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How is your heart health doing?

January 19th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

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A few years ago, heart disease was THE leading cause of death in the country. It’s now in the same league as obesity. However, that changes very little, as obesity often leads to heart disease, which just makes the argument cyclical.

If you’ve lived life to the fullest – which sometimes or oftentimes means you’ve indulged in a lifestyle that’s not very heart friendly - it may be high time for you to take a long hard look at yourself, especially if you’re getting on in years. It may now be time to look at the South Beach Heart Program. Here are several strategies you can take a look at in order to have a healthier heart.

A Strategy of Prevention

Heart disease is preventable, so it is a good idea to make preventing it from happening to you… a top priority. How do you do this? By avoiding activities that increase your risk of heart attack of course.Quit Smoking – Tobacco smoke contains around 4,800 chemicals, most of which can damage your heart and blood vessels on their own. Imagine these chemicals working together, punishing your heart and your major arteries. Nicotine restricts the flow of blood in your vessels which will increase your heart rate - not good. You have to quit smoking completely, because even light smokers are at significant risk. Quit and you decrease your risk factor significantly.

Drink Moderately - Start cutting down on the amount of alcohol. Overindulgence with alcohol leads to high blood pressure not to mention being dangerous to your liver. If you must, red wine is a much better choice as drinking it in moderation can help with blood flow. Of course, this need to be in moderate levels.

Eat a heart-healthy diet- The eat whatever you like diet you were on during your younger years probably didn’t do so much good for your heart but if you can start healthy eating now, it will still be beneficial for you. Try and eat a diet rich is fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Avoid high fat dairy products and fatty meats.

You`ve got to get physical
Now that you’ve eliminated activities that are bad for your heart, it’s now time to engage in activities that are good for it. To make is simple and direct you need to exercise regularly.
Regular exercise whether sports or working out in the gym or your own home helps prevent heart failure by increasing blood flow to your heart, strengthening it in the process. Exercise also lowers your bad cholesterol levels. Regular physical activities also help you manage stress, which is also a prime cause of heart disease.

Exercising is also key to maintaining a healthy weight. It is natural that as we age, our metabolism slows down that is why when we were young, we could seemingly eat as much as we want and yet stay fit. Being overweight adds to your heart disease risk factor. Its critical to get your weight lower to a level that is healthy.

Make Check-ups Part of Your Retirement
Another strategy that people ignore is making check-ups part of their lifestyle. Some people ignore this, believing that their healthy lifestyle and regular exercise is enough. Sometimes it is, but sometimes its not. There my be a need for additional prescriptions. Its easy to miss something in your health without regular doctor appointments. Regular checkups will also let you know your actual cholesterol levels so you will know what type of foods to eat and what to avoid, and also what foods you can indulge on.

Following these strategies can help you live a longer, healthier life, but only if you do them all together, not just piecemeal. The sooner you start, the better off you will be.