DYNAMIC HEALTH LINK : How To Keep Heart Healthy?

Bacteria and viruses keep on struggling to outweigh our immune system and to creep into our body by any means. Even if a minor compromise is made by our immunity, it may result in fever, swelling etc., leading to constriction of blood vessels or say even precipitation of blood at some points inside the vessels. Such precipitations clog microscopic blood vessels resulting in heart attacks or strokes.

For the immune system to work efficiently and for you to stay healthy with a healthy heart, find below a few tips that could easily be adapted to live healthy.

Floss your teeth: Bleeding gums, swollen gums, tooth decay etc., require your immediate attention as the inflammation may lead to blood vessel constriction, i.e., avoiding dental diseases prevents inflammation of the arteries, which helps you reduce the chances of a heart disease. Many are not aware of the fact that oral hygiene is the key factor to prevent many illnesses. An unhygienic oral cavity is a Pandora’s Box of many illnesses.

Exercise regularly: Among two lions of the same age and origin (say twins), the one at jungle with regular hunt out for prey will be much healthier than its counterpart at the zoo enjoying a lazy lifestyle, provide whatever medical attention to the latter. This theory applies to us too. Regular exercise keeps one healthy and walking half-an-hour a day decreases the risk of having a heart attack by about 30 percent. Prefer doing it early morning with an empty stomach as it helps lowering the body fat since the energy required will be obtained by burning that excess fat stored in your body, while an evening walk will only abstract energy from whatever you’ve eaten during the day. If you succeed walking daily, you can succeed at doing other things to improve health. Skip that and you start compromising health in other ways too.

Reduce weight:

plaque forming process in artery

A BMI of 20-26 is desirable for middle aged adults while a BMI of more than 30 indicates obesity. Similarly, a waist-hip ratio of 0.8 or lesser for women and 1 or lesser for men is considered the ideal shape. The fat that accumulates especially around the waist is not only a sign of danger for your shape but also for your health. Why is it a potential danger? Here is a relative theory behind that: The fat that gets accumulated there feeds the kidney, liver and other vital organs. When you gain weight, you accumulate fat inside the comparatively rigid kidney capsule too. This fat pushes the kidney thereby the kidney needing more blood pressure to drive blood through as it’s getting jammed by the fat. So it releases hormones that cause vasoconstriction thereby increased blood pressure. If you discard a little of that omentum fat which can be achieved by just a few pounds of weight losess , your blood pressure recedes down really fast. Cutting back on salt (sodium chloride) may help, but for some people reducing sugar and saturated fat in the diet may help even more.

Once you’re above 40s, monitor your blood pressure regularly. A blood pressure level of 140/90 mmHg or higher is considered high while any reading above 120/80 mmHg is considered as prehypertension level. High blood pressure makes the heart work extra hard and hardens artery walls, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Hence high blood pressure is a silent killer because there are no symptoms and if lifestyle changes are not bringing your blood pressure within the normal range then, medications may be needed. So if you’re above 40s, it’s a must to keep an eye on your blood pressure levels and contain it through regular doctor visits, physical exercise, diet and medications if any needed.

Eat healthy: Fat rich food is essentially a threat to heart. Similarly starch rich potato, white bread etc., increase blood sugar level, again a potential threat for heart. Saturated fat and trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils) lead to inflammation in the arteries.

To be more informative, let’s discuss the topic of fats a little bit elaborated. Fats and oils are either saturated or unsaturated; unsaturated fats can be either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Saturated fats, which mainly come from animal sources, increase cholesterol levels. Tropical oils such as coconut and palm are two non-animal examples of saturated fat. Hydrogenated oils such as margarine and vegetable shortening are saturated fats that have been chemically transformed from their normal liquid state into solids. During the hydrogenation procedure, extra hydrogen atoms are pumped into unsaturated fat. This creates trans fatty acids, the most unhealthy type of fat found to be the number one cause of heart disease.