulders, neck or arms.
• It usually gets worse during activity and improves when you stop.

Exercise raises good cholesterol, lowers bad cholesterol and triglycerides, puts a damper on high blood pressure and heart-threatening inflammation, and can improve circulation of antioxidants that protect the cells of the heart and blood vessels from injury.

Cigarette smoking greatly increases your risk of developing heart disease.

• It damages arteries, constricts blood vessels and displaces oxygen in the bloodstream, forcing your heart to pump harder to deliver oxygen.
• Breathing in the smelly smoke from someone else's cigarettes raises your own risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent.

People who eat fish five times a week lower their risk of developing coronary heart disease by 34 percent.

• Fish helps prevent blood clots and protects against irregular heart rhythms that lead to heart attacks.

People who got 1.5 grams of the DHA plus EPA omega-3 fatty acids a day from fish-oil capsules saw artery plaque regress after two years.

Walnuts, canola oil, flaxseed, tofu and soybeans are all good sources of alpha linolenic acid (ALA), a type of omega-3 fatty acid that your body converts into DHA and EPA.

Soluble fibre forms a gel in your intestines that actually reduces the absorption of the fat you eat, which in turn lowers cholesterol.

Taking the salt shaker off your table is the first step.

• Avoid processed foods — lunchmeats, canned soups, microwave meals and salad dressings — where we get 70 to 80 percent of the salt we eat.
• Make your own or find low-sodium versions.

Up to one drink a day for women or two for men can lower your risk of heart disease as much as 30 percent.

• However, drinking to the point of drunkenness even once a month increases heart attack risk.

High blood pressure damages artery walls, speeding up the accumulation of plaque.

• Lowering blood pressure can cut heart disease risk by up to 30 percent.

If you don't know your cholesterol levels, see your doctor for a blood test.

• While many people who have heart attacks don't have high cholesterol, high cholesterol increases the risk.
• If your ratios are not ideal, bring them into range.  Brush and floss. When done twice a day, it can cut your risk of gum disease.
• People with severe gum disease have four times higher levels of bacterial toxins in their bloodstream which triggers inflammation. Chronic inflammation contributes to the formation of plaque in artery walls.

Just 25 grams (one ounce) of dark chocolate a day helps arteries stay flexible and can help nudge your blood pressure lower.

• Only dark chocolate counts.

Even when you're young, establishing a healthy lifestyle is the best way to protect yourself from heart disease later on in life. Integrate these tips into your regular lifestyle and you'll dramatically reduce your chances of heart disease. Not only that, but you'll feel better today!