8 Proven Ways to Strengthen Your Heart Health
Do you feel exhausted after a short run or a quick workout? Are you looking for ways to strengthen your heart?
Your heart is one of the most important and vital parts of your body. It’s the one responsible for pumping the blood flowing through your veins right now. That’s why the moment it malfunctions, you’re going to have a big problem.
Heart surgery or hospitalization bills might give you an actual heart attack.
What do you need to keep it from happening? We have an easy and simple guide for you! Read on below to learn 8 things you can start doing to keep your heart healthy:
- Eat Your Healthy Foods on a Daily Basis
Eating fruits and vegetables is one of the best ways to strengthen your heart. They are full of nutrients, fibers, vitamins, and proteins that are essential to keep your body healthy.
No matter how much you eat them, you won’t be gaining a lot of weight because they are low in fats and calories.
Fishes are also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and oils. These can reduce the risk of heart attacks, raise your good cholesterol levels, and lower blood pressure. Read on here to learn more about how blood pressure affects your heart.
- Get Your Body Moving
Regular exercise improves your blood circulation. This also leads to better regulation of your blood sugar. You can combine aerobic workouts and strength training to improve the muscle’s ability to draw oxygen.
In this way, your heart doesn’t need to work harder to pump more blood through your body.
Remember being fat does not equal obesity. You can be overweight while having a fit and healthy body after all. But dropping even a small amount of weight is a great the best way to strengthen your heart.
You can calculate your BMI to know whether you are obese or not.
- No Stress, No Health Problems
There are numerous studies and research about linking stress to cardiovascular diseases. As you experience stress, your body releases cortisol (stress hormone). This is vital for managing your blood pressure, and metabolism.
This is why it is important to take a step back and calm yourself first in nerve-racking situations.
Keep your whole body relaxed and inhale deeply through your nose for a few seconds. Breathe it out slowly through your mouth. Do this breathing exercise every time you need to relax.
- Engage in Relaxing and Slow Activities
This is another great way to get your body moving while taking it easy. If you are looking for new, good habits and projects to do at home in times of quarantine, this is the perfect opportunity to do so!
Do you like drawing or listening to music? Art and music therapies are a great outlet to get that ball of stress out of your body. You can explore your emotions and feelings, and get out some things you can’t express.
How about knitting and sewing? The repetitive movements and patterns of your hands are therapeutic for many people.
But here’s the thing: You are not obligated to be ‘productive’ and force yourself. If you don’t feel like doing it at the moment, that’s perfectly fine!
- Stop Smoking
Do you smoke cigarettes? If yes, not only are you more at risk of heart disease but you are also endangering everyone who’s exposed to it secondhand.
You don’t have to smoke to get the negative health effects of smoking. That’s how awful it can be for you and your whole family so stop doing it in front of people and especially children. Better yet, stop smoking cigarettes completely.
Do yourself and your family a favor.
- Stop Drinking Excessive Alcohol
Excessive drinking leads to many diseases and conditions like cardiovascular diseases, cancer, weak immune system, and deterioration of mental health. This is more dangerous for people with underlying health problems and who are immune-compromised.
However, drinking alcohol (in moderation) seems to be helping people get rid of heart disease. But there’s no clear research and study that could prove whether this is true or not.
Besides that, take note that this is not for everyone. You should still be cautious about consuming alcohol. The overall health risks still outweigh the benefits.
Be sure to consult with your doctor first to be on the safe side.
- Get Enough Sleep
Did you know that your heart works less and strain less at night? Your blood pressure and heart rate lower when you are sleeping. If you don’t get more than or at least around the recommended amount of beauty sleep, it increases your risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and road accidents.
Having 6-8 hours of sleep a day is a way to strengthen your heart and be functional for the rest of the day.
Are you struggling to get some sleep despite doing everything you could? It may because of medical conditions like sleep apnea and insomnia. Consider meeting up with a doctor or specialist to start the medication.
- Take Note of Everything You Do
We all know tracking your heart health is crucial. But of course, you won’t be able to get results if you don’t do it on a daily basis. Taking care of yourself should be an on-going thing, this is not something you don only occasionally.
Feeling a little tired or lazy to track everything? Make sure you are being consistent and won’t procrastinate. You can keep records of your progress using an app so you can see how far and how much you’ve gone since you started.
It’s also important to get cheat days and reward yourself. This is to motivate you to keep you going to the path of being healthy.
8 Ways to Strengthen Your Heart and Be Healthy
These are some of the things you can do so you can have the healthy lifestyle you wanted! Follow this guide for ways to strengthen your heart and experience the benefits of it.
Did you find this content useful? We have more health and fitness tips to share with you. You can check out more of our health guides today!
