3 easy ways to prevent heart disease

Heart disease should never be taken lightly, but it doesn't have to be feared either. There are simple steps you can take to reduce your risk of developing this fatal disease—give them a try!

• That beer belly you're toting around does more than force your pants down around your knees—it's a big fat sign that you're at risk for a heart attack (and/or diabetes). Abdominal fat is more inflammatory than fat on your rear or hips, and those inflammatory chemicals it puts out are devastating to your coronary arteries.

Use a tape measure

• A simple tape measure can tell you if you're carrying around this risk factor, but the Shape of the Nations Report from the World Health Federation in Switzerland found that 62 percent of doctors surveyed said they don't measure their patients' waistlines.
• The survey quizzed doctors and patients in the United States, Canada and 25 other countries. Ninety-five percent of women at risk for heart disease said their doctors never measured their waist circumference, and 71 percent said that their doctors never told them that excess weight—including high-risk abdominal fat—boosted their risk for heart disease.
• So bring a tape measure to your next doctor visit and teach your physician how to do a waist measurement.

How to measure your waist line

• Raise your shirt above your stomach.
• Place the tape around your waist halfway between the top of your hip bone and the bottom of your rib cage.
• Relax and breathe out while measuring. If your waist is no more than 89 centimetres(35 inches) for women or101 centimetres(40 inches) for men, you're okay. Any more and you better hit the gym.

• Given the latest research out of Denmark, we think it's worth giving up a bit of privacy and learning to share the refrigerator shelves.
• The Danish study found that people living alone have twice the risk of serious heart disease compared to those who live with someone. We hear Craigslist is a good place to advertise that spare room!

• Yeah, yeah, you're two years away from retirement and your boss makes the Meryl Streep character in the movie The Devil Wears Prada look good. You're dying to quit or even get yourself fired so you can take early retirement and get out of the rat race. Hold on.
• A study of more than 12,000 people finds that losing your job late in your career doubles your risk of heart attack or stroke. So suck it up, keep your head down and document everything.
• In fact, continuing to work through your golden years, volunteering, and even just taking the stairs instead of the elevator are the kind of daily activities researchers at the US National Institute on Aging found could help you live longer. Even better? The researchers found these non-exercise activities packed as much longevity punch as actually working out!