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Heart disease can happen to anyone at any time. Living a heart healthy lifestyle can dramatically reduce your chances of developing heart disease, and luckily it is fairly easy to do. Ready to get started living a heart healthy lifestyle? Start doing some of the following things.
Work to Quit Smoking
Smoking is bad for your overall health, but it can specifically cause damage to your heart.
Smoking can cause you to experience damage to the lining of the arteries of the heart. Once the arteries are damaged, plaque can start to accumulate, which puts you at risk of experiencing a number of problems ranging from heart attacks to strokes.
Start Exercising on a Daily Basis
Exercising for a minimum of 60 minutes a day can dramatically improve your heart health. Some of the ways exercise helps to improve your heart health include:
- Raising HDL Cholesterol — HDL is the “good” cholesterol. Exercising helps to raise your good cholesterol by flushing your blood of “bad” cholesterol.
- Strengthening Your Heart — Your heart is a muscle. The more it works, the stronger it gets. The stronger it gets, the healthier it is. Exercising helps to strengthen your heart.
- Reducing Stress Hormones — The more stress hormones that are in your bloodstream, the higher your risk of experiencing a heart attack. Exercising has been proven to lower stress levels which decreases the number of stress hormones in your bloodstream.
- Your Heart Doesn’t Work as Hard — The heart doesn’t have to work as hard to deliver blood and oxygen to the muscles of the body when you exercise. By not having to work as hard, you reduce your risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke.
Consider A Heart Healthy Diet
A number of food-related problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, have been linked to heart disease. Making changes to your diet can reduce your risk of developing heart disease by preventing these food-related problems from occurring.
Some of the changes you can make so you are eating a heart healthy diet include:
- Avoiding or limiting the number of fried or fatty foods.
- Watch the saturated fat content in foods — try to consume a diet that is low in saturated fat.
- Add foods high in fiber to your diet — eating fiber-rich foods will keep you feeling full and can help lower your cholesterol.
- Limit the amount of sugar you consume.
- Limit how much salt and sodium you consume.
- Make sure every meal is well-balanced — try to ensure all meals include dairy, grains, fruits and vegetables.
Worried About Your Heart Health? Schedule a Preventative Heart Care Appointment
If you are worried about the health of your heart, don’t wait until a problem arises. Have your heart’s health assessed by scheduling a preventative heart care appointment at Brookhaven Heart in Patchogue.
A preventative heart care appointment will determine what tests should be run to help you get a better understanding of the health of your heart. Call us today to schedule a preventative heart care appointment.
