The saying ‘prevention is better than cure’ is absolutely true for heart health. While today’s surgical interventions and medications make it possible for more people to survive heart problems than ever before, you don’t have to become ill before you pay attention to your heart health.
Heart disease prevention doesn’t have to be difficult or inconvenient, and is certainly far less inconvenient than a lifetime of medication or the major ordeal of recovering from heart surgery. In fact, all that’s needed for improving heart health are some simple changes to your daily habits.
Let’s take a look:
Diet
This is the most important factor by a long way. Exercise is essential too but it’s not possible to out-train a bad diet, so heart disease prevention starts with what you eat. Sadly, there is so much confusion around the role of food for our health that a lot of people believe that so long as they “burn it off” in the gym, they can eat fried foods and donuts and stay healthy.
This isn’t true. We are, literally, what we eat. The flawed thinking of “burning it off” comes from a misguided idea that health is dictated by our weight, and if we stay slim and reasonably fit, we’re healthy. By extension, any illness that we suffer is therefore “unlucky” and out of our control.
The reality is very different. What we eat affects everything including our hormone levels, energy, macro and micronutrients, and so much more. It’s possible to be slim and athletically fit but eat nutrient-dead foods. Without adequate intake of sodium, potassium and other micronutrients, we can’t function at our best. Eating an excess of omega-6 can encourage inflammation in the body, and seed oils wreak havoc on our hormones.
Ultimately, food governs the inner workings of our body. It also impacts other parts of our life. A poor diet can result in a lack of quality sleep. This further disrupts our hormones and encourages us to choose bad foods for an energy boost. The subsequent lethargy also discourages us from exercise.
So the first step for improving heart health is choosing whole foods and eliminating processed foods.
Exercise
You may not be able to out-train a bad diet, but exercise is still a fundamental part of heart disease prevention. In particular, cardiovascular training is important. You don’t have to become a marathon runner or test your physical limits each day, just incorporate more movement into your life.
My recommendation is high intensity interval training (HIIT), which raises your heart rate for short periods of time. Zone 2 training is also beneficial, which is moderate exercise for a longer period of time and which raises your heart rate without pushing it to its max.
Strength training is also an important factor for heart disease prevention and good metabolic health. Focus on body weight and resistance exercises that will build and maintain muscle.
The great thing about exercise is it doesn’t require a lot of time, and it’s easily supplemented by just incorporating it into your daily routines. A brisk walk at lunchtime, a set of pushups while you’re waiting for the coffee machine to finish, and a 20-30 minute workout will improve cardiovascular health significantly.
Just remember that this exercise doesn’t mean you can reward yourself with a donut.
Breathing
Breathing is a lesser-discussed component in heart disease prevention. Stress is a major factor that contributes to heart disease, and deep, controlled breathing is an effective way to reduce stress levels and restore calm.
Controlled breathing helps to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and stress levels. This makes it an important consideration for heart disease prevention, and the best part is it’s quick, easy, and requires no equipment.
You can practice deep breathing on your commute, at your desk, before a meal, while walking – almost anywhere. Incorporate it throughout your day and particularly when you’re feeling tense or stressed. Take a deep breath in through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, and slowly exhale through your mouth. You can feel calmer almost immediately.
In conclusion
Improving heart health doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming, and heart disease certainly doesn’t have to be inevitable. Some simple changes to your lifestyle can make a huge difference to your health and help with heart disease prevention.
The three steps outlined in this article all go hand in hand. For example, feeling stressed can encourage us to choose comfort foods, which we begin to crave. The high sugar and caffeine can disrupt our sleep, so we turn to more sugar and caffeine to give us some energy. This creates more stress, coupled with a lethargy so we avoid exercise.
If we reduce stress through deep breathing exercises, we’re more likely to make better food choices. In turn, this can encourage us to exercise more as we build the momentum of taking positive actions for our health.