If you and your family are trying to stay healthy for years to come, paying attention to your cardiovascular health is essential. A strong and healthy heart can ensure blood is circulating properly throughout your body and reduce the risk of contracting other diseases and illnesses such as heart attacks, strokes, or high blood pressure.
Regular checkups are important for monitoring heart health over time and making it possible to detect heart conditions early on. Heart disease includes a variety of cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, congenital disease, and congestive heart failure.
Thankfully, there are so many great ways to keep your cardiovascular system running smoothly and efficiently over time. Taking the time to be mindful about your heart health is a great investment for your future health and is also simple to do. Keep reading to learn more about incorporating some of these habits and heart-healthy tactics!
Keep an Eye on Your Blood Pressure & Cholesterol Levels
Avoiding high blood pressure and cholesterol levels is very important for keeping the heart and cardiovascular system healthy. Blood arteries can become stiff and narrow from excessive cholesterol deposits that stick to their walls. When this happens, our hearts have to work even harder to ensure blood is pumping through the body properly.
In turn, our blood pressure levels can continue to rise, tear artery walls, and even lead to heart disease. Fortunately, following a healthy lifestyle can keep both blood pressure and cholesterol levels at healthy and stable levels.
Quit Smoking
Smoking harms practically every organ in our bodies and is also a major risk factor for heart disease. Chemicals in cigarettes damage the heart and blood vessels by causing plaque to accumulate in the arteries. Smoking can be even more risky for certain groups of people, such as diabetics, obese individuals, or women on birth control pills. Even secondhand smoke can damage the hearts of people who are near the smoker, causing damage just as it would to the smoker themselves.
Thankfully, quitting smoking lowers your risk of getting and dying from heart disease. Quitting can also make it easier to transition to a healthier lifestyle that focuses on stress reduction, movement, and nutrient-dense foods.
Drink Less Alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol has been linked to high blood pressure, which strains the heart and can lead to cardiovascular disease. People who drink regularly and consume more than moderate levels of alcohol can also develop a higher risk of getting heart attacks or strokes. Moderate drinking is defined as no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.
For example, one drink might look like a 12-ounce can of beer or four to five ounces of wine. Drinking excessively can also lead to high triglyceride levels and abnormal heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation.
Stay Consistently Active
Exercising regularly is one of the best ways to strengthen your heart and boost cardiovascular health. To ensure you are getting enough activity, shoot for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity every week. There are also many great low-impact exercises available for people with joint pain, such as swimming, walking, or cycling.
Staying active also means incorporating movement throughout your entire day. Instead of sitting down for many hours in a row, try to stand up, go for a walk, stretch, or take the stairs. Breaking up sedentary periods can be very beneficial to our health and cardiovascular system.
Conclusion
In conclusion, taking care of our cardiovascular health can make it more likely for us to live long, healthy, and fulfilling lives. Ensuring our heart is strong and able to function properly is also essential if we want to avoid heart disease and other health problems.
Take the time to eat heart-healthy foods, stay active, and monitor your key health metrics over time.