Our hearts are our hardest working muscle, pumping blood throughout our bodies day and night. Your heart works hard for you and it’s just as important for you to work hard to support it! Living consciously of being heart healthy is not only important for your overall well-being but also for the prevention of heart disease. Check out our must-do heart healthy tips below to begin your journey to better heart health!
Heart Healthy Exercise
We all experience stress in different ways. Finding a way to manage your stressors is extremely important because it relieves your heart’s burden to work under the pressure of stress or anxiety. Too much stress is in fact proven to be a cause of high blood pressure and hypertension. Exercise is a great way to manage stress. Exercise also improves your heart health at the same time. Leading doctors recommend that you exercise at least 30 minutes every day. Meditation or yoga is also a great way to relax and improve your heart health! Check out more heart healthy exercises here.
Food high in trans and saturated fats are bad for our heart because they clog the arteries essential to its function, causing it to work harder to pump blood throughout the body. To improve your heart health, be more aware of foods high in artery-clogging fats such as fatty red meats like beef, dairy products high in fat such as cheese and even fried foods. Another way to quickly clean up your diet is to cut back on soda and fruit juice. Drinks high in sugar also put stress on your ability to be heart healthy because they have a lot of calories, which can lead to weight gain if overdone.
Get Regular Checkups
Even if you lead a heart healthy lifestyle, it is important to have regular checkups. Have your blood pressure checked at least once every two years and have a blood cholesterol test done at least every five years.
Commit To Your Heart Health
Working hard alongside your heart can keep it pumping to its fullest and give you a low heart age. Your “heart age” is a term created by the CDC and is based on some of the tips listed above as well as your age, gender and family history. Check out your heart’s age here.
Give us a call today to schedule an appointment & follow us on Facebook and Twitter to learn more heart healthy tips. Don’t forget to share your thoughts below– we love to hear from you!