With it being National Heart Month, now has never been a better time to promote good heart health. The importance of the heart cannot be overstated enough – it is vital to every humans health and wellbeing, so it makes sense to look out and care for it as best as we can.
Even making the smallest adjustments in your daily lives can have a massive positive impact on the overall healthiness of your heart, including living longer and healthier lives, as well as reduced risks of heart-related diseases.
Tackling just a few areas of your lifestyle is enough to help improve your heart health for the better, and it couldn’t be easier to do, so be sure to try a few of these tips for keeping a healthy heart!
Drop the Bad Habits
There are many bad habits that we humans have, and many of these can have an adverse effect on the health of our hearts. Alcohol, cigarettes and fatty foods are all the biggest culprits when it comes to heart health, so reducing your intake of any of these will be a great place to begin.
The main cause of coronary disease is smoking, and those that quit will find that after a year, their chances of suffering from a heart are reduced by half when compared to those still smoking.
Fatty foods and alcohol can be terrible for our waistlines and lead to lots of weight gain, which in turns provides plenty of risks to our heart health.
Get the Right Amount of Sleep
Sleeping for too long or too little can actually have an adverse effect on our heart health. A study showed that adults that received 7 hours a sleep each night were less at risk from developing heart disease compared to those who had less than 5 hours and more than 9, due to the reduced amount of calcium present in the arteries.
So always be sure to get 7 hours of sleep whenever you can!
Start Moving More and Sitting Less
Living an active lifestyle is very important for promoting a healthy heart. Cardio exercise is the best way to ensure your risk of heart disease is reduced, and it also has many other health benefits that make it well worth doing.
Aim for 150 minutes of exercise each week, which can be broken into 30 minutes of exercise for five days of the week. The likes of walking, running, and cycling are great ways to get more aerobic exercise that can help improve the heart.
Remain in Control of Your Weight
A person that is overweight is more at risk to heart disease, along with other problems relating to your blood pressure. This is another reason to get more active and in shape, as it will help to burn off fat and reduce weight, therefore lowering the risks that come with being overweight.
Eat the Right Foods
Diet is an important component of gaining a healthy heart, so you will want to eat a balanced diet. Five portions of fruit and vegetables each day is a good place to start, as these foods are packed with nutrition that promotes a healthy heart, such as fiber. Other vitamins and minerals will improve your overall health too, making it very worthwhile.
Fiber in general is the perfect nutrition to help with heart health and can be found in many foods, including whole grains and oats, bran, and fruit and veg.
Eat less Saturated Fats
Saturated fats can be found in most forms of junk food, processed food, and fast foods, and are terrible for your heart. This is due to the fact it can lead to increased cholesterol levels in the blood, which can lead to the development of heart disease.
