You have already been through a scary time being diagnosed with heart diseases. You could be also on heart failure treatment and want to maintain optimal heart health through healthy lifestyle changes. Do not despair; cardiologists across the globe have suggested that heart health can be improved significantly with some healthy changes in day to day life.
Tips to look after your heart
The best heart failure treatment is to live a healthy life.
- Smoking kills, literally. The smoker has a bigger chance to lose the battle to heart disease. Quit smoking to make your life better.
- High blood pressure or hypertensive can be a silent killer.
- Diabetes Mellitus can also be a catalyst for worsening heart disease. Managing your blood sugar levels can help you prevent heart disease and strokes.
- Cholesterol is the next culprit. It is quite likely that your first brush with heart disease has something to do with your cholesterol levels. You must take medication and try to reduce the bad cholesterol or LDL and improve levels of HDL or good cholesterol. The ratio of HDL to LDL should also be healthy to maintain heart health.
- Exercise regularly. This could be your way out of heart disease. Appropriate exercise according to your health status is necessary to keep heart conditions at bay. All the above problems are minimized with exercise. Just 30 minutes of brisk walking every day is enough to keep your heart healthy.
- Lose weight. Obesity is bad for heart health. If you can lose even 5 kgs, you can improve heart health by 12%.
You can achieve all of the health as mentioned above parameters if you can make specific dietary changes and exercise.
- Reduce processed food and try to eat a natural and home-cooked meal every day.
- Eat a variety of colored foods like fruits and vegetables. Add color in the form of greens, pumpkin, carrots and beets, and such.
- Eat at least eight servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
- Eat lean proteins like fish and chicken. Avoid red meats and egg yolks to keep cholesterol at bay. The Mediterranean diet is best suited to tackle heart disease.
- Take unhealthy saturated fats and trans fats out of your diet. Add healthy fats from avocado, nuts, and dairy.
- It is an excellent idea to reduce salt in your food. Use aromatics like herbs, lemon and pepper to create tasty dishes and salads. Some nutritionists advocate raw salads as an antidote to heart disease.
- Alcohol can also destabilize your attempts to live healthily. It is a good idea to limit yourself to a couple of glasses of red wine every week.
Mental health issues can worsen heart health. It is essential to keep stress, anxiety, and depression at bay. Family and friends can help you with this. Do things you enjoy. Take a walk with our dog, play with your children, and spend an evening on a date with your partner to feel good about life in general. If that does not work, please make an effort to see a professional for help.