5 Ways To Keep Your Heart Healthy
Feb 16, 2022
This article discussed how to keep heart-healthy, tips on healthy heart activities, how to eat a heart-healthy diet, where to find a dietician in Wichita, and covers frequently asked health heart questions.
A healthy heart is at the core of your overall good health. Living a healthy lifestyle at any age can prevent heart disease and lower your risk for a heart attack or stroke. You are never too old or too young to begin taking care of your heart. Here are 5 ways to keep heart healthy and lower heart risks:
1. Eat a Healthy Diet
A heart-healthy diet is a great way to keep your heart healthy. Foods for healthy heart include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, plant-based proteins, lean animal proteins, and fish. Make smart choices like limiting refined carbohydrates, processed meats, and sweetened drinks. Use the nutrition facts label on packaged foods to cut back on sodium, added sugars, and saturated fats, and avoid trans fat.
Working with a dietician is a great way to create meal plans and a heart-healthy diet. To find a dietician in Wichita, contact HealthCore Clinic and speak with a member of our team. We can work with you to find groceries and foods that support a heart-healthy diet by making simple adjustments to your grocery shopping and decisions when eating out.
2. Be Physically Active
Move more – it’s one of the best ways to stay healthy, prevent disease, and age well. Adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week. If you’re already active, you can increase your intensity for even more benefits. If you’re not active now, get started by simply sitting less and moving more.
If you’re not active now, get started by simply sitting less and moving more. Consider walking to places that are short distances away instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, taking a walk around the block, riding a bike, or engaging in other active lifestyle changes that encourage you to move more.
You don’t need a gym membership to be physically active. Here are some alternative healthy heart activities to consider when seeking the best activities for heart health:
- Running
- Walking
- Cycling
- Hiking
- Garderning
- Yoga
- At-Home Aerobics
There are tons of at-home things you can do such as squats, push-ups, lunges, and other exercises. Consider looking up workouts on platforms like YouTube to help get you started.
3. Watch Your Weight
Stay at a healthy weight for you. Lose weight if you’re overweight or obese. Start by eating fewer calories and moving more. What is a healthy weight? It differs by person. Start by checking your body mass index (BMI) with at-home tools. If you need help, talk to a member of our team about a weight loss plan.
4. Live Tobacco-Free
If you don’t smoke, vape, or use tobacco products, don’t ever start. There’s no such thing as a safe tobacco product. If quitting smoking or tobacco is a challenge for you, ask your healthcare team and support team for help to kick the habit using proven methods. Don’t just swap one tobacco source for another. And try to avoid secondhand smoke, too!
If you are a smoker, contact us about smoking cessation tools and processes. HealthCore Clinic can help!
5. Manage Conditions
If you have high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, high blood sugar, diabetes, or other conditions that put you at greater risk, it’s very important to work with your health care team and make lifestyle changes. Many conditions can be prevented or managed by eating better, getting active, losing weight, and quitting tobacco.
HealthCore Clinic can help with getting tested for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. We have tools and specialists on-site to help you manage these conditions and live a longer, healthier life.
If you have a health condition, your doctor or medical provider may prescribe statins or other medications to help control cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure. Take all medications as directed. But don’t take aspirin as a preventive measure unless your doctor tells you to. If you’ve never had a heart attack or stroke, daily aspirin may not help you at all and could cause problems including the risk of bleeding. If you’ve had a heart attack or stroke, your doctor may want you to take a low dose of aspirin to reduce your risk of having another.
Frequently Asked Questions On How To Keep Heart Healthy
Frequently Asked Heart Healthy Questions
There are many frequently asked healthy heart questions about topics such as how lifestyles, backgrounds, and activities can affect heart risks. The most common questions asked are:
- How do genetics and family history affect the risk of heart disease?
- Do age and sex affect the risk of heart disease?
- Do race and ethnicity affect the risk of heart disease?
How do genetics and family history affect the risk of heart disease?
When members of a family pass traits from one generation to another through genes, that process is called heredity.
Genetic factors likely play some role in high blood pressure, heart disease, and other related conditions. However, it is also likely that people with a family history of heart disease share common environments and other factors that may increase their risk.
The risk for heart disease can increase even more when heredity is combined with unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as smoking cigarettes and eating an unhealthy diet.
Do age and sex affect the risk of heart disease?
Many people ask if there are age and sex risks for heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women. Heart disease can happen at any age, but the risk increases as you get older.
Do race and ethnicity affect the risk of heart disease?
Are there ethnicity heart risks and race heart risks? Heart disease and stroke can affect anyone, but some groups are more likely to have conditions that increase their risk for cardiovascular disease.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States, including African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and white people. For Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and Hispanics, heart disease is second only to cancer.
Heart Risks & Warning Signs
Warning Signs and Early Detection of Heart Disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, causing about 1 in 4 deaths. The term “heart disease” refers to several types of heart conditions. In the United States, the most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD), which can lead to a heart attack.
Coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, heart valve disease, and heart failure are the four most common types of heart disease. Understanding the warning signs for heart disease and heart attack signs is extremely important.
To learn more about warning signs, early detection and treatment of heart disease, check out are article titled: “Warning Signs and Early Detection of Heart Disease.”