Have A Healthy Heart And Live Long

According to a study, heart disease is the number one killer-disease of both and men. Especially, heart ailments affect people from developed countries more than those who live in other countries. This means that it is the lifestyle of the people of these developed countries that contributes heavily for this affliction.

A lot of research has been taking place in the recent years to find out the causes as well as the preventive measures that people can take to protect themselves from this dreadful disease. If you want to have a healthy heart and safeguard yourself from heart ailments, you should take the following few steps. These are mainly lifestyle changes and if you make these changes, they will go a long way in keeping you protected from heart ailments.

- You should first make drastic changes in your dietary habits. If you are fond of oily and spicy items and processed and junk foods, you must stop eating these foods forthwith. Instead, you should develop the habit of eating a lot of fiber foods and wholesome grains. The wrong foods you have been consuming all these days may have increased your BMI or Body Mass Index. You should ensure to maintain your BMI below 30. For calculating your BMI, you should divide your weight in Kilograms by the square of your height in meters. If your BMI is above 34, you are considered obese and it may damage your heart quite seriously. If you lead a lazy and sedentary lifestyle, it is all the more dangerous.

- The second factor that may contribute to your proneness to heart ailments is lack of exercises. Though weight training exercises may help you in building muscles and having a good physique, you should do cardiovascular exercises also to keep your heart healthy. But, cardiovascular exercises may nullify the muscle-building effects of weight training exercises. So, you should do both types of exercises in the right proportion to get the best of both worlds. If you are above 45 or 50, you should consult your doctor before doing rigorous weight training exercises. It is better you focus on cardiovascular exercises like brisk walking, light jogging, etc. if you are above 45.

- It is a strict "no" to smoking if you want to keep your heart healthy. Your heart ages faster if you are a smoker. Apart from causing heart ailments, smoking may cause many other diseases such as cancer, lung problems and so on.

- You should closely be monitoring your cholesterol levels. Your Low Density Lipoprotein should be low and your High Density Lipoprotein should be high. In addition to these two factors, you should maintain the levels of Triglycerides also low. If you keep them at the right levels, you need not fear about heart diseases at all.

- High blood pressure can be very dangerous and it may cause heart attacks. So, those who have this problem should take the right treatment and keep their blood pressure at the right levels.

- Stress management is very much necessary for preventing heart ailments. In the present-day world, a number of factors cause stress in our lives. Though you can not control the external circumstances, you can control their effects on you. By learning to manage your stress, you can prevent their bad effects on your heart. You can learn meditation, breathing exercises, yoga, etc. to manage your stress levels.

- High blood sugar can also cause heart ailments. Since high blood sugar leads to problems in the body metabolism, it increases the susceptibility to heart diseases. So, if you are diabetic, you should take suitable medications to keep the blood sugar at the right levels. You should make it a point to be active and this will help in lowering the sugar levels in the blood. The best way is to go for long walks every day because walking can effectively bring down the blood sugar levels.

If you follow these steps religiously, you can certainly succeed in having a healthy heart.

Keep Fit And Lead A Healthy Life

It is a proven fact that those who live a passive lifestyle are prone to be affected by health problems. Especially, serious ailments like heart diseases, diabetes, blood-pressure related diseases and so on will be waiting in the wings to affect those living a docile life. A survey shows that in UK alone, more than 70% of the adult population have heart ailments and about a quarter of them admit that they are terribly lazy. If you look at the scenario in Australia, 33% of the adult population are found to live a passive lifestyle and their health conditions are far from satisfactory.

The above facts amply prove that being fit is highly important and it can keep a person in the pink of health. Even dreadful diseases like cancer will not affect physically fit people. Since your High Density Lipoprotein will be maintained at the right levels, you need not have fears of cholesterol-related problems. Another great advantage in being physically fit is that it gives a sense of well-being to the individual. The neurons of the brain are also found to work faster and more efficiently in people who take utmost care of their fitness. This will naturally boost their self-confidence and enthusiasm.

Even in stressful situations, you are advised to hit the gym and do light exercises. This will not only divert your mind from the stress-causing problems but will help you to fight your anxiety also.

This is not to suggest that you should not immediately enroll yourself in a gym and start your work-outs. It is not good also. You are advised to make small beginnings and increase the fitness activities gradually. Your body should get conditioned to physical activity because all along, you have been living a sluggish pace of life. Shaking off your laziness suddenly may lead to trouble. It should be a slow process and you should adopt patience. You can start with walking, which is called "the queen of exercises". Once you get used to it, you can graduate to the next level of brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming and other cardiovascular exercises. But, these cardiovascular exercises should be followed by weight-training exercises and you should consult a competent physical trainer and do only those exercises that may suit your physique. However, these weight-training exercises come at a later stage when your body gets conditioned to full-fledged physical exercises.

You should change the foods you eat also accordingly. If you are fond of spicy and junk foods, you should immediately reduce eating them. These foods cause laziness. You should immediately switch to eating more of fiber foods like fresh fruits and leafy vegetables, wholesome grains, beans, etc. These fiber foods are also called fat-burning diets and they do not contribute to increase in your calories. They will also supply a good amount of nutrition to your system and this will help you in surmounting your problem of laziness.

By following the above tips, you can improve your fitness and lead a happy and healthy life.