How To Keep Your Heart Strong And Healthy

“Healthy heart, healthy lifestyle”

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in all the world.

Everyone is at risk for heart disease. But you are at higher risk for heart disease if you smoke, you have high cholesterol levels, you are obese, or you don’t eat a healthy diet.

Read below how to lower your risk of heart disease, and keep your heart strong and healthy.

Stay at a Healthy Weight

Obesity increases the risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and low levels of good HDL cholesterol. It also triggers inflammatory processes that can harm your cardiovascular system.

By maintaining a healthy weight you are doing a favor to your body and most important to your heart health.

Get More Sleep

Sleep is essential for a healthy heart. If you don’t sleep enough, you may be at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease no matter your age.

Make sleep a priority, getting enough good quality sleep is important if you want to lower your risk of heart diseases.

Drink Alcohol in Moderation

Long-term excessive drinking of alcohol can increase your blood pressure, your triglycerides and your calorie count, which leads to developing heart disease.

Drink in moderation about one average-sized drink daily for women and two for men.

Quit Smoking

chemicals found in tobacco smoke can damage your heart. Cigarette smoking accounted for about 20 percent of all deaths from heart disease in the United States. 

Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease. It decreases your body’s supply of oxygen and causes blood vessels to constrict.

When you quit smoking, your risk of developing heart disease starts to drop and decreases within the first year.

Eat Healthy

• Limit bad fat: Eat less saturated fat by switching to low-fat dairy, meat and add healthier fat to your diet like olive oil, avocado, and nuts.

Stop eating trans fat found in baked goods, snack foods, margarine, and fried fast foods, it increases the risk of developing heart disease and stroke.

Trans fat clogs your arteries by raising your bad cholesterol (LDL) and lowering your good cholesterol levels (HDL).To avoid trans fats, check the ingredient list on all commercially processed food products.

• Eat more fruits and veggies: Fiber in fruits and vegetables helps lower blood cholesterol levels, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, and helps you feel full, so you will eat fewer calories during the day.

• Whole grains: Whole grains help lower bad cholesterol, blood pressure, and also may prevent type 2 diabetes. Add this food to your diet (whole wheat pancakes and pasta, oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice).

• Eat fish at least twice a week: Fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, and sardines contains Omega-3 fatty acids that may slow the buildup of plaque in the arteries, lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Manage Stress

High levels of cortisol from long-term stress can increase blood cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure, these are risk factors that lead to heart disease

If you feel overwhelmed by stressful life, here are some common techniques for coping with stress:

• Stop smoking
• Exercise regularly
• Relax every day
• Reduce causes of stress
• Get enough rest
• Set realistic goals and expectations

Get Regular Checkups

Visit your doctor for annual blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol testing to keep your heart healthy.

High blood pressure and high cholesterol are silent diseases, you won’t know you have them unless you get tested.

Follow these tips and you will be taking care of your heart to keep it strong and healthy.