Cardiovascular risk factors: lipids and lifestyle changes

Most of the modifiable risk factors of cardiovascular diseases can be treated by lifestyle changes. Nevertheless, treatment strategies concentrate almost solely on pharmaceutical interventions, neglecting the beneficial effects of heart healthy diets and exercise training programmes. The above also holds true for metabolic syndrome (MS), which is a cluster of multiple risk factors that include diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM), high blood pressure, central obesity, decreased HDL cholesterol, elevated LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Whereas the pathophysiology of the metabolic syndrome is extremely complex, the first line interventions are lifestyle changes in conjunction with pharmacological management of dyslipidaemia, hypertension and hyperglycaemia. High serum cholesterol has been increasingly recognized as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and current research focuses on the concept that LDL is the predominant atherogenic lipoprotein. Regular exercise training and healthier eating in combination with pharmacological intervention, if needed, reduce waistline and body mass index, lower blood pressure and improve lipid profile to a great extent.