8 Tips for Achieving a Heart-Healthy Lifestyle

/ WellcomeMD/

Heart disease isn’t a problem you want to react to. By the time you’re experiencing symptoms of heart pain or cardiac arrest, serious damage has likely been done. Prevention is key. But even if you have early signs of heart disease or you know you’re at risk due to lifestyle or genetics, there are ways that you can reverse course and achieve a heart-healthy lifestyle.

1. Improve your nutrition. To reduce cardiometabolic risk, you want a diet that is rich in antioxidants and will help decrease inflammation, manage blood sugar levels, and decrease oxidation (remember the rusting we discussed in last week’s post?). Sounds like a tall order, but it’s not as difficult as it sounds. Focus on plant-based foods. There is a good documentary called The Game Changers which reviews the benefits of eating this way from the perspective of top athletes.

Here’s what to focus on:

  • Fill at least half of your plate with fruits and vegetables.

  • Get the rainbow of colors in your fruits and vegetables, as different colors have different antioxidants, vitamins, and phytonutrients that are crucial to your health.

  • Get a cup of cruciferous vegetables daily (broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage, bok choy, etc.). These have superpowers for decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation, eliminating toxins, and improving estrogen metabolism.

  • Increase fiber with whole grains and legumes (beans/peas).

  • Include nuts in your diet (unsalted).

  • Increase your omega-3 intake with fish, edamame/soybeans, seaweed or algae, or seeds such as flax, chia, or hemp.

  • Include high quality fats such as avocado, olives, or their respective oils.

  • Include fermented foods such as kimchi, miso, kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, etc.

  • Drink green tea. It’s incredibly rich in antioxidants, and helps burn fat.

  • Decrease your intake of red meat.

  • Decrease refined carbohydrates (white flour, white bread, white rice, pastries, snacks, pasta, sweets, breakfast cereals, etc.) as they have a high glucose/sugar content.

  • Decrease your intake of simple sugars such as fruit juices, and sodas.

2. Movement / Exercise. Americans sit a lot. We work in the office or at home. We watch shows, sports, and movies on screens. But, sitting for many hours a day puts you at higher risk for heart disease. To avoid sitting for prolonged periods, set your Apple Watch, Fitbit, or whatever device you’re wearing to remind you to move hourly. Consider using a standing desk.

Exercise is a purposeful planned physical activity with the intention of getting fit or obtaining other health benefits. It is different than you just moving through the day at work, shopping, or cleaning the house. It has great benefits outside of your cardiometabolic improvements in things such as brain health, losing weight, decreasing cancer risks, and improving your hormones.

Put exercise in your daily schedule. A lot of us live by our calendars and schedule. You are more likely to exercise if it is scheduled in. It is far too easy to push it off to another time if you tell yourself, you will do it later.

  • Get at least 150 - 300 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity (i.e. brisk walking, light bicycling, vacuuming, mopping, mowing the lawn), or 75 - 150 minutes of vigorous activity (i.e. jogging, hiking, shoveling, bicycling fast ) per week.

  • Stack exercise through the day with 10–15-minute intervals 2-3 times through the day when you have time limitations.

  • Walk - this will help improve cholesterol and glucose, as well as body composition. Mortality rates are lower for people who walk 3-4 hours a week.

  • Resistance or strength training, try incorporating it at least twice a week. This will help improve your blood pressure, lower glucose levels, and change your body shape to a leaner you. It will also burn more calories and fat, help prevent injuries and falls, and improve bone strength.

  • Incorporate HIIT (high-intensity interval training) in your walking, cycling, swimming, and other activities. This will help improve blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels, and body composition.

  • Yoga will improve your flexibility and balance. It also lowers blood pressure and cholesterol.

3. Stress management / Mindfulness. Stress will kill you, literally. Stress increases your blood pressure, can cause arrhythmias and heart attacks, increases fat deposition, and increases insulin resistance. Mindfulness will help improve your heart rate variability, lower your cortisol levels, help your brain focus, decrease anxiety and depression, and help you better deal with curveballs life throws at you. There are many ways to incorporate stress management into your life, so find what works best for you.

  • Meditation.

  • Using a mantra (sacred word, chant, or sound).

  • Prayer.

  • Guided imagery.

  • Biofeedback.

  • Focusing on the breath. A simple breathing technique is box breathing (breath in for a count of 4, hold for 4, breathe out for 4, and hold for 4, then repeat 3-4 times). This will center you, decrease anxiety, and help you focus better.

  • Body scans.

  • Walking in nature and focusing on what you hear, feel, and the sounds around you.

  • Tapping.

  • Yoga, Tai Chi, or Qigong.

  • Download apps such as Headspace, Calm, Breethe, etc. These will make mindfulness easier to incorporate into your life.

4. Lose weight. Managing your weight is a lifelong journey, especially when done to reduce heart disease risk. We recommend a holistic approach that doesn’t just involve cutting calories as quickly as possible. We need to think about macronutrients, vitamins, and other key minerals. Not to mention a healthy relationship with food.

Look at the below recommendations as starting points.

  • Use an app that counts your calories such as Lose It! or My Fitness Pal. It takes 3,500 calories to burn off one pound, so either you must burn it off with exercise, eating less, or a combination of both.

  • Use a smaller plate. Our plate sizes have increased significantly along with our portion sizes in the last 20 years.

  • Drink water, at least your weight in ounces every day.

  • Read labels on portion sizes. It may be something healthy like a trail mix but it’s easy to polish off 6-7 servings if the bag is sitting in front of me and I keep dipping in.

  • Clean out your pantry of junk foods or foods that are your downfall. I love kettle chips, but I know better than to buy a bag for home. Instead, I will enjoy an individual portion occasionally when I eat out.

  • Never go grocery shopping hungry.

  • Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. This is where you’ll find the freshest food including produce, meat and dairy.

5. Quit smoking. We can help you quit, come talk to us about the options.

6. Get evaluated for sleep apnea. If you’re having issues with snoring, disrupted sleep, waking up tired, having daytime sleepiness, etc. you may have sleep apnea. Did you know sleep apnea can add increased strain on your heart? Talk to us about your symptoms and we can assess the need for a sleep study.

7. Limit your alcohol intake. Let’s face it, alcohol is a toxin, an enjoyable one at times, but still a toxin. It can impair the brain’s ability to function, raises your blood pressure, causes cardiomyopathy (heart enlargement) and arrhythmias, increases cancer risk, causes liver damage, ulcers, worsens depression and anxiety, and the list goes on. The potential benefits of alcohol are relatively small and may not apply to all individuals. Current recommendations are for moderate drinking, which is no more than two drinks for men, and one for women per day. Even then, more and more research is coming out showing that daily drinking can have noticeable affects on health.

8. Discuss the need with your physician for screening imaging such as:

  • CIMT (carotid intima media thickness) - this measures early plaque in the carotid arteries. A carotid ultrasound is going to be abnormal only when there is already significant plaque and narrowing.

  • Coronary artery calcium score will show the amount of calcium in cardiac arteries (“hardening” of the arteries).

  • Ankle brachial index (ABI) is a blood pressure comparison in your arm and leg and will screen for early vascular disease in your extremities.

Come talk to us about how to navigate through this. Schedule your labs and physical which includes the Inbody assessment and ABI (ankle brachial index). Our doctors and health coaches are here to help guide you through making changes to optimize your nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress management.

This article is part of a series for American Heart Month on tips for achieving and maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle. Click below to read other posts in this series.

12 Risk Factors for Heart Disease

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