Introducing small changes in our lifestyle helps maintain a healthy heart, recent studies claim.
Sleep well
A good night’s rest is associated with better cardiovascular health. For example, a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology has shown that those people who sleep a minimum of seven hours a day reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 65% and the risk of dying from death by up to 83%. Is the cause.
How healthy
A recent work published in the New England Journal of Medicine ensures that the Mediterranean diet (predominance of fruits, vegetables, fish, lean meats, legumes and olive oil), accompanied by nuts, reduces both cardiovascular risk and mortality for some ailment of the heart . And is that overweight and obesity are behind 75% of heart attacks, according to the Spanish Society of Intensive, Critical Medicine and Coronary Units (SEMICYUC).
Put a brake on stress
Since 2012, the European Guide on prevention of cardiovascular disease in clinical practice includes stress as a risk factor for the proper functioning of the vital pump, since it is a trigger for high blood pressure. If it is installed regularly in our daily lives, it ends up affecting general health. You have to learn to disconnect and combat it with exercise, yoga, healthy habits and, if necessary, drugs or psychotherapy.
Watch out for cholesterol
Clogging of the arteries due to excess bad cholesterol (LDL) is the main trigger for strokes and heart attacks. One of the factors that cause it is the abuse of saturated fats, present in whole dairy products, cold cuts, industrial pastries, salty snacks and other processed products. For this reason, the consumption of omega-3, an unsaturated fatty acid that is abundant in oily fish – salmon, tuna, sardines – and some dairy products and nutritional supplements that contain phytosterols are an effective weapon against hypercholesterolemia .
Control your tension
Take it often, because hypertension does not warn. Moderate salt intake and eat grapes : a recent study from the University of Michigan published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry proves that this fruit counteracts heart problems derived from high blood pressure, by activating genes responsible for antioxidants that protect the myocardium.
Stay active
Moderate physical exercise, such as walking 5 km – the equivalent of an hour – a day, is a basic prescription to mitigate the risk of cardiovascular accidents. And if you don’t have that time, that’s no excuse either: a recent article in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that running for just five to ten minutes a day reduces mortality . Avoid sedentary lifestyle and change the car for the bike whenever you can.
No fumes
Smoking causes various damages to the body, including the deterioration of the arteries. According to the Aragón Workers’s Health Study, carried out in Zaragoza, 70% of smokers suffer from alterations in the blood vessels. In addition, says the Spanish Heart Foundation, smoking reduces the concentration of oxygen in the blood , makes it thicker, increases heart rate and tension, and affects the lungs and bladder.
Drink in moderation
Drinking is a double-edged sword. Recent studies show that beer and red wine in moderate doses – never more than two glasses a day – lower the risk of coronary heart disease by reducing bad cholesterol (LDL) and increasing good cholesterol (HDL). But its excess in blood affects the functioning of many organs of the body, accelerates the heart rate and alters the quality of rest and sleep.
