12 Things To Do Everyday For Your Heart Health
Contributed by Ryan Peterson.
Unfortunately, we can’t stay young forever. By the time many of us realize we’re ‘getting on a bit’, some damage has already been done to our health. By vowing to take care of your overall health now, and especially your heart health, you’ll live a longer, better quality life with fewer healthcare costs in the long run. Living a healthy lifestyle does not have to equal ‘boring’.
Here are 12 things to do everyday for your heart health:
1. Eat Healthy Fats
Healthy fats include foods like nuts, peanut butter, and oily fish. Avoid trans fats at all costs – you typically find trans fats in processed food. Trans fats increase your risk of stroke and heart disease. Consuming trans fats regularly makes you more susceptible to problems. Become comfortable reading nutritional labels before buying products to ensure you avoid foods containing trans fats.
2. Practice Good Dental Hygiene
Oral bacteria associated with gum disease can travel through the bloodstream and increase your risk of heart disease. Poor dental hygiene can lead to heart disease. It isn’t about vanity – looking after your teeth is key for overall health. Make sure you’re doing the following:
- Brush twice a day.
- Brush teeth for two minutes, but do not brush so hard you wear your enamel down.
- Floss at least once a day to get rid of debris between the teeth.
- Using mouthwash to rinse away any leftover bacteria and freshen your breath.
- Use a tongue scraper. Brushing your tongue is good, but you may sometimes just move around the bacteria without getting rid of it.
3. Get Plenty of Sleep
Prioritize your sleep. You have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease if you don’t get sleep. It can be tempting to burn the candle at both ends if you have goals you want to achieve, but people who sleep fewer than 6 hours a night are twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack compared to people who sleep 6 to 8 hours a night. Aiming for 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night is ideal. Implement a consistent bedtime routine. Going to bed at the same time each night is a great start.
4. Avoid Sitting Down For Too Long
Continue readingUnusual Health Kicks to Improve Your Heart Health
Post contributed by Paul Roberts.
Looking after yourself is very important. You need to come up with as many ways as you can to improve your body and stay at your peak physically. This means looking after your heart and ensuring it is strong and healthy every day. The trouble is, how do we know what we can do to improve heart health?
There are more obvious remedies but it can be difficult to stick with heart-healthy changes. That is why it’s also important to try out options that are more unique. If you can have a few unusual health hacks up your sleeve, you can help to boost your heart health as much as possible no matter where you are. Check out these health kicks you should be using in your daily life as soon as you can.
Adopt a Mediterranean Diet
There are many fad diets out there these days, and many have varying degrees of success with regard to boosting health. It’s important you select a heart-healthy diet that works. Studies have illustrated the benefits of a Mediterranean diet when trying to improve heart health. Take steps now to add this type of diet into your daily dietary routine now. Green vegetables, avocado, nuts, fruit, beans, and fish are all a big part of this diet and will help to make your heart happier and healthier.
Pursuing Sustainable Heart Healthy Activities
Post contributed by Harriet Dunes.
The practical realities of becoming healthier are hard to describe. However, it’s very important that we do so. There are many guides that emphasize simple methods to help you improve your heart health, but not all layout a simple plan for you. We hope to change that with these simple steps to give you an idea of the importance of sustainable heart healthy activities.
We’d recommend the following:
Start Your Day With Exercise
Upon waking, it’s important to start your day with a form of exercise. This allows you to fully wake up and elevates your heart rate. A morning workout can help offset a day sitting in the office.
Being active in the morning gifts you the ability to reduce lethargy throughout the day. This means ensuring you walk after lunch, commit various stretches during the day and also refrain from negative foods to help you become much more healthy in the long run.
Permeate Your Days With Discipline
Discipline is important when scheduling our practical daily realities. Sober living can often work to our advantage here and give us the headspace necessary to commit to our diet. Think of how alcohol and other indulgences often lead to other vices as if via a snowballing effect. Putting this extra tax on your system could be considered the opposite of ideal in all scenarios. You need to understand the consequences of everything you eat and consider how certain choices impedes heart health. A poor choice in the short term can mean negative long-term consequences, so be sure to consider every vice with due care and caution.
A Matter Of Daily Priorities
How you fill your days is often dictated by the fundamental choices of life. We are only afforded one body, and in lieu of any organ transplants, it is up to us to take care of it. This means understanding our priorities can help us shift our overall habits. For example, consider a chef working fourteen hours a day in a high stress, intense environment. Is it enough for them to simply cope with the stress and bottle it all up, or does an internal sense of self-worth allow them to seek out healthier habits?
This might mean when aging, this chef decides to hire additional help and delegate more tasks to lower workload and stress levels. You must find a way to balance income with the need for better health. It could also involve moving to another climate or even understanding the emotional turbulence of toxic people and removing them from your life.
End Your Day With Meditation
Meditation is one of the most important things you can do for heart health. Meditation, a time to relax, helps you lower your resting heart rate and unwind from a stressful day in a healthy wayr. This lessens your cortisol levels long term and also helps regulate your stress response. End each day with thirty minutes of meditation and you’re sure to see the benefits quickly.
With all this in mind, sustainable daily heart health could be yours for the taking.
10 Heart Health Facts and Myths
Much of what you think you know about high blood pressure, or hypertension, may be based on outdated information. “You may think, for example, that being diagnosed with prehypertension isn’t a big deal, especially if you’re in your 20s or 30s. You may feel fine. But we’re now learning that even slightly elevated blood pressure over a prolonged time can have serious consequences.
Felicia Stoler, DCN says science is evolving so quickly that it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with what we should and shouldn’t be doing to manage our health. Research on blood pressure is no exception. Here are the ten common myths Stoler hears most frequently.
Myth #1: Blood pressure in the 120/80 range is ideal.
Fact: “Just as over the years, health experts have dropped the acceptable limits with respect to cholesterol and blood sugar, the same is now happening with blood pressure. Experts are re-thinking what’s healthy. Too many people who have blood pressure in the 120/80 range are developing heart disease. What’s more: we’re discovering that young people are at greater risk for developing heart disease later in life than we once thought.
“The CARDIA study, conducted by researchers at multiple locations including Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, University of Minnesota and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, followed nearly 2,500 healthy men and women from early adulthood (ages 18 to 30), for 25 years. The results revealed that those whose blood pressure was in the prehypertension range – between 120/80 and 139/89 – while they were still under 30, were more likely to have signs of heart disease when they reached middle age. Specifically, they were at higher risk of developing problems with their heart’s left ventricle.
“Results of the SPRINT study were presented at the American Heart Association annual meeting. In that study, about 9,300 participants were seen regularly for four to eight years by blood pressure management experts. Researchers determined that maintaining blood pressure below the commonly recommended systolic target of 120 significantly reduced rates of cardiovascular disease and lowered the risk of death among adults age 50 and older diagnosed with high blood pressure. As a result of this study, the American Heart Association now suggests that blood pressure of 120/80 is the new lower limit for hypertension.”
Myth #2: You’ll notice symptoms if you have elevated blood pressure.
Fact: “That’s the challenge with high blood pressure as well as high cholesterol. There may not be any noticeable warning signs, or they may seem so insignificant that you just ignore them. That’s why high blood pressure is often called the silent killer. For example, some people with high blood pressure may get headaches but attribute them to stress. Left unmanaged, high blood pressure can affect your overall health. That’s why even eye doctors and dentists will check your blood pressure during your appointments.”
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5 Health Boosting Activities for Bored Adults
Guest post provided by Jessica Hegg. Jessica Hegg is the content manager at ViveHealth.com. Interested in all things related to a healthy lifestyle, she works to share valuable information that aims to improve the quality of life for others.
If you’re like many other adults in the US, you probably spend a lot of time on the weekends bored – lounging around the house, watching TV, and generally puttering around. While that can be fun for a bit, extended periods of inactivity are unhealthy – both mentally and physically.
So why not kill two birds with one stone? There are plenty of fun, healthy activities to take part in that aren’t overly stressful, but can still be entertaining and lead to better health outcomes.
It’s been found that 300 minutes (5 hours) of light physical activity per week leads to an overall lower risk of all-cause mortality, as well as helping to prevent a whole host of maladies such as colon and breast cancer, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, among others.
In addition, a higher level of cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle tone is observed. Simply put, being active makes you healthier, makes you feel better, and makes you look better. So take a look at these easy, fun activities, and plan your next weekend outing or weeknight recreation accordingly.
1. Sports Clubs
Recreational leagues in sports like basketball, soccer, and softball are readily available throughout most cities in the US, and most cater to adults by age group, so you won’t have to deal with being stuck in a hyper-competitive league with some 25-year old.
Playing a sport in a team environment is entertaining, fun, and good for you. This is especially great for people who usually don’t like to exercise that much – the fun, supportive team environment is sure to get you up and moving.
Sports like racquetball and squash are also very popular among adults – they don’t require too much-specialized equipment, and you don’t need to sign up for a league, just find a partner or two who you can play with a couple times a week.
2. Gardening and Yard Work
Gardening and yard work are fantastic ways to burn calories, occupy your day, and get some great results – not just for your health, but for your curb appeal!
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Warnings to watch for during exercise
Exercise is beneficial for everyone, even those who have heart disease or have had a heart attack. Regular exercise can strengthen your heart and promote quicker recovery.
Safe Exercise for Heart Disease
However, there are warning signs to watch for.
Stop exercise if you become short of breath or overly fatigued. Granted, exercise will cause you to breathe harder and you should feel like you have exerted yourself after a solid workout. Discuss what is acceptable for you with your doctor.
If you deal with shortness of breath regularly, even when not exercising, contact your doctor. You may need to adjust your diet, fluid intake, or medications.
If you develop heart palpitations or an irregular heartbeat, stop exercising, rest for 15 minutes and then take your pulse. If you heart rate remains greater than 120 beats per minutes, contact your doctor.
Don’t ignore pain. Ignoring pain can lead to injury.
When to stop exercising
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