Cardiovascular disease is a scourge of modern society. With heart diseases, there is always a risk of heart failure and kidney problems. As a result, a person with a sick heart loses youth and strength much faster, and the quality of his life decreases. How to keep your heart healthy or at least alleviate the situation if you already have a disease? We prepared the top 10 tips for improving heart health for you, which will help you improve your health in 2022.
How To Take Care Of Your Heart?
As we all know, the heart is one of the most organs of the body and thus requires special care. Without a healthy heart, your whole being would suffer greatly. Thus, follow the tips mentioned below to take care of your heart’s health in 2022.
- Heart-Friendly Diet
The first step towards a healthy heart is to make sure you are eating right. In the diet of a person who monitors his health, there should be a lot:
- Easily digestible protein – fish and poultry
- Fiber – vegetables and cereals
- Healthy fats- vegetable oil and fish
It is necessary to reduce:
- Use of animal fats (butter, lard, pork, offal, and eggs)
- The amount of salt
- Amount of sugar and fast carbohydrates (baked goods, sweets, and potatoes)
- The total amount of food for one meal
- Rejection Of Bad Habits
The use of alcohol and drugs leads to chronic intoxication. The heart has to work in an extreme mode since the fluidity of the blood changes, and substances that poison the myocardium enter the body. The same is with smoking, which further reduces the amount of oxygen entering the blood. This means that the heart needs to distill blood faster, and this is an extra load.
The combination of alcohol with smoking leads to fluctuations in the diameter of blood vessels: ethanol expands them while nicotine narrows them. Lovers of coffee under a cigarette provoke sharp surges in pressure. All this is extremely dangerous for the heart and brain. Thus, you need to give up these bad habits if you want to keep your heart healthy.
One should never forget the rule of moderation when drinking coffee or alcohol. Besides, chain smokers must immediately switch to vape as it is lesser harmful than traditional tobacco cigarettes. Furthermore, you can start by buying cheap E liquid UK from the best vape store and try various flavors. In this way, switching to vape will become more convenient.
- Preventive Visits To Doctor
Not always a person himself can understand that he needs help. Therefore, one should not neglect preventive visits to the doctor. You should regularly visit a local therapist as problems identified at an early stage can be cured easily. Besides, if anybody in your family has had heart problems, then know that you are also at risk of heart disease. So do not delay and schedule a meeting with your doctor to ensure good health.
- Controlling Cholesterol Levels
Heart health directly depends on the state of blood vessels. The most common cause of heart attacks and strokes is vasoconstriction due to the deposition of cholesterol on the walls. This disease is called atherosclerosis, and it affects 90% of people over 40 years old.
Clearing the vessels if cholesterol plaques have already appeared on them is possible only by surgery. And if there is too much bad cholesterol, then the doctor might prescribe drugs that bind and remove cholesterol from the blood. If the increase is small, a strict diet is recommended, as described above.
- Weight Control
Obesity leads to endocrinological diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, and it rapidly destroys blood vessels. In addition, in obese people, fat accumulates not only in the waist and buttocks but also around the internal organs, including the heart, and this greatly complicates its work. Thus, you must monitor your weight to keep your health in check.
- Physical Activity
Light physical activity is a prerequisite for maintaining heart health. The minimum is 8,000 steps or approximately 5.6 km. It doesn’t matter if you go jogging or just walk in pleasant places, the main thing is movement. Thus, avoid a sedentary lifestyle and stay involved in physical activities.
- Live Without Stress
When a person is under stress, hormones enter their bloodstream that increases the heart rate, constricts blood vessels, and increase blood pressure. Prolonged stress due to problems at work or in the family is harmful; it leads to hypertension, tachycardia, and other disorders in the work of the heart.
It is harmful to the myocardium. It is better to avoid such traumatic situations, and if it does not work out, consult a psychotherapist. He/she will teach you how to cope with stress to live healthily.
- Blood Pressure Control
Everybody needs to measure their blood pressure periodically. In the initial stages, hypertension is not felt by the sick person. Those who have already had episodes of increased blood pressure above 140/100 need regular monitoring, at least twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. Or you can contact a physician, who can tell you the specific scheme for measuring pressure and the rules for keeping a diary.
- Strengthening Immunity
Even a mild cold can result in heart complications, especially in the elderly. Therefore, it is necessary to take simple measures so as not to get sick: wash your hands more often, take vitamin C during the SARS season, and avoid crowded places. These little changes can also strengthen your immunity and help you live longer.
- Compliance With The Doctor’s Recommendations
If according to the results of the examination, the doctor prescribes a long-term or lifelong intake of drugs, then you cannot cancel them out on your own, even if it seems that there is no need for them.
In short, you need to follow the doctor’s recommendations. Doctors from the United States believe that one of the best activities for hypertensive and cardiac patients is yoga. So it will be worthwhile if you make yoga a part of your life.
Summing Up
To keep your heart healthy, you may have to change your lifestyle completely. But if it seems difficult to change right away and follow all healthy rules, then do this gradually. When the changes work, you will want to make your life even better.