6 Heart Protection Tips You Should Know

6 Heart Protection Tips You Should Know
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It is paramount that we know how to protect our heart against heart diseases including heart attack. Read the 6 easy heart protection tips below;

Regular Exercise
Having a regular daily/weekly schedule for exercise goes a long way in protecting your heart.Performing aerobic exercise regularly also helps protect coronary arteries by reducing resting heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol level and body fat.

Avoid getting excessively fat
Because most individuals who have heart disease are overweight, you should take steps to control your weight. Weighing too much (especially if you carry your extra pounds in your waistline) raises the risk of a heart attack.

Watch your blood pressure
High blood pressure is a major risk factor for a heart attack. Although an excessively high level of blood pressure expedites the process of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), it’s relatively easy to control (e.g., by exercising regularly, eating sensibly, restricting dietary sodium, drinking alcohol in moderation, etc.)

Avoid smoking
Smoking accentuates the risk of incurring coronary artery disease for a number of reasons, including the fact that it raises the demands of the heart for oxygen, limits the ability of blood to transport oxygen, increases the viscosity level of blood, lowers HDL level, promotes the adherence of LDL to the lining of the arteries and predisposes coronary arteries to spasm.

Keep blood sugar level close to normal
People whose blood sugar level runs high (diabetics in particular), who carry an abnormally high level of body fat and who have unduly high levels of cholesterol and blood lipids (fats), are especially at risk for a heart attack.

Know the symptoms of a heart attack
Be aware of the major symptoms of a heart attack (e.g., shortness of breath, an uncomfortable pressure, squeezing or pain in the center of the chest behind the breast bone; pain that spreads to the shoulders, neck or arms; dizziness; fainting; nausea). If you think that you or someone you know is having a heart attack, get to a hospital as fast as possible.

This article was culled from an article that was published on nicholls.edu