Jul 132020
To help prevent heart disease, you can:
- Eat healthy. This means stay away from saturated fats, greasy products, buttery treats, reduce your salt and sugar intake and add fruits and vegetables to your diet instead of cheeses, breads and unhealthy carbohydrates.
- Get active. You really have to find a way to get away from your computer and work out at something you enjoy. The heart is a muscle and if it stays sedentary, it will atrophy and can accumulate dangerous plaque through inactivity.
- Stay at a healthy weight. This means you should be able to touch your toes and walk for 30 minutes at a moderate pace without heavy breathing. Reduce the poundage you carry around with you for better heart health.
- Quit smoking and stay away from secondhand smoke. If you haven’t already done so, this is a key to a healthy cardiovascular system.
- Control your cholesterol and blood pressure. This means by what you feed your body (intake) and the amount of salt, fats, and sugar you consume as well as how much activity you engage in.
- Drink alcohol only in moderation. There are guidelines for healthy heart drinking and they are sensible, just like the percentages for drinking and driving. Excess alcohol does not support a healthy circulatory system and causes your body to dehydrate.
- Manage stress. Daily exercise is a great remedy for stress relief as is yoga, Qigong, meditation and walking. If you take care of yourself now, you will live longer and happier as you age.