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Avoiding Heart Disease: 7 Essential Cardiovascular Health Tips

Heart health has gained centre stage over the years, especially with the rise of lifestyle-related diseases which can adversely affect heart health. With heart disease being one of the primary causes of death not only in the world but also in Malaysia, this is no surprise.

You must have come across various reels, vlogs, and videos sharing tips on keeping your heart healthy and avoiding heart disease. Well, we have curated a list of the 7 essential tips that you should follow to maintain a healthy heart.

Let’s begin!


7 Tips to Maintain Cardiovascular Health

1. Avoid Smoking or Using Tobacco

Not smoking and using other forms of tobacco, even if they are smokeless, is the first step to a healthy heart. If you are a non-smoker, ensure to stay away from second-hand smoke.

Why? Tobacco has several chemicals which can damage the heart and blood vessels. The smoke from cigarettes can lower the oxygen level in the blood. As a result, the heart has to work harder to supply sufficient oxygen to the body, which in turn, raises the blood pressure and heart rate.

Do you want to hear a piece of good news? If you are a smoker, the risk of heart disease starts to go down within a day of you quitting smoking. Irrespective of how long you’ve been smoking or how much, you can reap the rewards the moment you quit.


2. Get Regular Physical Activity

Regular physical activity has long proven its merit in keeping us healthy. It holds true for heart health as well. Regular physical activity can help in many ways.

Regular physical activity can help you control your weight, which lowers the chance of developing other conditions such as high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and others that put a strain on the heart.

If you are not used to exercising regularly, start slow and work your way up. In general, you should aim for these goals to exercise for heart health:

  • 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise such as brisk walking per week.
  • 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity such as running per week.
  • Strength training twice a week.

Even if you can’t reach these goals, staying generally active helps maintain heart health. Taking the stairs, gardening, doing household chores and similar day-to-day activities can be useful.


3. Healthy Diet for Heart Health

Another important aspect of keeping your heart healthy is a nutritious diet. A healthy diet improves cholesterol and blood pressure, which leads to a reduction of type 2 diabetes.

Here are some of the things that you should keep in mind:

  • Include fibre in your diet such as oats, barley, beans, apples, pears and avocadoes. Soluble fibre in your diet lowers the level of low-density lipoprotein or ‘bad cholesterol’.
  • Eat a nutritious breakfast every day consisting of whole grains (such as whole wheat toast or whole-grain cereals), lean protein sources, fruits and vegetables.
  • Include fish in your diet at least twice a week. Fishes are rich in omega-3 fatty acids which helps control heart disease risk factors.
  • Nuts are the powerhouse of heart-healthy protein, fat and fibre. Including nuts in your diet regularly can reduce the risk of common heart diseases.
  • Limiting your salt intake to about half a teaspoon a day can help control heart health issues.

4. Avoid Processed Food

And that brings us to our next tip – avoiding processed foods. Processed food and food made at restaurants have unusually high amounts of salt, even if the food is not salty. Moreover, they are laden with trans and saturated fats, which can harm your heart health. Avoid processed food and restaurant-prepared food as much as possible and opt for homemade food and whole fresh foods to maintain your heart health in the long run.


5. Sleeping for Heart Health

Not getting enough sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart attack and depression. Seven hours of sleep every night is usually enough for adults. Children however need more. It is good to maintain a sleep schedule which includes going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day.


6. Manage Stress

Stress and heart health are closely linked and hence the way you manage stress can have a direct effect on your heart health. Stress is unavoidable in our daily life. However, avoid coping with stress using unhealthy ways such as drinking, smoking or overeating.

This is where stress management gets important. If you feel stressed, practice healthy tactics such as relaxation exercises, meditation, yoga and similar activities to feel better. If stress becomes unmanageable, seek help from a psychological counsellor.


7. Get Regular Health Checkups

Last but not least, it is most important to go for regular health screenings to monitor the condition of your heart. Regular screenings can tell you about your health condition and seek help if something is not right.

So what aspects should you check? Well, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and diabetes screening. If you have a family history of heart disease, you should go for these checkups at least once a year.


Mental Health & Heart Health

Mental health plays a significant role in your heart health. Not only stress management, take small steps every day to take some time off for yourself. Engage in activities that make you happy such as reading a book, knitting, crocheting and other hobbies to relieve stress and feel better.

Laugh as often as you can, as it lowers our stress hormones, raises the levels of high-density lipoprotein and reduces inflammation in your arteries. Having pets is another way to maintain good mental health. They not only provide unconditional love, but they also reduce the risk of various diseases.

Finally, give your screen time a break and enjoy what’s around you. Take the scenic route back home from work, go for a walk and simply enjoy a sunset – spending some time with nature can contribute to positive mental health.



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