You can do a lot to help protect your heart and stay healthy. This month, American Heart Month, there will be concentrated efforts to spotlight understandings about heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. I want to highlight the fact that heart disease can often be prevented by following a heart-healthy lifestyle. Studies estimate 80% of heart disease can be prevented by lifestyle changes.
As the center of your cardiovascular system, your heart is responsible for just about everything that gives your body life, from the transportation of oxygen to the health of your immune system. Adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle can help you reduce the risk of heart disease and your risk factors.
Heart-healthy living involves making healthy choices, taking steps to reduce your chances of getting heart disease and understanding your risk. Help protect your heart by following these tips from the National Institutes of Health:
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Be active. Physical activity and exercise can reduce your risk for developing cardiovascular disease and even help reverse some risk factors, such as being overweight or having high blood pressure.
Sit less. Take the stairs, park farther away, run on a treadmill, march in place or take a walk around the block.
Adults should spend at least 150 minutes (2½ hours) each week doing physical activity.
Try muscle-strengthening activities like lifting weights, working with resistance bands, doing sit-ups and pushups, or some forms of yoga — whatever works for you.
If you don’t have a lot of time in your day, try being active for 10 minutes at a time. Anything that gets your heart beating faster counts.
Eat/drink healthy. Consuming the right foods can help you control your weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol.
Follow a “heart healthy” diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats.
Read nutrition labels to pick the foods lowest in saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
Get Your ZZZZZs. Sleeping a solid seven or eight hours per night is a marker of good heart health. Exactly how sleep influences the coronary arteries is still being studied, but we do know a lack of sleep or getting poor-quality sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and other medical conditions.
Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep a night.
Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.
Exercise regularly, but not within 2-3 hours of bedtime.
Avoid caffeine and nicotine.
Manage blood pressure. Staying physically active and eating a heart-healthy diet, while lowering salt intake and managing stress, can help prevent hypertension as well as naturally lower your blood pressure.
A diet low in sodium and rich in foods containing potassium, calcium and magnesium may help prevent or normalize high blood pressure.
If diagnosed, there are medications that can help manage it, but it’s important to note that these prescriptions have maximum impact when lifestyle changes are also implemented.
Control cholesterol. There are two types of cholesterol: “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipids, or LDL), which clogs arteries, and “good” cholesterol (high-density lipids, or HDL), which helps remove bad cholesterol from arteries.
Know your cholesterol and fat levels. You can talk to your doctor about scheduling a cholesterol screening. Some fats increase bad cholesterol levels.
Decrease “bad” cholesterol levels. Certain foods can be a “medicine” to help lower them (e.g., oatmeal, nuts, beans and legumes, olive oil and omega-3 fats in fish).
In some cases, diet and lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough. Your doctor may prescribe cholesterol-lowering medication to keep your cholesterol levels in check.
Reduce blood sugar. Chronically elevated blood glucose levels are damaging to blood vessels. If you have diabetes, it is imperative to keep your blood sugars under control.
Minimize the impact of diabetes on your body — and even prevent or delay the onset of diabetes — by eating healthy, controlling your weight, exercising and taking medication(s) prescribed by your doctor.
Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It also increases other risk factors for cardiovascular disease — diabetes, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels — causing a compounding effect.
Stop smoking. Going smoke-free can help reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as other leading killers (cancer, chronic lung disease), and you’ll lower your excess risk within only a few years.
Work with your doctor. Get a checkup, along with any screenings or blood work to understand your specific needs clearly.
By living a heart-healthy lifestyle, you can help prevent, slow or reverse heart disease, regardless of age.
Dr. Nina Radcliff, of Galloway Township, is a physician anesthesiologist, television medical contributor and textbook author. Email questions for Dr. Nina to editor@pressofac.com with “Dr. Nina” in the subject line.
This article is for general information only and should not be used for the diagnosis or treatment of medical conditions and cannot substitute for advice from your medical professional.
