One is never too old – or too young – to take care of the heart.
A research study says heart attacks and diseases are the number one killer in the United States. And with the help of advanced studies, a lot of measures have been discovered to prevent heart attack and heart disease. Add up these small changes to your daily routine, and you’ll get a powerful dose of heart disease prevention – no coronary care units or intra-aortic balloon pumps required!
Lower Risk of Heart Disease
There are numerous things you can do to decrease your possibilities of getting heart disease:
1. Healthy Eating Habits
Eating healthy food is a key to preventing yourself from a lot of diseases. It is known to many that eating food items that are low in saturated fat, trans-fat and sodium is good for you. As a part of a healthy diet, include lots of fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables, salads, fiber-rich whole grains and protein-rich items like eggs and fish. Go for low-fat dairy products and limit sugar as much as you can.
2. Maintain a healthy weight
Being overweight and obese can raise your chance of heart disease. This is linked to other heart disease risk factors such as high blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Controlling your weight can reduce these risks.
3. Exercise
A lack of exercise will lead to fat accumulation, which can further lead to obesity. Studies indicate that walking 2-3 miles a day is optimal for good health and to maintain an active lifestyle. Exercise helps more than just burning calories. It activates the cells and genes that are beneficial to health in other ways. For example, yoga is another way to curb your anxiety and the effects of depression.
4. Control your Cholesterol Levels
Raised levels of cholesterol can clog your veins, tubes and increase your chance of heart attack. Lifestyle changes and medications can reduce your cholesterol.
5. Avoid Smoking
This is the first thing to avoid. Smoking can lead you to many other major health problems besides heart disease; along with the heart, it affects other organs of your body too. Your smoking habit can also lead your family into major health problems by getting exposed to second-hand smoke.
6. Maintain a Healthy Blood Pressure
High blood pressure—better known as hypertension—is a silent killer as it attacks most individuals’ bodies without showing any symptoms. High blood pressure causes the wear and tear of the delicate inner lining of your blood vessels. The higher your blood pressure, the greater the risk.
Genetics and increasing age raise these risks. Take less stress, and invest in a cuff-meter and measure your blood pressure every day. High blood pressure is a significant risk part for heart disease. It is essential to make your blood pressure monitored regularly. Appropriate steps for a healthy lifestyle is necessary to prevent or control high blood pressure.
7. Stay Informed
With medical science evolving every day, there are many treatments and solutions which are being discovered to reduce the risk of heart attacks. However, do not believe on any random advertisements or announcements. Consult your doctor regularly and share every detail about the problems affecting your body in your daily routine.
8. Monthly Body Check-Ups
Schedule an appointment with your physician every month and go through required diagnosis for better health and body awareness.
You can avoid heart problems in the future by being more aware, adopting a healthy lifestyle, and visiting your doctor regularly. At AngletonER, we have a panel of expert Cardiologists to treat you and see you as soon as you check in because – We Care About You.
9. Limit alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure. It also adds more calories, which will result in weight gain. Both of these increase your chance of heart disease.
10. Manage stress
Stress is associated with heart disease in various ways. It increases your blood pressure. Extreme stress can result in a heart attack. Additionally, common ways by which many people handle stress is overeating, heavy drinking, and smoking, which are dangerous for your heart. Some steps to manage your stress is by exercise, listening to music, meditating etc.
11. Control Diabetes
Having diabetes multiplies your risk of diabetic heart disease. It is important to control diabetes as it can damage blood vessels and nerves, block the veins etc that control your heart.
Heart Disease Prevention
Heart disease is the leading reason of death in the United States. There are several elements that can increase your chance of heart disease. They are called risk factors. Few of them are not in our hands to control, but you can try to control some factors. Reading about them can reduce your risk of heart disease.
Risk Factors of heart disease which cannot be changed
- Age. Your risk of heart disease rises as you grow older. Men with age 45 and older and women age 55 and older have a higher risk.
- Sex. Risk factors influence heart disease differently in women than in men. For example, estrogen benefits women with protection against heart disease, but diabetes increases the chance of heart disease more in women than in men.
- Race or ethnicity. Some groups have greater chances than others. African Americans are more prone than whites to have heart disease, while Hispanic Americans are less anticipated to have it.
- Family Records. You have a higher chance if you have a close family member that had heart disease at an early age.
Physical Activity Helps Prevent a Heart Attack and Stroke
Physical activity is the most beneficial thing you can do to help prevent a heart attack and stroke.
Being active, exercising daily will help you live a heart-healthy lifestyle. Consuming healthy foods, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight are additional actions to be heart-healthy and supporting in preventing a heart attack or a stroke.
Benefits of Physical activity
Being active supports keeping your heart and blood vessels healthy in many ways. It can:
- Raise “good” cholesterol levels.
- Aid you to lose weight or stay at a healthy weight.
- Lower blood pressure.
- Control blood sugar.
Heart Valves Prevent Backflow of Blood
Blood passes through a valve before moving to each chamber of the heart. The valves prevent the backward flow of blood. Valves are flaps (leaflets) that act as one-way inlets for blood coming into a ventricle and one-way outlets for blood leaving a ventricle.
Valves maintain the direction of blood flow. The heart pumps blood, a series of valves open and close tightly. These valves guarantee that blood flows in only one direction, preventing backflow.