How to make your heart healthy

by Dr Deborah Lee, Dr Fox Online Pharmacy

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Amazing facts about your heart

Your heart is truly astounding. Did you know –

• Your heart beats 100,000 times a day
• That’s 40 million heartbeats a year
• And around 4 billion heartbeats in a lifetime (National Geographic)

 

Your heart is a muscle that pumps blood around the 600,000-mile network of blood vessels inside your body. Cardiac function is essential for life. Looking after your heart is quite possibly, the most important thing you can do to stay healthy. But hidden away inside the rib cage, we tend to forget about it – that is – until something goes wrong.

 

• What can you do to keep your heart healthy?
• What are the dos and don’ts of good heart health?

Read on and find out what you can do to keep your heart in tip-top condition.

 

How to be kind to your heart

1. Get moving –

   I can’t stress the benefits of exercise for your heart enough. Regular physical activity will result in a slowing of the heart rate, lowered blood pressure, and favourable effects on cholesterol. It also leads to better blood glucose control, improved immunity, facilitates sleep, and elevates mood, all of which improve your fitness.

Your heart is a muscle, and muscles need to be used. Although the recommendation is for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity (MIT) exercise a week, this is not hard to achieve.

Brisk walking is a popular form of MIT. You can break this up into say 5 x 30-minute walks per week, and even break this down to 3 x 10-minute walks per day.

The key is to avoid sitting still for long periods. Make yourself get up and move. Even doing housework, gardening, or washing the car is a form of exercise that gets your heart rate moving.

In a recent review of medical studies, regular physical exercise was linked to a 50% reduction in coronary heart disease, compared to those who had been inactive.

Many people say they haven’t got time for exercise. I read a quote the other day – that those who don’t find time for exercise may soon have to find time for illness.

 

2. Healthy eating

   You are what you eat.’ Never was there a truer statement.

In the Western world, we are all at risk of atherosclerosis – this is the process of laying down fatty deposits on the arterial walls. Whether we like it or not, these fatty deposits build up over a lifetime, narrowing the lumen of the arteries, and restricting blood flow to our muscles and organs, including the heart. These cholesterol deposits weaken the arterial wall, which can rupture, causing a haemorrhage, or block the artery completely, so the tissue distal to the blood vessel is then completely starved of oxygen and dies. This is what happens when you have a heart attack and is often fatal.

Here’s the thing – we can slow the risk of atherosclerosis and help keep the heart and arterial circulation in good condition, by eating the right diet, lowering cholesterol, and controlling blood pressure.

 

Eat for a healthy heart

An excellent dietary option for the heart is the Mediterranean Diet (MD). This diet is based on the typical foods eaten by those living around the Mediterranean Sea. It means eating lean meat, chicken, and fish, healthy unsaturated fats such as olive oil, unrefined grains such as wholemeal bread, and large amounts of fruit and vegetables, along with nuts and seeds. The diet is nutritionally complete, balanced, varied, and interesting.

Don’t eat processed foods which are often high in fat, salt, and sugar. The fats in processed foods are usually saturated and trans fats, which can raise cholesterol levels. High sugar foods lead to spikes in your blood glucose levels and sugar cravings, all of which results in overeating and obesity. Salt is a major cause of raised blood pressure. Processed foods include foods such as bacon, salami, sausages, cakes, biscuits, sweets, and puddings. Fizzy drinks should also be avoided.

Fruit and vegetables contain large quantities of life-saving antioxidants – these are naturally occurring substances that counteract the potentially harmful effects of oxidation – reactions to produce energy that take place all day, in every cell of your body. Make sure you get your 5-a day – but note, some would say 10-a day!

 

3. Lower blood pressure

   When did you last have your blood pressure (BP) checked? Adults should have their BP checked at least every 5 years. Why not make an appointment for your free NHS health check at the GP surgery? This is offered to all UK adults aged 40-74 years.

You can help lower your blood pressure by doing more exercise, losing weight, lowering your cholesterol, and cutting salt out of your diet.

Even a high normal blood pressure can shorten your life by around 2.2 years. Severely high blood pressure shortens life by over 12 years.

 

4. Don’t smoke

   If you want to live a long life, you need to stop smoking. Studies show that smoking reduces life expectancy by at least 10 years. Each cigarette reduces your life by 11 minutes.

Why does it do this? There are over 7000 toxic products in cigarette smoke that pass from the lungs, into the bloodstream and travel all around your body. Many are known carcinogens. One of these is a substance called acrolein which is known to increase cholesterol as it prevents HDL cholesterol from transporting LDL cholesterol to the liver. This is one of the reasons why smokers have accelerated atherosclerosis and are more likely to develop cardiac symptoms at a younger age. Smoking also increases the viscosity – stickiness- of blood and increases the likelihood of blood clotting, which can also increase the risk of blocked arteries and veins.

After stopping smoking, your risk of having a heart attack will have halved after 12 months. But things will start improving from the first time you say ‘no’ to a cigarette.

Free advice and support are available from NHS Smokefree. For example, have you heard of varenicline (Champix), a medicine that blocks nicotine cravings? Why not get started right away – and give your heart the health boost it deserves.

 

5. Weight loss 

   Being overweight means your heart has to work harder to pump the blood around your body. Here’s the good news – just losing 5-10% of your body weight is enough to produce a significant benefit. If you weigh 200 pounds, 5% is 10 pounds, and that’s very achievable.

Losing weight also lowers your blood pressure and reduces your risk of type 2 diabetes, both of which are risk factors for heart disease.

For each 1 Kg (2.2 pounds) of weight loss, you would expect to lower your systolic (top reading) and diastolic (bottom reading) blood pressures by 2.4 and 1.5 points, respectively.

Weight loss can also put type-2 diabetes into remission.

There are so many different ways to lose weight. Why not see your GP or practice nurse for an up-to-date height, weight, and BMI measurement, and to get support and advice on the right weight loss plan for you?

 

6. Less stress –

   Chronic stress is a dangerous weapon for your heart. When we are stressed, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is on overdrive. This means there is an outpouring of adrenaline, causing the heart to beat faster, and raising blood pressure. This all puts pressure on the heart to work harder and faster, and over time, this is harmful to health. It’s no surprise that sudden acute stress can precipitate a heart attack, or that severe emotional stress can lead to broken heart syndrome.

We can’t control many of the stressful things that happen in life, but we can take a more relaxed approach to everyday living. By adopting a positive approach, being  optimistic, and developing feelings of gratitude, we can foster resilience to life’s traumas.

Nowadays it’s important to make time for rest and relaxation. This should be actively scheduled into your day, and not left as an afterthought.

There are so many ways to do this. Taking regular exercise is the first step. But other  things are also important such as taking up new hobbies and interests and firming up your social network. Hot and cold therapy such as cold showers and saunas can help. But simple things like keeping a diary and reading for half an hour every night before    bedtime have also been shown to lower stress. You may not realise these things are good for your heart – but they are!

 

Final thoughts

I often wonder if my heart is healthy. So far, it hasn’t let me down but as I approach the magic age of 60, I’m starting to wonder if I could have treated it better over the years. I’m writing this, hoping other younger people will make the changes to their lifestyle early enough to make a difference. We can’t go back, but we can shape up for the future, and it’s never too late to start.

• How healthy is your heart?
• What changes could you make for a truly happy, healthy heart?

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