Heart health issues must never be underestimated. Our blood circulatory system and cardiac health are all related to our ability to keep our heart healthy. By making some lifestyle changes and adopting some good habits, you can protect your heart. Regular exercise or involvement in some sort of physical activity on a regular basis can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease. If you are concerned and want to know about your heart health and check whether you are at a risk of getting any heart disease, then there are a few factors that will help you to take care of the same.
These factors are:
- Hypertension:
Hypertension means high blood pressure, when your heart is working too hard to push blood through arteries and veins. If the pressure keeps on increasing, then it could become dangerous, and damage your body in different ways. People who have a high blood pressure more than 120/80 mmhg are at a high risk to have several chronic heart diseases. If you have high blood pressure, try controlling it and keeping it under control with different methods.
Also Read: For a Healthy Heart, Keep Cholesterol at bay!
- BMI or Body Mass Index:
Generally in an adult, a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal. If the BMI is between, 25-29.9 then it is considered overweight and if it becomes 30 or more, then it is considered obese. You can use online BMI calculator to know your BMI instantly.
- Exercise:
Those people who lead a sedentary lifestyle are at a greater risk of developing heart diseases. Lack of activity can hamper your health, and you may become too much at risk to have a high cholesterol and diabetes, etc. It is thus necessary to include any kind of physical activity in your routine.
- Eating proper fruits and vegetables:
An unhealthy diet that is devoid of any nutrition in the form of fruits and vegetables can also bring you near to CHD or chronic heart disease. Avoid high sodium, transfat rich and saturated fat containing diet to reduce the risk.
Food laden with sugar is also harmful as it only gives your calorie intake without vitamins and minerals. Also, keep control on your alcohol consumption. Have a heart healthy diet to make your heart function well.
- Smoking habits:
It is one of the most common risks of CHD, and it can also be kept in control very easily. If one is addicted to smoking or comes in contact with second hand smoke too frequently then it can raise the risk of having a heart attack. Smoking causes the formation of clots in your blood vessels and thus can result in cardiac arrest or heart attack.
- Diabetes/ prediabetes:
It is the condition when your body’s blood sugar level rises above normal and it remains too high. If your blood sugar is not too high, then it comes on prediabetes stage and if it is very high then it is called diabetes. One must try to avoid refined sugars and include a more natural form of sweeteners in our diet like honey, etc.
- Metabolic syndrome:
It is a term used to describe a set of of risk factors for heart disorders. If a person is diagnosed with any three of these risk factors then you are at a risk of having a chronic heart disease.
- Having a large waistline: here the fat is concentrated more in the area around belly compared to other body parts.
- Having high levels of triglycerides
- Having low HDL cholesterol levels
- Having a higher than normal blood pressure
- Having high blood sugar levels during fasting
Or incase you are taking medicines to maintain the above said conditions in their normal levels then there are possibilities that you can develop heart diseases.
Conclusion:
You must understand that most of the factors are controllable with the help of some lifestyle changes. Lifestyle factors are important and you must think of some little things like regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, or getting enough sleep etc. Such alterations in your daily routine can bring out some major changes to help you keep your body healthy and promote a healthy heart.
