How to Prevent Heart Disease
Heart disease is a very serious condition that affects thousands of people worldwide. As you grow older, you are more susceptible to getting these heart diseases, which build up slowly in your lifetime. Here are some tips for you to prevent heart disease.
Stop Smoking
Stop smoking and avoid exposing yourself to secondhand smoke. Smoking introduces nicotine in your bloodstream, which in turn hardens and constricts your arteries. Smoking affects your chances of getting heart diseases so much that stopping the smoking habit in a year drastically affects your chances of getting a heart disease, by at least 50%.
In addition, women who are taking birth control pills and smoking at the same time have an even higher chance of getting heart disease.
Eat Healthy
Eat a heart-friendly diet. This means more fruits, vegetables, whole grain food products and low-fat dairy products. Avoid food with high fat content, salt content and sugar content. Trans fat and saturated fat in particular are leading causes of heart diseases, so this means you should lower food rich in these two kinds of fat. Minimizing meat in your diet will also help in preventing heart diseases.
Avoiding caffeine and alcohol can also help improve your healthy lifestyle and diet.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
As we get older, more and more of our body’s weight is made up of fat. You must calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) to see if your current weight is still healthy for your age and height. Generally speaking, the more weight you have on, the higher the possibility of a high cholesterol count and higher blood pressure. These last two factors can lead to heart diseases.
To maintain a healthy weight, eat right and exercise regularly. Exercising briskly at for 30 minutes most days a week should help you maintain your weight. Include other activities such as walking, taking the stairs and household chores to your exercise arsenal. Exercise also helps lower your stress levels and lower your blood pressure.
Say No to Crash Diets
While keeping and maintaining a healthy weight is essential in preventing heart disease, how you get there is equally important. Avoid crash diets, because no matter how good you look from the outside, it’s not quite as good on the inside. Having a slow and steady diet ensures that you are getting rid of the fat and toxins in the best way possible, thus reducing the possibility of heart diseases.
Get Regular Checkups
To ensure that you’re on the right track, get regular checkups for the following:
Blood pressure. Adults should get their blood pressure checked at least once every two years. Optimal blood pressure is less than 120/80 millimeters of mercury.
Cholesterol levels. Adults should get their cholesterol levels checked at least once every five years. If your family has a history of heart diseases, or if you have other factors that may necessitate more frequent cholesterol level tests, then have them by all means.