Lifestyle Changes To Boost Heart Health: 5 Tips To Prevent A Heart Attack

More often than not, heart diseases are preventable by eating healthily and exercising more. Since an imbalanced diet is the first thing in a chain reaction of events that eventually ends with a heart attack, you can manage your heart’s health improving right away.

1. Eat a healthier diet

Excess salt is known to cause high blood pressure, which is one of the risk factors for a heart attack. When blood pushes itself with too much force against the artery walls, the damage done paves the way for cholesterol deposits to settle in. When you consume too much sugar, you are at greater risk of developing diabetes, another major risk factor for a heart attack.

But the number one enemy standing in the way of a healthy heart is high cholesterol. In order to prevent it, you have to focus your diet in two directions simultaneously — eating foods that are low in bad cholesterol and triglycerides, and eating foods that are rich in good cholesterol, so that it may be able to eliminate the bad kind from the body.

That means that you should consume foods that are known to raise your good cholesterol (such as fish and fish oil, olives and olive oil, nuts, etc.), but also foods that are nutritious, but low in trans and saturated fats, and calories (anything from fruits to vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean meats, sugar-free products, etc.).

2. Exercise more

Chances are that most of you won’t be able to exercise every day, even more so if you’re working and have to find the extra time to balance work, family, and alone time. However, it’s perfectly fine if you establish a weekly amount of time that you can allocate to some form of physical activity. It can even be something as light as jogging.

Even 150 minutes of exercise every week can make a difference for your heart health. Aerobic activity is one of the most common recommendations, alongside strength training exercises. Depending on your current health status, you might not be able to do certain types of activities, just as jogging, but they can be replaced with easier activities like biking.

Not only does physical activity help lower cholesterol, it also lowers blood pressure and helps you maintain a healthy weight. Since obesity is another risk factor for heart disease, a healthy diet works together with exercising to help keep any extra pounds under control.

3. Quit smoking

You have probably been warned about the dangers of smoking your entire life. It can lead to major health problems, from lung to throat cancer. But what some people don’t know is that smoking is actually a major threat to heart health, as well.

The chemicals inside a cigarette can lead to the narrowing of your arteries, causing atherosclerosis. This happens because smoke damages the inner walls of your coronary arteries, making them more susceptible to the formation of plaque (cholesterol deposits on the artery walls).

And the dangers don’t stop there. Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, which is known to replace blood oxygen. As this occurs, your blood pressure rises, causing the heart to pump harder so that it can receive the amount of oxygen it needs to survive.

The bad news is that even second-hand smoke poses a threat to your heart’s health, and so does occasional smoking. There are no compromises to be made when it comes to smoking, as even the lowest amount of smoke inside your bloodstream poses a health risk.

4. Limit alcohol

Alcohol is not a threat for your cholesterol levels necessarily, but it does pose a problem for your blood pressure levels. While one glass of alcohol per day is acceptable, anything above that can be a problem for your heart.

But blood pressure isn’t the only thing that’s affected by heavy drinking. You can end up decreasing the quality of your sleep or even end up with insomnia if you drink too much, not to mention that alcohol is generally high in calories, so it’s likely that you’ll gain weight if you drink every day.

5. Manage stress

Interestingly enough, stress doesn’t just affect people on an emotional level, but the way they cope with it can take a toll on their physical health as well. When people feel overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, or depressed, they have a tendency to:

• Smoke more often or drink more alcohol. Both of these habits pose a future problem for a person's heart health, directly and indirectly.
• Have irregular sleeping patterns or even insomnia. Quality sleep is extremely important for heart health. When you are not well-rested, your blood pressure goes up, you worsen the symptoms of diabetes, plus you end up feeling more stressed the next day.
• Eat more than what their body needs. There are plenty of people who find eating to be a good coping mechanism for stress. In the long run, this leads to obesity, high blood sugar levels, and high cholesterol.

Conclusion

The good news is that preventing a heart attack is fairly easy if you are willing to make the aforementioned lifestyle changes. It’s also important for you to get regular health screenings so that you’ll always know your blood pressure levels, your lipid profile, and your diabetes status if any.