Tips For Improving Cardiovascular Health
According to the Centers for Disease Control, for every 40 seconds, there is someone who suffers a heart attack.
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease. In CAD, the coronary arteries are narrowed or blocked from plaques which are formed with increased amount of fatty material and cholesterol. Plaque can be formed from increased cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure.
Risk Factors For Heart Disease
- High cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes
- Smoking
- Overweight or obesity
- Inactivity
- Unhealthy diet
- Women over age 55
- Men over age 45
- Family history:
- Father or brother had heart disease before age 55
- mother or sister had heart disease before age 65
Tips To Improve Cardiovascular Health
Avoid tobacco
If you currently smoke, chew tobacco, vape, or use other tobacco products, quit right away. Reach out to your health care team for cessation programs and other available resources that can help you. If you don’t smoke now, keep it that way.
Decrease Alcohol Intake
Heavy alcohol use is detrimental to your heart health. Limit your alcohol intake to a maximum of one drink per day or abstain from alcohol altogether.
Be active
Try to do aerobic exercise for at least 20 to 30 minutes a day, three to five times per week. Work your way up to 150 minutes of cardio each week. Get your heart rate up by a simple activity like walking at a brisk pace.
Maintain a healthy weight
Exercise regularly and lower portion sizes and calorie intake at meals to lose weight or maintain a healthy size. Simply put, to lose weight you must burn more calories than you consume.
Eat healthy
Healthy and fresh food choices — such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes — lower your risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, as well as make you feel better than when you eat processed and junk food.
Control your risk factors
Get physical examinations or checkups at least yearly to help monitor health conditions and examine you for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. The CDC has produced some tool kits to help with this.
Manage stress
Try deep breathing and meditation to manage stress. Check our previous blogs for more information on:
- Food and Stress
- Sleep and Stress
- Yoga for Stress Relief
- Natural Ways to Reduce Stress and Pelvic Pain Through The Vagus Nerve
