Smart Heart Healthy Tips
Here you will find Smart Heart Healthy Tips and Advice that will take the strain off your heart and make you live longer. These simple yet effective tips will have your heart singing in no time. Let's get to it!
First let's go over some of the basics of why Heart Health is so
important and some amazing facts about the heart.
If you want to skip right to the tips see below.
The amazing human heart beats over 100,000 times in a day and pumps over 2,000 gallons of blood through your body.
A man's heart weighs about 10 ounces and a women's heart weighs about 8 ounces.
Not taking care of your heart usually results in heart disease which is the #1 killer of both men and women in the United States. Heart disease commonly is the blockage or narrowing of the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. Heart disease happens over time! So it's never too late to take care of your heart.
The most common time to have a heart attack is Monday morning.
Now let's get the to the Tips!
Heart Healthy Tips #1: Have fun and laugh it up!
A good chuckle is a powerful medicine studies have shown over and over. When you laugh 20% more blood flows through your body. Periods of increased blood flow fueled by the heart is good for you and relaxes and expands the lining of your blood vessels. It also helps with stress but more on that below.
Heart Healthy Tips #2: Take is easy and don't stress.
It's hard for some to not be stressful from day to day but decreasing this has a huge benefit for your heart and life in general. Not to mention you'll have less gray hair!
There are many techniques and ways to reduce stress. A simple attitude change such as adopting the mentality, "It will all get done" can be one of the easiest ways to reduce stress.
Other popular and effective stress busters are practicing yoga, exercising, meditating, spending time with your family, becoming more confident, going on a vacation, and laughing. Find out what works for you and make it a part of your life.
If your mainly stressed at work, a couple ways to make your work day a little less stressful are:
Have pictures of people or pets who love and respect you around your work area.
Keep a couple fun things around your desk such as: jokes, artwork, comics, and/or inspirational quotes.
Take advantage of your lunch break get some fresh air, stretch your legs, and get some exercise.
Clean up your work area. This will leave you feeling less overwhelmed and disorganized.
Prioritize your tasks and keep a calendar.
Always make sure your eating throughout the day. Never skip breakfast or lunch as this will make you feel irritable which causes more stress.
Get up periodically and take a walk to the window to gaze out. Listen to some good tunes if you can.
Heart Healthy Tips #3: Keep it Clean. No drugs, no smoking, and moderate alcohol consumption.
Drugs, excessive alcohol, and smoking all make your heart do extra work. Think about when you have to much work to do. You get tired and worn out, right? Well that is what happens to the heart when you constantly over work it by doing any one of the above.
Smoking doubles your risk of a heart attack and triples your risk of sudden cardiac death. 300,000 Americans a year die of smoking related heart disease. Within 10 years of quitting smoking you can completely eradicate the risk associated with it.
Over usage of drugs, prescribed or not, makes your heart work harder.
Similarly with alcohol. Alcohol raises your blood pressure and can result in weight gain (more on this below.) Nutrient rich blood is less able to nourish and resupply your heart.
Heart Healthy Tips #4: Slim down and take some air out of that spare tire.
Belly fat is a clear predictor of increased risk of heart disease. Studies show that for every extra 2 inches of belly fat, your risk of heart disease increases by 20%.
Extra fat around your mid section raises blood pressure, causes insulin resistance, causes inflammation of the arteries, and negatively affects blood lipids to name a few. A good rule of thumb is men with a waistline over 40 inches and women with a waistline over 35 inches, regardless of height are dramatically decreasing heart health.
If you have excess weight around your waste lose some of it! Not only is it good for the heart but it makes you look and feel better. Ways to reduce your waste line are eating better and exercising. For great tips on both see our other popular articles: Tips for Losing Weight, and Quick Weight Loss Tips.
Heart Healthy Tips #5: Lower your cholesterol and salt intake.
Consuming on average 200 milligrams or less of cholesterol and 2,300 milligrams or less of sodium a day is a good rule of thumb for everyone. If you have elevated LDL (bad cholesterol) or high blood pressure this is even more important. Just try to cut down on both to have a healthier heart.
Heart Healthy Tips #6: For those of you that do it, keep it up!
Having an active sex life cuts men’s heart disease risk in half! For women, studies have shown that having an orgasm 3+ times a week offers significant protection against stroke and heart attack. Not to mention it is good exercise, a good stress buster, and makes you smile.
Heart Healthy Tips #7: Exercise.
Everyone knows this but exercise is good for just about every organ in your body. It also relieves stress, induces weight loss, lowers blood pressure, lowers bad cholesterol, and makes you feel better mentally.
Doing 30+ minutes of low-moderate intensity exercise 5 days a week or 20 minutes of high intensity exercise 3 days a week is sufficient. This can be aerobic exercise or weight lifting or both. Just do anything. Walking is better than nothing. Just try to get some form of exercise into your routine.
For tips on Exercising and Weight Lifting see our popular article: Smart Weight Lifting Tips.
Heart Healthy Tips #8: Assess your risk.
Lifestyle choices, genetics, and age are direct drivers of heart health. People with bad family history, hypertension, and who smoke are at a higher risk than most. You need to know what your risks are.
There are 3 things you need to do for a good assessment.
Do a home assessment at this link - .
https://www.merck.healthinkonline.com/merckTools/AssessMerckSourceHeartHealth.asp
Write down some questions and pull together important information about how you feel and your family history.
Finally visit your doctor. When you go to your doctor ask questions and get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked.
Make sure you ask about your CRP (C-reactive protein) number. This number acts as a guide to artery inflammation which is a direct marker for poor heart health.
Also ask if you can have an ultrasound scanning of your arteries to measure the amount of plaque on the walls of the carotid arteries. This is a great risk assessment and is becoming routine but may not be done unless you ask.
If you are serious about finding out if you are living healthy or
want to have a longer, healthier life we recommend this top selling
heart health book:
Some common symptoms for risk of a heart attack are: chest pain, shortness of breath, discomfort in the jaw, neck, or back, feeling weak, lightheaded, or faint.
If you have any of these symptoms call 911 immediately. Waiting just one more hour increases your chances of death substantially. While waiting for the ambulance take and chew a regular aspirin (325mg) or 4 lower dose aspirin (81mg).
Heart Healthy Tips #10: Eat better.
Try to control the amount of dietary cholesterol, saturated fatty acids, and the amount of fat you eat. You can easily do this by adding fruit and vegetables to your daily diet. Want to grow your own fruits and vegetables? If so check out our popular article: Vegetable Gardening Tips.
Simple changes in your choice of food can lower the above greatly.
Instead of frying food you should bake, broil, roast, poach, steam, or saute it. Try to limit your meat intake to 8 ounces or less a day. Use skim, 1%, or 2% milk and buy low fat yogurts and cheeses.
5 super nutritional heart healthy foods are:
Blueberries. Why? They contain enormous amounts of anti-oxidants, fiber, and vitamin C.
Salmon. Contains a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein.
Spinach. Is packed with folate and iron.
Soy Protein. Is jam packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Oatmeal. Is super rich in vitamins, minerals, and cholesterol lowering fiber. The FDA has even suggested people to eat oatmeal to reduce the risk of heart disease.
The 5 super heart foods mentioned above are also very low in fat.
To learn more and become more educated on the power of certain foods and the effect they have on heart health we recommend the book:Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating
There you have it. 10 Smart and Effective Heart Healthy Tips to help better take care of your ticker and for you to live a longer, healthier life. It's time to make some lifestyle changes and make them habit you'll be thanking yourself later!
Be sure to check out our other "Health & Weight" articles:
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