You will walk at a new pace! Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death. Every year thousands of men and women die of heart disease in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

If you want to reduce YOUR risk of heart disease, or the chances of your partner dying prematurely from heart disease, here’s how you can do it in four easy steps:

1. REDUCE ANIMAL FATS

Four out of five people continue to eat too many fatty foods. If it’s going to do its job properly, your heart needs a good regular supply of oxygenated blood. But every bite of fat you eat clogs your arteries a little more. But regardless of how much fat you’ve eaten in the past, it’s not too late to act, if you act NOW. Cutting back on fat will help keep your arteries open. If you keep eating fatty foods, the fat will stick to the inner walls of your arteries.

This is what you should do:

Eat less red meat, and when you buy meat, be sure to buy lean meat. Then trim off the visible fat.

Drink skimmed or semi-skimmed milk.

Use low-fat spreads instead of butter. Butter has probably killed thousands.

Limit yourself to 2 or 3 eggs a week.

2. START EXERCISING

How much exercise do you do regularly? One in three people does not exercise regularly. And most of the rest exercise sporadically or exercise too much.

Remember: the keywords are REGULAR and MODERATE. If you are going to protect your heart, you should exercise three times a week for about an hour.

Join a gym. Go to a pool. Buy a bicycle. Go to dance.

3. LOSE EXCESS WEIGHT

Fat isn’t just ugly. It is also deadly. This is not the time to mess around with soft words like “chubby” or “chubby.” FAT kills. You don’t need scales or weight tables to know if you are fat. When you undress tonight, take a long, long look at yourself in the mirror. You will know if you are fat. If so, decide to do something about it.

To lose weight you need to eat less. And you need to make sure that in the future you only eat when you are hungry.

4. KEEP AWAY FROM CIGARETTES

Cigarette smoke narrows your blood vessels and dramatically increases your chances of having a heart attack. The risk is higher if you smoke. But you could be at risk even if you don’t smoke or if the people you live or work with smoke a lot. Smoking causes at least a quarter of all cases of heart disease. So quit smoking. Or downsize if you can’t give up. And if you don’t smoke, stay out of smoky rooms and avoid people who smoke.

Remember: someone else’s cigarette is a thousand times more likely to kill you than someone else’s gun.