Valentine’s Day is a Heartbeat Away

Review Your Medical Records and History

See your physician to evaluate your risk for Heart Disease.  During your consultation, you should review your blood pressure, your cholesterol levels and your risk for diabetes.

If no one in your family has ever had cadiovascular problems, that does not mean that suddenly, you can go out and eat a cheeseburger, large fries, and a vanilla milk shake every day. Keep in mind, previous generations did not have this much of easy access to fatty food as we do today. Therefore, you have to work that much harder to prevent yourself from developing heart disease.

Stop Smoking

Avoid any kind of tobacco cigarette smoke, including low tar and low nicotine cigarettes, and secondhand smoke.  Smokeless tobacco should also be avoided.

The nicotine and chemicals found in tobacco narrows your blood vessels and increases the heart rate and blood pressure.  The carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke replaces some of the oxygen in blood and forces your heart to work harder to supply enough oxygen for your body. 

Quit smoking now and it will reduce your risk of heart disease within one year, even if you’ve been smoking for a long time.

Get Active

Like most of people finding at least 30 to 60 minutes to workout on most of the days in the week can be hard to squeeze in; though, it is possible. Exercise helps maintain your healthy weight and can reduce your stress, blood pressure and cholesterol.

Programs like Beachbody’s P90X, Turbofire, Slim in 6, and Insanity, are examples of exercise routines that can be done at home, which saves time to go to the gym or when you encounter inclement weather.

Improve your Eating Habit

Knowing what you are eating can help reduce your risk for heart disease as well as your waist line.  Developing a diet that includes 5 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish with limited consumption of  saturated fats (dairy, red meat and coconut/palm oils), polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats, and trans fats (deep fried foods, packaged snack foods and margarines.  Some supplements such as Omega 3 Fatty Acids and CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10)   have been known to lower blood pressure. Shakeology has been known to lower cholesterol and weight.

Manage Your Stress

We live in a stressful world with limited amount of time, work and a family to take care of.  Stress needs to be kept in check and reduced.  Meditation, breathing exercises, and other stress management are essential for preventing heart disease.  Also, doing good deeds and volunteering for a charity are activities that can reduce stress, and make the world a better place.