You already know that the secret to longevity is maintaining a healthy heart. There are alternatives you can do to improve your heart health besides eating well.
In the US, heart disease is a significant public health issue. People can enhance their heart health by doing various things and taking the medications their doctor prescribed. This involves maintaining an active lifestyle, eating nutritious food, and abstaining from vices like smoking.
Here, I examine ten essential elements for enhancing heart health at any age. You may significantly improve heart health by making these straightforward changes. Additionally, starting is never too late.
Heart Health Recommendations
In the United States, the number one killer is heart disease, however there are things you can do to improve your heart health.
The American Heart Association (AHA) released the 2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health only last year, which contained 10 recommendations supported by evidence to promote cardio metabolic health.
We choose to add sleep and stress management in addition to the AHA’s comprehensive nutrition and exercise recommendations. It is vital to note the data that connects these crucial lifestyle choices to heart health.
Get Moving
A vital component of cardiovascular health is exercise. Exercise actually delays the beginning and progression of cardiovascular disease.
Vital Signs
Numerous studies have been done on how exercise affects blood pressure and hypertension. Regular aerobic exercise has repeatedly been demonstrated to lower the risk of cardiovascular events and improve blood pressure in people with hypertension.
However, it appears that the blood pressure advantages only materialize with consistent exercise. One study examined blood pressure markers after three months of inactivity and discovered that, despite adhering to a nine-month, twice-weekly supervised training program, the benefits of exercise had vanished.
Elevated Cholesterol
Cardiovascular disease is also linked to high cholesterol levels (CVD). The development of atherosclerosis, or the hardening or thickening of the arteries, has a large impact with high levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL cholesterol). What part does exercise play in balancing these factors, though?
Beyond the type of exercise conducted, researchers discovered that high-intensity exercise was significantly more effective at decreasing LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. However, they found that while performing resistance training, more sets and reps had a greater influence on cholesterol levels than larger weights.
Inflammation
Blood vessels and cell wall health deteriorate as a result of chronic inflammation. It is also common in other CVD risk factors as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and obesity. Even light exercise has anti-inflammatory benefits and is good for the heart.
Heart Wellness
Cardiac muscle makes up the majority of your heart. The heart’s muscle tissue pumps blood through your circulatory system so that it can transfer oxygen to the appropriate locations. Exercise can help your heart function more effectively by strengthening the cardiac muscle tissue. Consistent exercise is the key.
Achieve and Maintain a Healthy Weight
Obesity is linked to diabetes, hypertension, the metabolic syndrome, and CVD risk factors.
If you are obese or overweight, decreasing 5% to 10% of your body weight can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and in some cases, lowering more weight can have even greater advantages.
Maintaining a healthy weight is crucial for heart health if you have previously lost weight or are at a healthy weight. Body mass index (BMI) is currently used to determine whether your weight is healthy for your height.
Body mass index (BMI) is an outdated, biased metric that ignores a number of elements, including age, gender, ethnicity, race, and body composition.
Despite being a faulty metric, BMI is still commonly employed in the medical field today since it is a rapid and affordable way to assess possible health outcomes and status.
Healthy-weight, physically active males were compared to the optimal BMI for preventing coronary heart disease. It is best to keep your BMI around 22.5 to reduce your risk of developing heart disease. The BMI calculator below might help you figure out where you stand.
BMI isn’t a great measure of health because it doesn’t take into account factors like muscle mass, frame size, gender, age, and whether or not you’re an athlete, but it does provide us with some information.
Work to Keep Your Body Weight in Check
Energy balance—consuming the same number of calories each day as you expend—is necessary for weight maintenance. You can maintain your body weight if you can establish energy balance. You will either put on weight or lose weight if your balance is off.
Understanding how many calories your body requires at rest is the first step in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. The term for this is resting metabolic rate (RMR). Using a food journal or tracking app to know how many calories you need to eat each day to maintain your weight, can be helpful toward achieving that target.
Calculate the Calories You Burn Every Day
It’s important to remember to include meals from all of the major dietary groups on your plate, including fruits, vegetables, protein, carbs, and fats. Incorporating more nutrient-dense foods into your diet may help you lose weight because they provide more meal volume with fewer calories.
It is simple to over pour or serve a lot of food to oneself. Focus on preparing healthy portions for yourself using a scale, measuring cups, and hand symbol references to avoid this. You only need to measure portions for a little period of time to become used to how they should be sized.
Eliminate Smoking
Smoking wrecks havoc on your heart and other systems and contributes to one in four deaths from cardiovascular disease. Not to mention, secondhand smoking exposure raises your risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 25% to 30%.
Fortunately, the risk of CVD is significantly reduced the earlier you stop smoking. In fact, a research indicated that quitting around age 40 significantly lowers the risk of dying by 90%.
Plan to stop smoking if you do. Include any potential difficulties and solutions for overcoming them. Make a list of the methods you intend to utilize to quit smoking. Make a list of your motivations for quitting and choose a quit date. Commit to it by forming a network of allies and relying on them when necessary.
Consume fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
Dietary fiber, antioxidant vitamins, and minerals are abundant in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, all of which have cardio protective effects. When you can, incorporate these foods into your meal plan.
Understanding that not everyone has access to less processed foods and that cooking nutrient-balanced meals at home 100 percent of the time is not always feasible. Will that affect your likelihood of developing heart problems in the future? If you live a heart-healthy lifestyle most of the time, probably not.
Fiber
In addition to encouraging regularity, dietary fiber helps the body eliminate cholesterol through feces, which lowers cholesterol levels. This lowers blood levels of LDL “bad” cholesterol, which lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Whole grains, beans, legumes, fruits, and vegetables all contain fiber. The following is the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for fiber.
Vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants
In addition to dietary fiber, fruits and vegetables are also a good source of important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which guard the body against oxidative stress and free radical damage. Having five servings of fruits and vegetables per day are linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mortality.
Additionally, low-energy, nutrient-dense foods that fill your stomach with less calories, such as high-fiber whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are ideal for weight management.
Include plant-based oils and fats in your diet
Examples of heart-healthy fats derived from plant sources such as, olive oil, avocado oil, and flaxseed oil, have been found to lower cholesterol. Unsaturated fats, such as those found in plant-based oils, can reduce LDL “bad” cholesterol and raise HDL “good” cholesterol in the diet by substituting for saturated fats. Eating more nutritious high-fat foods is another approach to increase the amount of healthy fats in your diet.
Prioritize Lean Protein
Lean protein makes a meal more filling and is crucial for weight management. In comparison to high-fat protein sources, studies reveal that diets high in protein from dairy, fish, chicken, and vegetables are linked to a 13% to 30% decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.
You must first calculate how much protein you require to consume each day. After that, try to include a lean protein in all of your meals, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. .A licensed dietitian can offer advice and help you set your optimum protein goal if you not sure of how to begin or how to add more protein to your diet.
Limit Alcohol
Don’t start drinking if you don’t already. And if you do drink, the AHA advises keeping your intake to one to two drinks for males and one drink for women each day.
Alcohol hurts the heart in negative ways. It is linked to high blood pressure, artery widening, heart failure, higher blood lipid levels, atherosclerosis, altered platelet response (hindered blood clotting), inflammation, and alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACM), a heart-muscle disorder observed in patients with a long history of alcohol use.
In general, drinking alcohol is bad for your heart. It’s difficult for people who are trying to reduce weight because a healthy heart depends on it. However, cutting back on alcohol consumption might occasionally be difficult.
Putting Sleep First
The risk of CVD is increased by sleep disorders and disturbances such sleep apnea and insomnia. Consequently, improving your sleep will aid in preventing cardiovascular disease.
However, given the amount of stress and other responsibilities that keep individuals up at night—such as kids, work, and anxiety—it can be easier said than done. Adults should sleep for between 7 and 9 hours every night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Improve your sleep hygiene and make sleep a priority.
How to Get Better Sleep
- Maintain a regular sleep schedule, even on the weekends.
- Include a peaceful nighttime routine.
- Select a supportive and comfy mattress and bedding.
- Limit interruptions (turn the phone on silent, use blackout curtains, use a sound machine).
- Temp the bedroom appropriately.
- A half-hour or more before going to bed, turn off all electronics.
- Alcohol and caffeine should be avoided right before bed.
- Reduced tension
- Chronic stress directly increases the risk of CVD.
- It is linked to bad health habits that cause CVD in addition to the negative stress reactions in the body, such as increased blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, and reduced blood supply to the heart.
- For instance, stress is linked to weight increase, insufficient sleep, alcohol consumption, smoking, a bad diet, and a lack of exercise.
- Every day, devote at least 10 minutes to finding ways to relax.
A Final Message from Doc T. Elliott
I’ve learned that is never too late or too early to start thinking about heart health, regardless of your age. You may improve your heart health in addition to changing your diet and exercise routine by managing your stress, giving up smoking, and getting enough sleep. I am in my mid-sixties and still trying to improve my heart health. I have eliminated smoking and eating a healthier diet. Consuming less sugar and salt, such as fried foods and carbohydrates, is essential. You, too, can practice wholesome heart routines.
Because heart disease in the USA is the leading cause of mortality, there are several things people may do to lower their risk. A nutritious, balanced diet reduced in added sugar and salt is one aspect of this. Regular exercise and lifestyle modifications, such as giving up smoking, are also beneficial for heart health.
Talk to a healthcare professional if you are worried about your heart health. They can give you advice on the best forms of exercise for you and assist you in making sense of any symptoms you may be having.
Additionally, they can offer advice on quitting smoking (if necessary) and give you pointers on how to adjust your eating plan. If you’d like, you can also work with a trained dietitian to create a food plan that will help you achieve your heart health objectives.