The most important weapon against atherosclerosis is prevention – in which the identification of risk factors plays a decisive role. The more of these factors apply to you, the greater your risk of developing atherosclerosis.

So pay attention to the following points:

• If you smoke: Try to stop. Smoking narrows blood vessels and damages their delicate inner lining. It also exacerbates many other risk factors.
• Make sure you eat a healthy and varied low-fat diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables. Avoid saturated fatty acids (mainly in animal fat) and trans fats (mainly in deep-fried and bakery products). In plant oils, monounsaturated fatty acids (olive oil) and the proportion of omega‑3 fatty acids (rapeseed/canola oil) are positive factors.
• If you’re overweight: Try to lose a few kilos. Just a pound or two less will have a positive effect.
• Get regular exercise and do endurance sports – even a daily half-hour walk is better than not moving from the couch.
• If you have diabetes, high blood pressure or raised cholesterol, get it treated.
• As with almost all cardiovascular diseases, stress contributes to the development of atherosclerosis. Negative mental stress affects not only the body’s network of defence (immune) cells, but also the blood vessels directly. More “adhesion molecules” are released on the surface of immune cells. This makes it easier for these cells to stick to the inner lining of arteries, thus encouraging the development of atherosclerosis. There is also increased release of interleukins, molecules that carry messages between immune cells and activate them.