Lower your risk of heart disease by making simple lifestyle changes in your daily habits. Read on to find out some heart healthy habits you should follow.
1. Healthy Diet
Consume a diet rich in the 4 main food groups, such as grain products, fruits, vegetables and meat. So start making healthy meals and snack to lower and prevent your heart disease risk.
2. Not Smoking
It has been said and proven that smoking increases your risk for stroke and heart attack. The sooner you quit smoking, the sooner you will reap the health benefits.
Research also proved that people who quit smoking lowered their disease risk by 40% in 5 years.
3. Be Active
Staying active and any form of physical activity have been known to reduce the risk of over 25 major health problems, including stroke and heart disease. Add physical activities into your daily routine by walking instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and limiting your time in watching television.
Also give your heart a boost by doing at least 1-2 hours of moderate to vigorous exercises weekly.
4. Reduce Stress
High stress is one of the factors leading to heart disease, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, drinking too much alcohol and eating unhealthy foods.
Lower your stress level by identifying what is causing your anxiety. Chatting with your friends and family, daily exercise, consuming nutritious foods and allotting time to yourself to unwind can help keep stress at bay.
5. Maintain a Normal Body Mass Index
Obesity is known to contribute to conditions such as heart disease. That is why you must maintain a healthy body mass index. To do this, you must eat a healthy diet and exercise daily to help ward off heart disease.
6. Get Enough Sleep
Getting less amount of sleep can make you a target for heart disease. Sleep deprived people are more likely to have weight issues, diabetes and high blood pressure, all of these are risk factor for heart disease.
It it recommended that you get at least 7 hours of sleep at night, to reduce your risk of heart disease. Follow a routine sleep schedule to wake up refreshed and help ward off heart disease.
