Top Tips to Keep Your Heart Healthy
Your heart is one of your most vital organs, which is why it’s so important to look after your heart and ensure it’s healthy. The role of your heart is to pump blood around your body, allowing every muscle to get the oxygen it needs. Without your heart, your body would be starved of oxygen, which would result in dire consequences. As a result, there are multiple lifestyle changes you can make to ensure your heart health. When it comes to caring for your heart, you want to put the provisions in place before any potential problems arrive. After all, it’s easier to prevent problems than fix them.
Avoid Smoking
This goes for any area of your health, but avoiding smoking is one of the best ways to keep your heart healthy. If you’re already a smoker, you should make all the necessary provisions you need to quit. Even if you turn to vaping eliquids, this is much better than smoking tobacco and will allow you to cut down on your nicotine intake over an extended period. While it may be idealistic to quit cold turkey, this isn’t necessarily the most effective way of eliminating nicotine from your life. Everyone’s journey is different, and you need to ensure that yours works for you.
Keep Your Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Stable
If your blood pressure or cholesterol isn’t where it should be, this places your heart under additional strain. The most effective ways of controlling your blood pressure and cholesterol include:
- eating a balanced diet that’s low in salt and saturated fat and rich in vegetables and fruit.
- taking a brisk 10-minute walk, three times a day, five days a week.
- avoiding smoking.
If your blood pressure and cholesterol are stable, your heart won’t have to work as hard to keep everything in shape. Your body is constantly working to keep you healthy, and we need to make this job as easy as possible.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Regarding your heart health, maintaining a healthy weight is very important. This is because being overweight or obese puts you at risk of developing certain cancers, breathing difficulties, gallstones, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and more. Not only is each of these a life-altering condition, but each puts extra stress on your heart. Healthy weight looks different for each individual, so it’s not beneficial to compare yourself to other people. The only person you should be comparing yourself to is a healthier you, which you should use to motivate you to reach your goal.
Keep Active
Exercise improves your muscles’ ability to draw oxygen from the blood, which reduces the need for your heart to pump extra blood to these muscles. Meanwhile, exercise reduces the levels of cortisol in your body, which is otherwise known as the stress hormone. Everyone knows what a strain stress places on your heart, which is why limiting the amount of stress in your life can only be a good thing. Essentially, your heart acts as a beta blocker that slows your heart rate and lowers blood pressure.
Eat a Balanced Diet
A balanced diet helps lower the presence of “bad” cholesterol in the blood (otherwise known as LDL), as well as triglycerides. In addition to this, it raises the presence of “good” cholesterol (otherwise known as HDL). This aids you in weight control and can also play a role in lowering your risk of cancer. As a result, a balanced diet makes it a whole lot easier for your heart to do its job without too many limitations.
