We all know that it’s important to look after our heart – it’s our most vital organ after all. There are certain factors relating to the risk of heart disease that can be changed and others that you can’t so it’s important to focus on the things that you CAN change, which will help create a healthy environment for your heart.
Three factors you CANNOT change, but need to be aware of:
1. Gender – Men are at greater risk of heart disease and will usually have problems earlier in life than pre-menopausal women. After menopause, hormonal changes put women at higher risk of developing heart-related diseases.
2. Age - As you get older, your body’s organs start to malfunction creating blockages and jams. Usually men over 40 and women over 45 are more exposed to heart risk than younger people.
3. Hereditary - Heart disease is hereditary. If your parents had heart disease, you are more likely to be at risk.
Factors you CAN change:
1. Weight - People who carry extra weight put additional pressure on their heart and joints. If these
unhealthy extra pounds come from high fat foods, the impact on your body can be seen from the outside as well as from the inside. High fat will result in cholesterol. Cholesterol will in turn clog your arteries and will lead to blockages. Watch your waistline and decrease your cholesterol by reaching for lean, soy rich foods and eliminate high fat animal protein from your diet. You can control your cholesterol by watching what you eat! (The Herbalife nutrition programme is a great source of protein and soy rich nutrition.)
2. Exercise – Doing some sort of exercise is an important component of any healthy lifestyle. Exercise gets your blood flowing faster by pumping more oxygen rich blood to your body. Just think about how you feel after 30 minutes of exercise or an hour’s walk in the park. Your whole body breathes… In addition to this, exercise helps to reduce stress. Instead of sitting in front of the TV or computer after a hard day’s work, go to the gym and feel how relaxed you are after 30 mins.
3. Smoking – If you smoke, your risk of heart attack is more than twice that of non-smokers. Just imagine if you postponed your first cigarette by 10 minutes every day. By the end of the 1st month, you will have cut down almost 20% of your daily intake. If you get the urge to smoke, breathe deeply for 5 minutes. By doing this, your brain will react the same way as it does when inhaling the smoke from a cigarette. Try it – the results are fascinating!
Maintaining a healthy heart depends on a combination of many lifestyle and nutritional factors these come together to form a “healthy lifestyle”. Some of the key factors include:
- Avoiding high-fat and high-sugar foods
- Choosing vegetable oil over animal oil
- Eating at least two portions a week of lean fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout, tuna) to help increase intake of beneficial fatty acids
- Avoiding saturated fats (found in animal products, lard, full fat milk, cheese, butter)
- Reducing salt intake
- Consuming at least 5 to 7 portions of fruit or vegetable servings daily to provide adequate levels of fibre and antioxidants
- Choosing wholegrain bread over white bread to increase fibre intake
- Drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water every day
- Boiling or steaming food instead of frying
- Exercising regularly
- Quitting smoking or significantly reducing the number of cigarettes smoked
- Monitoring cholesterol levels
- Achieving and maintaining ideal body weight
- Reducing stress levels, which contribute to low immune health and heart problems
- Taking time to relax and recuperate!!
All of the above factors ensure a better oxygen-rich flow, better Nitric Oxide production which can have highly beneficial impacts on your heart health.
If you would like to find out how the Herbalife Heart Health products can help you to look after your heart, or you would like to take advantage of our FREE Wellness Evaluation offer, please contact Sarah using the “Contact” page above!
Great article. It is very interesting and informative!
[...] conditions or people wanting to do what they can to reduced their increased risk of heart disease (see previous post), and I thought I’d share with you some of the information I’ve given [...]