You might not pay too much attention to the health of your heart until you have your first encounter with heart disease or you have a heart attack. You will find a lot of advice from various sources, but before you adopt any of it, you need to ensure that you follow the right ones. Here are a few guidelines that you should keep in mind:
1. Consult your medical practitioner – whether you have already had heart problems or you want to prevent them, the first step is to take the advice of a qualified and experienced medical practitioner. It is critical to your health and life that you follow the advice of a doctor or health professional when you take any steps in changing your lifestyle and diet. It is even more important if you are taking this step after a heart attack.
2. Reduce salt intake – according to medical reports, an adult needs about 6 grams of salt per day. Anything above this amount can contribute to high blood pressure, which in turn can lead to heart attacks and other heart related problems.
3. Reduce your weight – it is important that you maintain a proper weight according to your build. Being overweight stresses the heart and saps your energy. If you want a healthy heart you need to bring your weight down to what is recommended for your height. In order to do so, you would need to change your lifestyle and food habits – sometimes drastically – so you would eliminate the excess fat from your body. Reducing weight is well worth the trouble, since being overweight (along with obesity and heart problems) are major contributors to heart disease and heart attack. Pay attention to your body mass index (BMI) as this would give you a good indication on whether or not you need to lose weight and if so, how much.
4. Stop smoking – this is one vice that causes only trouble for you. Besides the fact that it increases your risk of cancer, it is one of the main factors that triggers the first and subsequent heart attacks. Smoking narrows the arteries and cuts off the supply of oxygen to the heart – therefore, this is a sure recipe for death. Stop smoking if you want a healthy heart. There are no two-ways about it.
5. Introduce exercise into your daily routine – one of the most critical factors contributing to heart problems is lack of physical exercise. It is important that your muscles be exercised every day – even if it is for only 20 minutes. There are new findings that point to the fact that you could achieve all the benefits of hardcore exercising with just 20 minutes of a ‘heart acceleration’ program. You might like to look up Dr Al Sears recommendations on this aspect.
6. Eliminate stress – there is strong evidence that stress is a major factor that contributes to heart problems. This is especially important if you have already suffered from a heart attack or have a history of heart disease.
7. Use High Grade Supplements from Reputable Sources – using heart health supplements is quite often overlooked by heart attack survivors. Essential supplements such as CoQ10, B group vitamins, etc, can be beneficial to your heart health if sourced from reputable manufacturers with strong track records of producing quality heart health supplement products.
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