Tips to Prevent Heart Disease

Heart disease is turning out to be the leading cause of death amongst people all over the world. While certain uncontrollable factors do put people more at risk for heart disease; such as age of the individual, sex of the individual, family history, there are quite a lot of controllable factors that can put an individual more at risk for heart disease. By controlling, reducing or even eliminating these factors, an individual can greatly lower their chances of the risk of heart disease.
One of the biggest factors which can affect people in this day and age is living a sedentary lifestyle. Here are a few useful tips that can help you prevent heart disease and let you lead a long, happy and healthy life.

1. A little bit of exercise
Most people lead a very sedentary lifestyle, and it cannot really be blamed on them. Work keeps you busy and in front of your monitors all day long, and the stress of everything leaves you too exhausted to hit the gym after work. However, a long, relaxing walk of about 30 minutes can do wonders for your body. It does not need to be a brisk walk or even jogging, simply light walking for a few minutes a day can get the blood pumping through your system again, helps you de-stress and relax, increases the capacity of the lungs and the heart and keeps you at bay from heart disease. You can also do some light yoga, breathing exercise or just some stretches during your day to keep your body moving.

2. Say no to smoking
People can find tons of excuses to defend why they smoke- it could be an old habit which is hard to let go of, excessive stress in life, or simply just because it relaxes them. However, first hand and even second hand smoking puts you at a greater risk of heart disease. The carcinogenic substances and other components of tobacco cause a tar like substance to build up in your lungs. Your arteries get blocked and chocked, and the risk of a heart attack or stroke greatly increases. Switch to other healthy options to distress and keep yourself away from first hand and second hand smoke as much as possible.

3.Nutrition
The kind of food you consume on an everyday basis can also change your risk factor of suffering from a heart disease. It is important to turn away from raw sugar, processed sugar, and high fat diets. Indulging in good fat however, can have the opposite effect and is actually good for you. These include nuts, herbs, fish fat, olive oil, etc. Cutting down on unhealthy foods can also prevent your risk for heart diseases.

4. Weight management
Maintaining the right weight for your age and height can play a very important factor in putting yourself more or less at risk for heart disease. You must find out what the ideal weight for your age, height and sex is, and try to maintain a healthy body weight within these limits. Your calorie intake per day must coincide with the amount of calories you are burning per day. This can be done by maintaining good nutrition as well as getting the recommended amount of exercise per day. This can really help lower your risk and even prevent heart disease.

5. Keeping blood pressure in check
High blood pressure is also a leading cause for cardiovascular problems and heart disease. In case you are already suffering from hypertension, it is important to take the right measures to keep your blood pressure in check. Your doctor may recommend that you also monitor other vital signs on a regular basis to get a complete picture of your daily cardiovascular activity through undergoing pulse oximetry readings. Some of the important ways in which you can keep your blood pressure in check are:
· Completely avoid smoking
· Keeping salt intake in check
· Try to avoid unnecessary stress
· A proper, nutritional diet
· Proper exercise and weight management regime
· Limit your alcohol consumption3.

6. Your quality of sleep
Many people might think that simply getting their set hours of sleep per night is enough to recharge their body and keep healthy. However, the quality of sleep you are receiving is also very important in deciding how well your sleep is contributing to your health. Many people suffer from disturbed sleep cycles without even knowing about it. You can visit a doctor who can give you good tips on how to enjoy a better quality sleep cycle at night. A few things you can do are:
· Switch off from all electronic gadgets an hour before you sleep
· Take a nice warm bath before sleep
· Do not eat at least 3 hours before sleeping
· Drink enough water, but not too much, just before heading to bed
· Keeping a set schedule for sleeping every single night

7. Manage your stress
Growing stress can be a major cause of many issues; such as a disturbed sleep cycle, sudden loss or gain of appetite, mood swings, irritability, etc. It is important to learn how to manage your stress in a healthy manner. This includes indulging in hobbies, visiting friends and family, getting proper exercise and sleep, and eating right.

8. Don’t skip doctors visits
It is easy to skip out on regular health check-ups, postponing it for a better time. However, this can be quite deadly, as you might not even know what kind of diseases you are festering inside you. Always go for regular health check-ups to ensure everything is fine with your health.
These simple but useful tips can really help you keep the risk of heart disease at bay. It is important that you find best doctors on heart disease who can help you with the right kind of diet, medication and exercise that you need to live a long and healthy life.