Heart Health Tips Part 1

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!  February is Heart Health Month, so here are some tips for keeping your heart healthy.  What better Valentine gift is there to give to your family than taking steps to keeping your heart healthy?

Exercise – I know that you have heard this before many times, but exercise is necessary in order to keep your heart healthy.  The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise.  This comes out to 30 minutes a day 5 days a week.  This is definitely achievable for everyone.  Even if you have to break it up into 10 minutes of exercise 3 times a day, just do it!  Exercise will have several types of positive benefits for your heart, including decreasing the risk of  coronary artery disease, increasing HDL (good) cholesterol and decreasing LDL (bad) cholesterol, decreasing blood pressure, and lowering stroke risk.  As always, be sure to check with your health professional before starting something new.   Remember also, that both cardiovascular and strength training exercises are needed to achieve optimal health.

Smoking – Again, another no-brainer here that we have all heard about.  by stopping smoking, you reduce the negative effects that smoking has on the heart.  Smoking essentially does the opposite of everything listed above with exercise, along with damaging heart and blood vessel tissues.  The good news is that your body can repair this damage.  Within one year of quitting, your risk of heart disease is lowered 50%, and 15 years after you quit, your risk of heart disease is the same as someone who has never smoked.  As someone who has lost family and close friends to smoking, I strongly urge smokers to quit now!

What are some other things that I can do to improve my heart health?  I will discuss them in Part 2 of this series.

To Your Health!

Dr. Harvey