Fall in Love with your Heart

Love is in the air as the Valentine ’s Day is almost here and while we are always busy celebrating wiyh our loved ones we often forget to take care of our own heart.  Month of February is declared as the Heart Health month and it implicates the need to fall in love with our own heart as 31% of all deaths in the world are due to cardiovascular diseases and it is the number one killer of women.  But the good news is 80% of heart diseases are preventable.  What is your risk? What are the causes? How can you prevent?

Are you at risk?

·         Smoking

·         High Blood pressure

·         High blood cholesterol ( High LDL and Low HDL)

·         Overweight/Obese

·         Physical inactivity

·         Diabetes

·         Middle aged men and women (after menopause)

·         Family history

Research studies show that 95% of those who die from heart disease have at least one of the above risk factors.  If you think you have any of these risks factors, sooner the better you start making your “Heart profile”. 

How do you prevent?

Health screening

If you haven’t visited a doctor in recently, it’s time to get an appointment for annual physicals that lets you know your numbers on risk factors. This is your first step towards preventing heart diseases.

Set your goal

·         To reduce the risk factors

·         To reduce the weight

Heart healthy food

·         Read the food labels to watch for calories, sugar

·         Stick to whole grain foods

·         Choose the diet that’s low in saturated fat, sodium, trans fat and cholesterol

·         Balance your calories that you eat with the calories that you expend with the physical activity

·         Reduce the amount of caffeine as it can raise the blood pressure

·         Regularly take Vitamin D supplement that helps to prevent heart diseases

Get set move

·         Get regular physical activity at least 30 mins a day for 5 days a week

·         Set smaller goals to keep going

Reduce stress

·         Get good sleep in the night from 10pm-5am

·         Perform breathing exercises especially the deep breathing techniques help to reduce the stress instantly

·         Practice meditation daily with your favorite soothing music

Finally, if you are going out for a dinner on Valentine ’s Day with your loved ones, here is a healthy tip to choose a heart healthy restaurant. This link http://www.healthydiningfinder.com/ helps you to find heart healthy restaurants in and around your city with the healthy menu.  Please do a research for your own heart before you share your heart on this Valentine’s day.

Happy Valentine’s Day dear friends!