7 Tips for Well-Rounded Heart Health
January 19, 2009 by admin
Filed under Heart Health
The most worked organ in your body is the heart. It beats tirelessly when you are asleep and awake to push the blood throughout your body to supply all your parts with oxygenated blood and nutrients. However, you may not always take as good care with your heart as you need to, eating fatty foods and leading a sedentary lifestyle.
Heart disease is very real for millions of people in this country and there is no cure for it. Rather, the cause of heart disease should be the focus as a large percentage of people with the disease could have avoided it through better lifestyle choices. Your health is like a domino effect one change one thing which filters into another and then another. If you are one of the many at risk for heart disease, there are seven things you can do to ensure good heart health. Here they are:
1. Exercise Even with a diet that is not the greatest, exercise can help save you somewhat. It strengthens your heart, reduces stress and conditions other parts of the body too like the lungs and muscles. Exercise will help lower cholesterol, increase blood flow and oxygenation and keep the excess weight off.
2. Diet You are what you eat literally! A diet high in fats and cholesterol means your body will be fat and your heart will be at risk. Choosing a diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy and lean meats and fish will go a long way towards cleaning up your act. Supplements may be needed to provide a boost. Garlic is popular as it helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol while fiber can latch onto cholesterol so that your body can better eliminate it from the body.
The right fats such as polyunsaturated fats, omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fats can help lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, knock down cholesterol and improve the health of the blood vessels.
3. Vitamin and mineral supplements Sometimes, your diet doesn’t always provide the level of vitamins and minerals your body needs for optimal health. Magnesium is important for regulating the heartbeat and your body doesn’t always get enough. Co-enzyme Q-10 is a powerful antioxidant that can improve oxygenation and strengthen the heart. Vitamin E lubricates the blood to prevent the platelets from clumping together to form blots in the blood vessels.
4. Herbs Herbal remedies such as hawthorne, valerian and motherwort work to improve heart function. Hawthorne helps regulate blood pressure while valerian soothes anxiety and lowers blood pressure. Motherwort can also lower blood pressure as well cholesterol in the blood.
5. Quit smoking By kicking the tobacco habit, you can reduce your heart risk by 50% in the first year alone. Smoking can raise blood pressure and cause more blood clots, two things that greatly contribute to heart disease. Remove the harm and lower your risk.
6. Lower stress Stress can raise blood pressure by constricting the blood vessels, making the heart work harder to pump the nourishing blood throughout the body. Learn yoga or visual imagery. Try biofeedback or even exercise to lower stress. Choose the activity or solution that works best for you so you can breathe easier. Laughter it is the best medicine.
7. Limit alcohol Studies have shown that a glass of red wine a day is actually beneficial for your heart. However, the six pack of beer you consume a day does not! Excessive drinking can constrict the blood vessels which promote additional salt re-absorption, higher levels of cholesterol and of course, higher blood pressure because the heart has to work harder to pump blood. If you do drink, limit yourself to one drink per day for maximum benefit.
