What is heart disease?

Heart, or cardiovascular, disease defines any disease that affects the cardiovascular system, including:

• Coronary heart disease.
• Stroke.
• Heart failure and cardiomyopathy.
• Peripheral vascular disease.
• Congenital heart disease.

The main cause of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis. This is the build up of fat and other substances, which cause plaque formation inside the arteries. High blood pressure and high cholesterol levels are also concerning issues that need to be addressed. Further, to optimise heart health it is important to aim for a healthy weight range. This will ensure visceral ‘toxic’ fat levels are within a healthy range.

How PPN dietitians can help manage heart disease?

Our dietitians can help by conducting a full assessment to identify dietary factors that may be contributing to heart disease. From this we will develop  a plan to include more heart-friendly foods in your diet and to eliminate those that are problematic.

If you need to lose weight, we can design tailored meal programs for you and your family that meets your weight loss goals. Our aim is to help you not only lose body weight, but to reduce harmful levels of visceral ‘toxic’ fat while maintaining lean muscle mass. At each consultation we can complete a full body composition assessment to measure your levels of body fat, muscle mass, bone mass and metabolic age.

We will also encourage increased physical activity to optimise cardiovascular health.