How To Maintain A Healthy Heart

With the change in lifestyle in today’s world, staying healthy may seem difficult.

Maintaining A Healthy Heart

Change Your Diet

This is a gradual process and not something that is done overnight. Having said that, sound nutrition ranks at the top of my list of ways to build a healthy heart. Once LDL (bad cholesterol) is in the vessel wall, it causes inflammation. If this process is allowed to continue it can lead to acute coronary blockage. A good place to start is eliminating fast foods and fried/packaged food.

Exercise Regularly

Movement and variety are the key elements here. Try different activities such as walking, bicycling, yoga, Tai chi or going to the gym. You may want to find an exercise partner to help you get into a routine. Start out slowly and work your way up. Doctors often extol the importance of exercise, there are good reasons for this: exercise causes an increase in nitric oxide which is responsible for dilating (opening) arteries which help increase blood flow and oxygen to the heart.

Managing Stress

When you are stressed, you tend to make unhealthy decisions regarding food. You may even notice that when you are stressed you crave certain foods such as chocolate or salt. Stress can also cause your hormones to become unbalanced. It is important to come up with simple techniques to help lower stress levels. We use diaphragmatic breathing, chaotic medication, and visualization.

Controlling Blood Pressure

High blood pressure can be related to several factors including stress, magnesium deficiency, CoQ10 insufficiency, low vitamin D levels, heavy metal toxicity or drug interactions that cause kidney problems. An ideal blood pressure reading is 120/80 and will fluctuate during activity. Hypertension, blood pressure readings that remain high over an extended period, can cause cardiovascular events like heart attack or stroke. It is well known that changing your diet, exercising, smoking cessation and stress management can help control blood pressure.

Managing Cholesterol

Again a good nutritional diet is essential! A diet rich in plant sterols helps your body metabolize cholesterol. Following the above-mentioned tips can also help you keep cholesterol in check. When LDL (bad cholesterol) is in the bloodstream, it can infiltrate the lining of the artery and become trapped. This is the beginning of a process that can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Dietary changes, red yeast rice, policosanol, plant sterols, niacin and fish oil are tools I use in place of statin drugs to help keep cholesterol in check.