One in four people dies every year from heart disease. That’s the number one cause of death among both women and men. Scary, but it does not mean that you cannot act on your own when it comes to your diet, lifestyle and mental/emotional/spiritual well-being. We can and must do much to improve our heart health and give it a drop of extra love because it is essential to protect the most critical muscles in our body.
To help you feel that you can take responsibility for your health, we provide you with information on the four best ways to improve your heart’s health so that you can live happier and healthier lives. Introduce these habits into your life, and you will soon notice that you are feeling much better.
What Does The Heart Do?
The human heart is a vital organ that pumps blood throughout the body by way of the circulatory system, providing oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes.
The heart’s sole responsibility is to pump blood throughout the body through the circulatory system, giving oxygen and nutrients to all our tissues and removing any waste or carbon dioxide. A normal heartbeat means blood is pumped at a regular, controlled pace throughout the body, thanks to the body’s natural pacemaker known as the sinoatrial node.
The most common type of heart disease, known as coronary disease, is a disorder in the blood vessels of the heart. It can increase the risk of heart attack, which occurs when an artery gets blocked and cuts off oxygen and nutrients going to the heart. So, how can we improve our heart health?
Get Moving
The most effective heart training is vigorous walking. It strengthens the walls of blood vessels, speeds up blood circulation, and helps the heart muscle to work correctly. The benefits of active walking will be confirmed by most long-livers and authors of health systems. They all walked daily, and many of them covered impressive distances.
Ten thousand steps are the minimum with which we can compensate for a sedentary lifestyle in today’s world. Whoever wants to improve health and achieve active longevity, can safely multiply this figure by two.
In contrast to running, walking does not give a shock load on the joints and does not increase the heart rate very sharply. By combining active walking with walking in the fresh air, you get double, if not triple benefit: not only the respiratory system improves but also the condition of the skin.
Eat Heart-Healthy Foods
Don’t think that “eating vitamins” is enough to help your heart stay healthy and tireless. When choosing between some specific foods and a healthy diet in general, it is better to stop at the second.
What is right for your heart? First of all, foods rich in potassium and magnesium, omega-acids and antioxidants, such as:
- Fish. Due to its high content of polyunsaturated fatty omega acids are considered the most valuable product for the heart;
- Nuts. Help to reduce cholesterol levels (unless you eat them with a handful), contain monounsaturated fats, and vitamin E. Reduce the risk of heart attack by 30-50%;
- Flaxseed. A rich source of alpha-linolenic acid. Helps lower cholesterol levels;
- Garlic. Also lowers cholesterol, and liquefies blood, reducing its viscosity;
- Dried fruits. Especially dried apricot, which is rich in potassium and antioxidants.
Don’t Stress
And that looks like the hardest part. How can one maintain a balance in our time without succumbing to the influence of adverse circumstances and aggressive people? Of course, ideally, it is better to protect yourself from contacts with such people, avoid watching disappointing news to create an internal barrier from the influence of problems and other people’s moods. But no matter how hard we try, our heart will respond one way or another, because we are not robots.
So, how do we relieve stress then? It’s best just not to become irritable. Restrict yourself from toxic people, smile, joke and look at all life situations with a positive attitude. But if stress already happened, try to relax physically as a person under stress is instinctively compressed. All muscles are tense, and the grimaces are frozen on his face. Start relaxing your face, neck and shoulder area in the first place.
Try Out CBD Oil
A good idea to add CBD products in your daily life. Recent research has linked CBD with several benefits for the heart and circulatory system, including the ability to lower high blood pressure. Therefore, intake of CBD oil can be beneficial as high blood pressure is linked to higher risks of many health conditions, including stroke, heart attack and metabolic syndrome.
Researchers also have suggested that the stress- and anxiety-reducing benefits of CBD oil are responsible for its ability to help lower blood pressure.
(A version of this story first appeared on HealthTechZone.)
Also Read: What the Legalization of Hemp Means for Your Health
