Scary fact alert!
Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States today.
While death rates from heart disease have been dropping over the past decade, it’s
still a widespread problem.
Hi viewers and welcome back to Bestie.
Keeping a healthy heart is the most important thing you can do to prevent heart diseases.
While you can’t control certain risk factors such as your age, family history, gender,
race, or ethnicity, you can still reduce the risk by making some smart yet easy lifestyle
changes.
And in today’s video, we will tell you pill free ways in which you can cut your heart
disease risk.
From quitting smoking, exercising regularly, staying positive, watching your weight to
eating healthy and more, watch till the end to learn about all of them.
Quit Smoking: If you're a smoker, stopping smoking is the single most important step
you can take to protect heart health.
Lifetime smoking roughly doubles your risk of developing heart disease.
The chemicals in tobacco get into your bloodstream from the lungs and damage the lining of your
arteries.
The carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood.
This means your heart has to pump harder to supply your body with the oxygen it needs.
Additionally the nicotine in cigarettes stimulates your body to produce adrenaline, which makes
your heartbeat faster and raises your blood pressure, making your heart work harder.
Have you ever tried givingup smoking?
How successful were you?
Let us know quickly in the comments section below!
Read Labels: Who knew that reading was such a great strategy for preventing heart disease?
Following a heart healthy diet means keeping a close eye on your sodium, sugar, and fat
intake.
All these are tied to heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
What better way to watch what you eat than to read the fine print?
Generally speaking, pre packaged foods aren’t as healthy as meals and snacks that are prepared
fresh from whole ingredients.
While you’re paying attention to calories, fats, sodium, and sugar, be sure to keep an
eye on serving sizes.
Beverages can also be a surprising source of sugar and sodium.
Eliminating soda, energy drinks, supermarket smoothies, and juices can do wonders for your
daily calorie intake.
Get a Good Night’s Sleep: Poor sleep is tied to a number of risk factors for heart
disease, including high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, heart failure, and sleep apnea.
For many, getting a good night’s sleep of about 7-9 hours is harder than it sounds.
Invest in a white noise machine, avoid afternoon coffee runs and evening chocolate binges.
You can also turn off the TV, go to sleep at the same time every night, and avoid alcohol
before bedtime.
Keep Your Stress Levels in Check: Chronic stress often leads to other unhealthy behaviors,
like eating a poor diet, not getting enough sleep, and skipping exercise.
These can spiral into heart problems over time.
Stress can also have a direct impact on your heart by raising blood pressure, causing inflammation
and increasing cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood.
Additionally, extreme stress can make your heart beat out of rhythm.
Make time each day for stress reducing activities like yoga or meditation.
Be physically active: Physical activity can help reduce your risk of heart disease.
Regular exercise will make your heart and blood circulatory system more efficient, lower
your cholesterol level, keep your blood pressure at a healthy level and help you control your
weight.
Research has shown that three to four sessions per week, lasting on average 40 minutes per
session, and involving moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity can help lower
blood pressure, lower cholesterol and keep your weight at a healthy level.
If you’re currently not physically active then you should start off slowly, maybe attempting
a ten minute workout initially and building your exercise period up over time.
Stay Positive: People who see the world optimistically, who see the cup as half-full are less likely
to develop heart disease, as opposed to people who are more pessimistic and worry all the
time.
This causes hormonal responses that may more likely lead to heart disease.
Depression and stress have both been shown to harm heart health.
A study found that optimistic people may have approximately 50 percent less risk of experiencing
a cardiac event, such as a heart attack.
However, whether or not a positive outlook directly protects the heart isn't yet entirely
clear.
It may simply be that optimistic people are more likely to lead overall healthier lives.
But experts agree that trying to be positive can't hurt.
Make An Effort To See Your Doctor For Once A Year Physical: The best way to predict heart
troubles is by visiting your doctor.
They will assess your blood pressure, cholesterol and weight to figure out how your body and
heart are doing.
Chronically high blood pressure can put excessive strain on your heart over time.
If your bad cholesterol is higher than normal or your good cholesterol is low, or you have
both, your doctor may prescribe you medication that will help prevent a heart attack in the
future.
Choose your medications wisely: Although some vitamins have been shown to possibly help
some health conditions, to date none have been shown to decrease the risk of cardiovascular
disease.
Although there are some rare exceptions, such as fish oils and niacin or vitamin B. It is
also important to note that high doses of some vitamins may interfere or counteract
the beneficial effects of some prescription drugs.
Eat Healthy: Fresh fruits and vegetables are high in fiber and packed with nutrients that
boost your immunity.
Salmon, tuna, and other fatty fish are also heart-healthy foods that reduce blood pressure,
cholesterol, and triglycerides.
Eat more plant-based foods, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
Avoid sugary drinks, processed meats like sausage and hot dogs, and refined carbohydrates
like white bread.
These foods are high in fat and sodium which can contribute to risk factors of heart disease.
Reduce Alcohol Intake: Drinking high amounts of alcohol over a long time or drinking too
much on a single occasion can worsen heart disease risk factors.
Alcohol intake is also closely linked to weight gain and obesity.
Stop drinking alcohol or practice low risk drinking to reduce your heart disease risk.
Low risk drinking is considered no more than 3 drinks per day or 7 drinks per week for
women, and no more than 4 drinks per day or 14 drinks per week for men.
Get Off The Low Fat Diet Bandwagon: Low fat diets generally replace fat with sugar and
refined carbs to compensate for lack of taste, which can lead to problems with insulin regulation.
Embracing healthy fats helps stabilize blood sugar and appetite.
Long maligned saturated fats like coconut oil can actually lower inflammation.
Still, it’s critical to eat plenty of vegetables and avoid refined carbohydrates.
Stay Positive: Relationships with family, friends, and others can go a long way toward
improving or undermining overall health.
A study identified that being in a happy marriage predicts lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Another conversely found that being in an unhappy marriage leads to higher risks to
heart health.
Control Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes which is non-insulin dependent, affects more than 14
million Americans.
It is an important risk factor for heart diseases.
Diabetic men have two to three times the risk of having coronary heart disease than those
without diabetes.
Weight control and exercise can improve the utilization of blood sugar and prevent or
slow down the onset of diabetes.
This will result in a reduced risk of heart disease.
Keep your blood pressure in a healthy range: Over time, high blood pressure or hypertension
can weaken the walls of blood vessels, increasing your risk of stroke, heart attack, and dementia.
Think you’re out of the woods?
You might not be anymore.
In 2018, the American Heart Association lowered the guidelines for healthy blood pressure
from 140/90 to 130/80 for some adults.
That means 70 to 79 percent of men over 55 technically have high blood pressure.
Lifestyle actions such as healthy diet, regular physical activity, not smoking, and healthy
weight will help you to keep normal blood pressure levels.
Get your blood pressure checked on a regular basis as it can be easily done.
Looking for ways to lower your blood pressure?
Check out this video titled “Lower Your Blood Pressure With These Tips”
Watch Your Weight: Carrying too much weight is a key risk factor for heart disease.
It affects the majority of Americans with nearly 69 percent of adults are either overweight
or obese.
Obesity also puts you at risk for other health problems related to heart disease, like stroke
and diabetes.
But when you lose weight, all that starts to correct itself.
When your blood pressure comes down, glucose also comes down, and good cholesterol levels
go up.
And you don't need to lose a drastic amount of weight to start reaping the heart benefits.
It could be a matter of losing 15 pounds, or 10 percent of your body weight.
Do you suffer from heart problems?
Have you tried any of the remedies that we mentioned?
Let us know in the comments section below!