Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Australia, New Zealand and many affluent and developing countries. It is a much-studied subject with a voluminous body of literature describing the disease process, the genetic and environmental factors involved in increasing and decreasing risk and the routes to prevention and treatment. Coronary events are the key outcomes of the condition and include myocardial infarction (MI), ischaemia and (sudden) cardiac death as the major outcomes for the disease. Atherosclerosis is the underlying process for CHD and involves the occlusion of the coronary arteries through the accumulation of lipids in the intima. Ischaemia results from a loss of tissue perfusion leading to inadequate oxygenation and nutrient supply.
MI is a major loss of blood flow resulting from arterial occlusion while sudden cardiac death can result from instability of cardiac contraction (arrhythmia). CHD has a complex multifactorial aetiology and there is an inherited element in risk (e.g. apolipoprotein phenotype) and also those which cannot be changed (e.g. age). There is also a strong modifiable component including lifestyle factors. Factors which contribute to increased risk include high blood pressure (hypertension), obesity, diabetes, cigarette smoking and lack of exercise. Obesity (especially abdominal obesity) is an independent risk factor but also predisposes to diabetes, another independent risk factor. However, there is an interaction between these two and hypertension leading to the so-called “metabolic syndrome” which predisposes to early-onset CHD.
The industrialized world suffered over the last few years a number of large negative shocks, initially driven by sharp declines in house and stock prices and by a tightening of credit and financial conditions. The collapse in output and the increase in unemployment produced a loss of confidence that considerably intensified the recessionary pressures. Policy institutions responded with measures that dealt with the solvency of financial institutions.
This short e–book is broken up into four major sections that gradually take the reader from the largest perspective on nutrition down to the very specific. The first section takes two seemingly disparate viewpoints on nutrition and unifies them into a single theory people can use to make decisions regarding their approach to weight loss. This “unified theory” is the basis for my approach to nutrition, and should give people a solid understanding of the type of information they can expect from my e–books and articles.
Section Two is an overview of how people fail to achieve their fitness/health
related goals by over–thinking and getting too wrapped up in the details. This is what I refer to as “paralysis by analysis.” People often take overly complicated approaches to their fitness/health/fat loss related goals, get confused, get frustrated, throw their hands up in disgust, and give up. The “K.I.S.S.” philosophy will help to clear the confusion, and allow you to move forward with your health and fitness goals.
