Heart Problems
Cardiovascular diseases are common in causes of sudden death among people. They are often termed as silent killer.
However, heart problems can be avoided in the future if you’re living a healthy lifestyle today.
The best approach for anyone is to stop a heart attack before it happens at all by making your heart healthy.
Some of the things to take note to prevent heart diseases naturally are the following
What you should not Do?
Firstly, smoking is one of the most crucial risk factors for developing heart disease.
Smoker’s risk of heart diseases is 3 times or more the risk of non smokers.
Not only can smoking increase the risk of heart failure, it also increase the risk of gastroesophageal reflux diseases (GERD), heartburn, pneumonia and others.
The Chemicals in tobacco can damage the heart and the blood vessels, leading to narrowing of the arteries due to plaque buildup in the arteries.
This is the way smoking causes atherosclerosis and similarly, coronary heart disease.
Atherosclerosis can ultimately lead to a heart attack and stroke, so the best cardiovascular disease treatment is its prevention in the first place.
No amount of smoking is safe when it comes to heart problems.
Even smokeless tobacco, low-tar, and low-nicotine cigarettes, and second-hand smoke can also be injurious to your health.
In fact, smoking does not only affects your hearts, it can also lead to vision loss, increase stomach acid and cause bowel movement, diarrhea and digestive problems.
It has also been linked to emphysema and lung cancer.
When a journalist friend asked, Chaktty, how long do you think one will smoke to get heart disease.
I simply replied! You start increasing your risk of heart problems the first week you start smoking.
And the good news is that the risk of heart disease starts reducing soon after quitting it.
The risk of coronary heart disease considerably reduces one year after quitting smoking.
After a while, it doesn’t matter how long or how much one has smoked, one can start reaping rewards as soon as one quits.
Things you should start doing to be Safe
Don’t underestimate the positive effects of Exercise
Secondly, Studies had revealed that lack of exercise affects our heart.
Physical inactivity is one of the major risk factors of heart diseases in elderly as announced by CDC. So, engaging in some exercise daily can reduce the risk of heart disease.
And when physical activity is combined with other lifestyle measures such as maintaining a healthy weight, the payoff is even greater.
It’s important to understand the fact that not all exercises will help your heart.
Aerobic and cardio exercises, followed by guidelines made by professional fitness experts would help improving your heart functions.
In general, one should do moderate exercise, such as walking at a brisk pace, for about 30 minutes on most days of the week.
The Department of Health and Human Services recommends 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity, 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity.
More health benefits can be achieved by 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity every week.
Strength training exercises for two or more days a week are also very beneficial.
Stress management is Important
Thirdly, stress is a crucial factor in heart disease.
Several research studies have proven the significant effects of psychosocial stress on anxiety and depression, and heart attack.
Anxiety and depression do not have direct impact on heart problems but increase the risk of heart disease especially in the approach towards managing emotional stress.
People have different approaches to managing psychological stress, such as overeating, drinking or smoking, which are more detrimental.
This is how stress contributes to heart related problems, change in heart rate, heart valve problem and congestive heart failure later in life.
All these don’t happen suddenly but when one is getting stressed up repeatedly, one finds a way to get away the worries and it usually leads to new lifestyle that may not be healthy to one’s health.
Going through stress can also increase the level of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline in the body.
Finding alternative ways to manage stress such as physical activity, indoor games, playing with pets, relaxation exercises or meditation can help improve one’s health.
Also, taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for anxiety and depression have been known to help relieving one from worries.
What you should Eat and things to Avoid taking?
Fourthly, you can prevent heart attack and even stroke with heart-healthy foods naturally at home.
That doesn’t mean one has to cut out favorite foods completely.
Trans fats should be avoided and a limit should be kept on those that include saturated fats, salt, and refined sugar.
Heart-healthy foods from the Mediterranean diet like salmon, berries, nuts, and olive oil can also be added to the list of foods for heart attack patients.
As a rule, if you’re having heart attack, you should avoid taking salted foods, sugary, fried and baked foods.
You should try to also limit nuts and snacks, high fat dietary products, foods rich in ldl cholesterol.
These foods can cause heart diseases by increasing the risks. Rather take more of Vegetables, whole grains, fruits with less sugar.
You should also be taking lots of water, especially at night before bed to improve circulation and prevent heart attack at night and while sleeping.
What your weight has to do with Heart attack?
Maintaining a healthy weight is one of the best ways to prevent heart failure.
There’s association between overweight and the functioning of the cardiovascular system.
In fact, obesity is one of the important risk factors of coronary artery disease.
There’s always a positive correlation between those who’re obese and poor heart functions.
Therefore, weight should be controlled to avoid too much fats surrounding the heart and limiting its functions.
Weight loss should not be treated as a difficult mission to accomplish, rather a fitness regime should be adopted post consulting with a trainer.
A weight loss method may actually enable one to eat more food and still lose weight.
Instead of concentrating on limiting all foods that are bad, one can try eating more foods that are high on nutrition like five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
If this is followed, one may find oneself naturally reducing the foods that aren’t as healthy as the fruits and vegetables.
Other health issues could increase the risk of Heart problem
Controlling chronic diseases or conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity can all help to reduce heart disease.
If a person has a chronic condition that could affect the heart, he or she should strictly follow a doctor’s treatment plan.
A patient already diagnosed of heart problem can also experience weight gain slowly or rapidly as a result of medications and fluid accumulation in the body.
When this occurs, the patient should get back to doctor as soon as possible as this could mean the heart failure has gotten worse.
Going for Medical check up could help much
Lastly, regular screenings and examinations can help identify heart problems before one has a heart attack or stroke.
Preventive screening should be conducted early in life and continued throughout the lifetime.
A cardiologist should be consulted on how often one should have blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol tested especially if one is taking medications to control chronic conditions.