Just a short time ago, heart disease was this country`s biggest killer. Now, it shares the limelight with obesity. However, that changes very little, as obesity often lead to heart disease, which just makes the argument cyclical.
If you’ve lived life to the fullest – which sometimes or oftentimes means you’ve indulged in a lifestyle that’s not very heart friendly - it may be high time for you to take a long hard look at yourself, especially if you’re getting on in years. It may now be time to look at the South Beach Heart Program. These are some things you can do right away to get your heart on a healthy path.
A Strategy of Prevention
Since heart attacks are preventable, you would be wise to change your ifestyle immediately. How do you do this? By avoiding activities that increase your risk of heart attack of course.
Quit Smoking – Tobacco smoke contains around 4,800 chemicals, most of which can damage your heart and blood vessels on their own. These elements working together, are crippling your heart and arteries. Nicotine also makes your heart work harder by constricting blood vessels and increasing your heart rate and blood pressure. You have to compete smoking completely, because even light smkoers are at significant risk. Quit and you decrease your risk factor significantly.
Drink Moderately – If you drink, drink moderately. Overindulgence with alcohol leads to high blood pressure not to mention being dangerous to your liver. If you must, red wine is a much better choice as drinking it in moderation can help with blood flow. Of course, this need to be in moderate levels.
Eat a heart-healthy diet- The eat whatever you like diet you were on during your younger years probably didn’t do so much good for your heart but if you can start healthy eating now, it will still be beneficial for you. Try and eat a diet rich is fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Avoid high fat dairy products and fatty meats.
Engage in Physical Activity
Now that you’ve eliminated activities that are bad for your heart, it’s now time to engage inactivities that are good for it. To make is simple and direct you need to exercise regularly.
Regular exercise whether sports or working out in the gym or your own home helps prevent heart disease by increasing blood flow to your heart, strengthening it in the process. Exercise also lowers your bad cholesterol levels. Regular physical activities also help you manage stress, which is also a prime cause of heart disease.
Exercising is also key to maintaining a healthy weight. It is natural that as we age, our metabolism slows down that is why when we were young, we could seemingly eat as much as we want and yet stay fit. Being overweight adds to your heart disease risk factor. Its critical to get your weight lower to a level that is healthy.
Make Check-ups Part of Your Retirement
Another strategy that people ignore is making check-ups part of their lifestyle. Some people ignore this, believing that their healthy lifestyle and regular exercise is enough. Sometimes it is, but sometimes its not. Some seniors could look into optional medications. Its easy to miss something in your health without regular doctor appointments. Regular checkups will also let you know your actual cholesterol levels so you will know what type of foods to eat and what to avoid, and also what foods you can indulge on.
Following these strategies can help you live a longer, healthier life, but only if you do them all together, not just piecemeal. And the earlier you start, the better.
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