Several factors contribute to heart disease, including diet, physical activity, not smoking, and keeping blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar within acceptable ranges. Home Health Up recommends practicing the 8 Key Steps to Maintaining a Healthy Heart.
A proper diet and lifestyle can help protect your heart
Eat a Healthy Diet
A healthy diet can dramatically decrease your risk for heart disease. Limiting saturated fats (found in butter, lard, fatty cuts of meat, and poultry skin), trans fats (look for the term "hydrogenated" on the ingredient list), and salt can help reduce blood cholesterol levels and prevent atherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of arteries).
Choose whole grains over refined products, and try to eat them most days of the week. Consume low-fat or non-fat dairy products and choose a variety of protein sources, such as fish, skinless chicken, beans, nuts, seeds, and low-fat yogurt.
Include moderate dietary fiber, and try to consume two or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Add a source of omega-3 fatty acids to your daily meals, such as oily fish or flaxseed. Limit added sugars by reading labels and consuming sweetened drinks and desserts in moderation. Make it easy to maintain a healthy diet by keeping your refrigerator and cupboard stocked with fresh produce and other nutritious foods. And by preparing foods in heart-healthy ways, such as baking, steaming, or lightly stir-frying with olive oil and reduced-sodium broth.
Exercise Regularly
Getting plenty of physical activity can help to keep your heart healthy. For the best results, try to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily, five days a week. This can be anything from climbing stairs to playing sports, walking, jogging, swimming, or bicycling. Including a few days of muscle-strengthening activities that work the major muscles is essential, such as pushups or weight training. If you have a medical condition, like high blood pressure or diabetes, talk with your doctor about safe exercises before starting a workout routine.
Studies have shown that regular exercise lowers your risk of heart disease and stroke by reducing blood pressure, glucose levels, and unhealthy triglycerides. Plus, it can boost good cholesterol (HDL) levels and decrease bad cholesterol (LDL). You don't need to join a gym or go on long hikes to reap the benefits of exercise—even a few 10-minute daily walks can make a difference. Getting adequate sleep is also essential, which can ease stress and boost your energy levels.
Avoid Smoking
A heart attack can occur every 40 seconds in the United States, so being proactive about your health is vital. While factors like genetics can make people more prone to heart disease, many can be prevented with healthy lifestyle changes.
Nicotine and other chemicals in cigarette smoke damage the lining of blood vessels and cause them to harden and stiffen, reducing blood flow and increasing your risk of heart attack or stroke. It also raises cholesterol levels and blood triglycerides, forming waxy plaque in your arteries. Smoking also raises your risk of getting blood clots, which can block blood flow to the heart or other organs.
It would be best to avoid secondhand smoke, which is dangerous to anyone inhaling it. Instead, ask family and friends who smoke to smoke in a different room or outside your home or office. To help you quit smoking, talk to your doctor or find a local cessation program for tips and support. You can also try nicotine patches, gums, and lozenges to reduce your cravings for a cigarette.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Even if you don't have diabetes or hypertension, extra weight can lead to heart problems. Excess weight makes the heart work harder than it should to pump blood around the body. This can lead to heart failure over time, so keeping your weight healthy is crucial.
Eating a heart-healthy diet means eating plenty of vegetables, fruit, and whole grains and limiting foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. It would help if you also aimed to get at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, such as walking, jogging, and swimming.
Keeping your weight in a healthy range can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. It's not just about hitting the gym most days or cutting out all treats – it is about changing your relationship with food so that you eat mindfully and listen to your body's natural hunger and fullness cues. For more information on developing a heart-healthy eating plan, speak to your doctor or practice nurse.
Avoid Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol increases your blood pressure and can lead to heart failure. It can also cause a hemorrhagic stroke when a weakened artery bleeds into the brain. A hemorrhagic stroke can be life-threatening. Alcohol can also increase the risk of a heart attack by causing high cholesterol levels and blocking blood flow to the heart.
However, some research shows that moderate drinking may benefit heart health. In one study, people who consumed one or two alcoholic beverages daily had a lower death rate from heart disease than those who did not drink. The researchers suggest that the protective effect of alcohol consumption may be due to how it affects the brain's response to stress.
However, it's important to remember that light and moderate drinking can increase the risk of various health problems, including liver disease, cancer, and peptic ulcers. In addition, heavy or binge drinking can cause irregular heart rhythms. The best way to ensure healthy heart function is to abstain from alcohol entirely or consume it in moderation.
Keep a Check on Your Blood Pressure
A person's blood pressure is a good indicator of their heart health. A healthy systolic (top) and diastolic (bottom) blood pressure reading are below 120 over 80, in millimeters of mercury. High blood pressure, also called hypertension, raises the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Regular visits to a health care provider and home blood pressure monitoring can help prevent hypertension. If you have a single high reading, retake your blood pressure and consult with a health care professional.
Keep a Check on Your Cholesterol
The cholesterol levels in your body are essential to monitor, as too much can contribute to plaque build-up in the arteries. This increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems.
A diet low in saturated fats, trans-fats, and salt can help to lower cholesterol. This can be achieved by choosing leaner cuts of meat, removing the skin from poultry, and using unsaturated vegetable oils such as safflower, canola, or olive oil instead of butter or lard. Increasing your intake of vegetables and fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds can also be beneficial.
The best way to check your cholesterol is to get regular screenings. At Integra Urgent Care centers, we offer a range of diagnostic tests to determine the health of your heart. These tests can help you identify any early signs of cardiovascular problems so that you can take action as soon as possible. It's also essential to have a healthy lifestyle, avoid smoking and maintain normal blood pressure.
Keep a Check on Your Blood Sugar
Monitoring your blood sugar is vital to reducing unpleasant symptoms like high or low blood sugar and also to prevent long-term complications of diabetes.
You may also be asked to monitor your blood sugar (glucose) at home with a device called a blood glucose monitor or a meter, usually a tiny, hand-held-sized machine that takes a drop of blood from the fingertip and measures glucose. This is a routine part of diabetes management, and your doctor will show you how to use the meter.
The Bottom Line
A proper diet and lifestyle can help protect your heart. To start, eat various foods to get all the nutrients your body needs. And try to get at least seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Getting enough sleep can reduce stress levels, which in turn can lower blood pressure.
A heart-healthy diet includes a range of nutritious foods, including whole grains, vegetables, legumes, low-fat dairy, nuts, and oily fish. It also limits processed foods, sugar, salt, and saturated fats.
Plan ahead and stock up on staples to switch to a heart-healthy diet. Create simple menus based on whole foods, then use those recipes to shop for the week. This can help avoid buying unnecessary items, such as prepackaged meals or snacks. And consider using generic brands when possible, as they can save 20 to 25%.
Another good tip is to avoid cigarettes, whether you smoke or are around secondhand smoke. Smoking increases your risk of cardiovascular diseases, which include coronary heart disease and stroke.
Finally, get regular check-ups with your primary care doctor and know actual numbers, such as your body mass index (BMI). You can learn more about BMI and how it's calculated here.
