Hi All   Hope you are having a great Wednesday.  Lately, I’ve become very concerned with heart health due to my family history, so when I received an email from Teresa about doing a guest post on heart health, I thought it would be a great idea.  The concepts are simple, but sometimes we forget how important they are.  After reading this article, I realized I need to really start following the “stress-free” aspect!  I hope you find this article very informative and useful.

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How to Enhance Your Heart Health

It’s the most important organ in our body, and when it stops ticking, life ends as well. It is the most important reason we are asked to pay attention to our diet, because it is what we eat that decides how healthy our heart it. Yes, genetic factors do come into play and we’re prone to heart disease if there is a family history, but it is our diet and lifestyle that have the power to minimize or maximize this risk, depending on what we eat how we live our lives. So if you want to enhance your heart health and raise the quality of your life, here’s what you need to do:

·     Exercise regularly: Exercise and your diet are the most important factors that either hasten or slow down the onset of heart disease. When you exercise regularly, you reduce your weight and avoid putting on excess pounds, all of which overwork your heart and put a strain on it. You must get at least half an hour of cardiovascular exercise, five days a week. Walking is safe for almost everyone, and if you’re young and not beset by health issues, you could take up activities that are more strenuous and which improve your fitness and boost stamina. Exercise reduces cholesterol and lowers blood pressure, thus improving your heart health.

·     Eat correctly: The best kind of diet is one that is balanced and that provides you with all the nutrients that your body needs. You need to include more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fiber, and good fats that are found in fish, nuts and some fruits like avocados. You also need to cut down on foods that are high in saturated fats, salt and sugar, and foods that are fried or processed. When you get into the habit of eating healthy, you don’t have to worry about your heart.

·     Enjoy a stress-free life: It’s not just obesity and unhealthy foods that you have to worry about when it comes to your heart; you have to minimize your stress levels too if you don’t want to drop dead because of a cardiac arrest. People who are staunch vegetarians and who exercise regularly have been known to die of sudden attacks to the heart, and the killer is found to be stress more often than not. So find ways to relax when work and familial pressures get to you and you’re stressed out all the time.

·     Evade cigarettes: Smoking aggravates any risk associated with heart disease. It also weakens your lungs and boosts your chances of contracting cancer. Those who smoke are twice at risk for heart disease than those who abstain. So if you like to puff away, you must try to quit before your heart puffs its last beat.

·     Ease out of laziness: And finally, the nature of your lifestyle is very important for a healthy heart. The more active you are, the better your heart functions. So get off that couch and forget your sedentary and lazy lifestyle if you want your heart to stay healthy for as long as you live.

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This guest article is written by Teresa Jackson, she writes on the subject of Nurse Practitioner Programs . Email her at teresa.jackson19@gmail.com.