Your heart is arguably the most important organ in your body, and you must take steps to maintain its vitality and function. Many factors play a role in heart health.

Everything you do in your life impacts your heart. Take steps to ensure your actions improve and strengthen your heart, and maintain overall good health in the process. Let’s review four lifestyle decisions to focus on if you are serious about your heart health.

1. Change Your Diet

Make sure you do as much as possible to improve the way in which you fuel your heart better. Adjust your diet to ensure your dietary choices are in line with a heart-healthy diet. Some basics of a heart-healthy diet include regulating portion sizes, consuming, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and limiting unhealthy fats. Assess your diet and determine where you need to make adjustments. Make sure the steps you take are steps you can maintain long-term. 

Contributed by Ryan Peterson.

Most illicit drugs have a negative impact on cardiovascular health. Prolonged use of illicit drugs can have severe impacts beyond your heart health, such as death. Drugs can reduce the rate of blood flow into the heart, which can impair the functioning of your organs and muscles. There are two types of drugs with notable impacts on your heart health.

First, drugs such as cocaine can increase your heart rate and blood pressure. In addition, the more you use cocaine, you may experience a decrease in coronary artery diameter which reduces blood flow. 

Cocaine is also associated with irregular heartbeats and QT prolongation, increasing the time between your heartbeats. Other serious medical emergencies connected to cocaine abuse are thrombosis, atherosclerosis, endothelial dysfunction, and microvascular diseases.

A commonly used drug with significant effects on your heart is nicotine. Though by itself, nicotine doesn’t cause any overwhelming heart diseases, the non-combusted form can cause adverse effects on your heart. Some of these effects include narrowing and thickening your heart’s blood vessels, along with increased fat in your blood. Consequently, it can damage blood vessel cells and increase blood clot risk.