The Importance Of A Healthy Heart
Your heart is one of the most important organs in your body. It’s at the core of many of your body’s functions, meaning keeping it healthy is essential to your overall health. In celebration of American Heart Month, which is every February, take the time to learn about the role of your heart and ways to keep it strong as you age.
What Your Heart Does For Your Body
The heart is part of the body’s circulatory system. The fist-sized organ helps pump nutrient-rich blood through the body. The heart has an electrical system that controls the heartbeat and the rate at which blood flows.
A healthy heart keeps a steady heartbeat and effortlessly allows blood to flow. As you age, the heart, like any other body part, changes and increases your risk for various heart-related conditions such as heart attacks, heart disease, and heart failure. One of the most common age-related changes to the heart is the thickening of arteries, which can increase blood pressure, a primary symptom of many heart conditions.
Tips To Keep Your Heart Healthy
While heart changes are a part of aging, you can delay or prevent heart disease and other heart conditions with simple lifestyle changes focused on improving your heart health.
Exercise
Your heart is a muscular organ. Like other muscles, you need to work on it to increase strength. The stronger your heart, the lower your blood pressure and the decreased risk you have of heart-related diseases. Regular exercise also improves the heart’s ability to pump blood and helps reduce your resting heart rate.
Mixing cardio exercises with resistance training is the best workout for improving your heart health. Cardio exercises, such as brisk walks, biking, or swimming, increase your heart rate. Resistance training focuses on muscle strength, such as lifting light weights or incorporating bodyweight workouts.
Aim to add two to three days of cardio and one to two days of resistance training to your week. Each session only needs to be 20 to 30 minutes and can be something as simple as walking around the neighborhood with a friend or using 3lb weights to complete a workout as you watch television.
Diet
What you eat directly affects your body in many ways. Your goal with your diet is to eat well-balanced meals filled with the nutrients your body needs to function. A heart-healthy diet means incorporating lots of lean proteins like fish and chicken, fresh produce, and whole grains into your meals. It also means limiting trans fats, such as fried and processed foods. Yes, cooking fresh meals daily can be time-consuming, but spending the extra time preparing healthy and nutritious meals can significantly improve your quality of life.
Quit Unhealthy Habits
You can eat right and exercise every day, but if you’re indulging in unhealthy habits like smoking and excessive drinking, you won’t experience health improvements. There are thousands of chemicals in cigarettes. These chemicals can thicken the blood and form clots within veins and arteries, leading to a heart attack. Excessive alcohol increases blood pressure and affects the heart muscles.
Both smoking and drinking are addictive behaviors, and it may be challenging for you to quit on your own. Don’t hesitate to contact loved ones or medical professionals for help quitting unhealthy habits. Plenty of treatment options are available, and it’s never too late to stop.
Keeping Your Heart Healthy With Visiting Angels
Whether you need help changing lifestyle habits to improve your heart health or you’re managing a recent heart disease diagnosis, the caregivers at Visiting Angels are available to help.
Our caregivers make fantastic accountability buddies. They’ll help make heart-healthy meals and provide emotional support while you work through leaving poor habits behind. They may even join you on a workout to ensure you get the proper physical activity to keep your heart strong. Caregivers also help with household tasks like light housekeeping, laundry, and vacuuming.
Our Rockwall office works with seniors throughout Rockwall, Texas, and the surrounding communities. Contact us with any questions about at-home care or to schedule a complimentary consultation to learn how working with a caregiver can benefit your heart health.