Tips for a Healthy Heart

Here, some tips are given on how to maintain a healthy heart. A total of ten tips are given out of which if you can follow the first seven and don’t smoke, you are reducing the chance of a heart attack by as much as 90%.  

Walk for about half an hour a day every day. It decreases the risk of having a heart attack by about 30 percent. If you can do this step, you can do other tips listed here also with success which would improve your health. If you can’t do this step, it means you are of a compromising character and you might compromise your health in other ways also.  A better thing to do would be to keep a dog as a pet. A dog needs to be taken out daily at least twice and hence, it forces you to walk.

Keep an eye on your blood pressure. Persons with high blood pressure are more prone to heart attack than persons who have controlled blood pressure. Ideally you should strive to keep your blood pressure at around 115/75. Blood pressure control is more important than cholesterol.  The best way to control blood pressure is to do a little exercise and losing some abdominal fat. Why this is important is because fat stored in the abdomen presses upon the kidneys and in turn, kidneys get squeezed and release hormones that cause increased blood pressure. When you lose a little of the abdominal fat, even with just a few kilos of weight loss, your blood pressure goes down really fast. Cutting back on salt will help. Also, for some people, reducing sugar and saturated fat in diet may help even more. If your blood pressure is 140/90 and you are not going to do these things reliably, then you should take medication to reduce blood pressure. New drugs can reduce blood pressure without major side effects.

Eat at least 30 grams of nuts a day. Nuts raise HDL good cholesterol and decrease inflammation. But, they have a heart benefit also apart from the above benefits. Nuts have healthy omega-3 fatty acids, healthy protein and some fiber. This tip is easy to implement. Nuts that are raw, fresh and unsalted have the most benefit. You can develop a taste for them if you give them a chance. If you want to roast them, put them in the oven at 180 degrees C for about nine minutes.

You have to increase your good cholesterol up to a number of 50. To increase it, you have to exercise, have one drink a day, and eat healthy fats, such as olive and safflower oil and nuts. Talk to your doctor about niacin, which raises HDL cholesterol but can have side effects.

Eat at least 10 table spoons of tomato sauce a week. Tomato sauce is rich in blood pressure slashing potassium. Don’t add salt to it. Keep it simple.

Floss your teeth regularly. Avoiding gum disease helps prevent inflammation in the arteries, which helps prevent heart disease.

Eat no more than 20 grams of saturated fat a day. Saturated fat leads to inflammation in the arteries. Butter, coconut oil and other palm oils and blended vegetable oils contain saturated fat. Switch to safflower, corn and soyabean oil and reduce the amount of cooking oil to a minimum. Transfats found in baked foods are at least as bad as saturated fats.

Read labels and throw out all food that has sugar as an important ingredient. If you eat more sugar than necessary, it gets converted into abdomen fat. But the sugar in fruits is a complex carbohydrate, it is usually fine.

Have a glass of wine or beer once a day. It reduces inflammation of arteries. Teetotalers have a higher risk of heart disease than people who drink a little. People who drink a lot have little heart disease but tend to die of cancer.

Eat several servings of colourful fruits and vegetables a day. They contain a lot of fiber. Make sure to wash fresh produce carefully and thoroughly.