12 tips to take care of your heart and be healthy
A selection of simple but essential guidelines for our heart to be healthy and strong. Here the tips to take care of your heart and be healthy.
Bad habits can take over our lives without us being too aware of it. When this happens, our health suffers, and one of the organs that suffers the most is the heart.
In today’s article, we will see what are the best ways to take care of the heart and keep it healthy and active. Thanks to some simple tips we can improve the health of our heart, and at the same time, our quality of life. Sometimes you just need to stop for a moment to reflect and change old bad habits or add certain healthy habits.
The best 12 recommendations to take care of your heart
Many times, only by changing small things in our lives can we obtain a great return. With age, it is easier to realize that we should park old bad habits and embrace new customs. We see that it is fundamental to improve our quality of life.
If we keep our hearts healthy, the risk of cardiovascular diseases will decrease. Do not forget that ischemic heart disease is the number 1 cause of death in the world, and heart attack is the second (WHO, 2016).
1. Use more of our body
In our day to day we use elevators and take public transport, but it is highly recommended to give small doses of exercise to our body. Climbing three floors is very good to have a healthy heart, so it is better to forget the elevator in general. On the other hand, if we have work 20 minutes away, it probably does not make much sense to take 10 minutes by train to sleep for 10 more minutes.
2. Walk
Sometimes we do not give simple things the value they deserve. Just walking 20 to 30 minutes in a row for a day has wonderful effects on our cardiovascular health. This amount of time is enough so that, only by walking, we can have a healthier and stronger heart. You only need to walk a little each day to reduce the overall risk of cardiovascular disease.
3. Jogging or running
Going fast or running also benefits our hearts a lot. Everyone must know their limits, and the most important thing is to do something frequently and during the time mentioned above. Running two days a week over our best for an hour is worse for our heart than maintaining a regular activity of less duration.
4. Strength training
Sometimes we tend to think that doing weights is counterproductive to the heart, and that is only for those who want to enlarge their muscles. Nothing is further from reality. It has been scientifically proven that training with weights is very good for cardiovascular health. Of course, we must adopt the weight according to our initial physical conditions. Then, we can adapt some more ambitious plan if we want.
5. Exercise in general
Before we have seen that walking or running brings us a lot of health, but obviously it should be extended to any type of physical activity. Within our possibilities, any physical activity guarantees that we move in magnificent for our heart. Whatever the activity, from swimming to paddle, our hearts will work and in the long run we will thank them.
6. Healthy diet
Along with exercise, diet is essential for the prevention of heart and cardiovascular problems in general. We must eat many more fruits, vegetables and whole grains than the average population is eating. Conversely, eating too many saturated fats, sugars, refined carbohydrates, and processed products from the food industry is detrimental to our heart.
7. Avoid salt
Salt causes our blood pressure to rise. It is a problem that does not seem serious at first but that can take a serious toll on our hearts. When there is hypertension, the heart has to work hard and associated problems appear, such as enlarging its walls. We must maintain this important healthy and young body to have more quality of life, health, and life expectancy.
8. Take food with omega-3
The foods that contain omega-3 essential fatty acids help our heart a lot. It is a type of healthy fat that helps improve cardiovascular health. There are not many sources of omega-3 fatty acids, but we highlight bluefish (sardines, tuna, mackerel, etc.), nuts (nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, etc.) and chia and flax seeds. It will take care of your heart and be healthy.
9. Avoid stress
Anxiety and stress severely damage the heart. When we are in these conditions, the heart rate and blood pressure rise, and also the blood vessels suffer a hardening. Needless to say, all these conditions are detrimental to our heart, which is forced to work more and in adverse conditions.
10. Do not work too much
To work too much is harmful to our heart. It has been scientifically proven that people who work more than 45 hours a week have a higher risk of coronary heart disease than the rest of the population. Having a good quality of life should come first. If you see that work is being too demanding, it might be a good idea to think about changing your professional activity.
11. Stop smoking
Smoking is the worst for our health. To maintain a healthy heart, as well as the entire cardiovascular system and all integral health, you should avoid exposing your body to tobacco at all costs. Quitting smoking is an essential step to take care of your heart because it improves the circulation of blood vessels and the tissues do not suffer the wear and tear caused by the harmful substances that tobacco smoke has.
12. Avoid overweight
The heart suffers a lot when we are overweight. Its main function is to bombard the blood so that it can reach all the cells of our body, so if we have a lot of body mass we demand more from our heart. This and other associated complications make caring for the heart more difficult in these circumstances. For example, we have more limitations to exercise.