Show Your Heart Some Love: 7 Tips for a Healthier Heart

Your heart is a muscular organ that’s responsible for supplying your entire body with oxygen and other essential nutrients. If you don’t take care of it properly, your health can suffer.

February is American Heart Month – what better way to celebrate than discussing how to keep your heart healthy and strong? 

At Primecare Family Practice in Arlington, Texas, board-certified family practitioners Maryline Ongangi, APRN, FNP-C, and Lewis Nyantika, APRN, FNP-C, offer chronic disease management for conditions like heart disease. In this month’s blog, they discuss how to show your heart some love by giving you seven tips for ensuring your heart is the healthiest it can be.

7 tips for a healthier heart

Heart disease is an umbrella term that covers several different heart conditions. In the United States, the most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease, which narrows the arteries supplying blood to the heart; not enough flow can lead to a heart attack.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to prevent heart disease, including making lifestyle modifications and watching key indicators of cardiovascular health. Here are seven ways you can show your heart some love this month and for the rest of your life.

#1: Eat a healthy diet

A healthy diet is a well-rounded diet. It should include plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, dairy, healthy fats like olive oil and avocado, and nuts and legumes.

You should also go with foods that lower your cholesterol levels. These are foods high in fiber and low in saturated fats, cholesterol, and trans fats. High cholesterol can clog your arteries, leading to high blood pressure and insufficient blood flow.

#2: Maintain a healthy weight

When you carry extra weight, especially around your midsection, it stresses your blood vessels and your heart. It’s also likely that you’re not eating as healthy a diet as you could, which may narrow the arteries carrying blood to your heart and body.

By losing weight slowly and steadily, you alleviate stress on your organs, allowing them to function at peak efficiency.

#3: Have your cholesterol levels checked

Your body needs cholesterol to function: it helps form cell membranes and produce hormones, among other things. But your body produces all the low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad” cholesterol) it needs. The problem starts when you consume a diet high in saturated and trans fats, such as in meat and baked goods, or cholesterol, such as in butter.

Excess LDL ends up in the bloodstream, where it forms a sticky plaque on artery walls, narrowing the conduits so the heart has to work harder to pump the same amount of blood. This condition is called atherosclerosis, or “hardening of the arteries.” It can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

The only way to check the numbers is through a blood test. Your doctor usually screens for this during your annual physical exam.

#4: Move your body

Exercise has been shown to lower blood pressure, LDL cholesterol levels, and body weight, and it improves energy and stress levels, and your HDL levels.

According to the current CDC’s Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults should get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, or 30 minutes, five days a week.

#5: Get your blood pressure checked

Blood pressure measures the force of your blood against the artery walls when your heart is actively pumping and when it’s at rest. High blood pressure is often a silent indicator of atherosclerosis – silent because it produces no symptoms until you hit a crisis.

Regular blood pressure checks can ensure that your numbers are good; if they’re not, the doctor can help bring them down with medication and lifestyle modifications.

#6: Maintain a healthy weight

Excess weight puts undue pressure on your heart and other organs, and it can set you up for many risk factors for heart disease, including type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol levels, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and vein disease.

Eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly are the two best things you can do to shed the pounds slowly and steadily, so you don’t stress your body. If you need help, Primecare Family Practice offers a medical weight loss program that’s supervised by your doctor.

#7: Don’t smoke

Smoking – or being around second-hand smoke – dehydrates your tissues, increases blood pressure, contributes to atherosclerosis, damages blood vessels, and is a major risk factor for heart disease. If you need help quitting, we can refer you to a smoking cessation program.

Want more tips about how to show your heart some love? Primecare Family Practice can help. Call the office at 817-873-3710 to schedule, or book online with us today.