Your heart is your authentic self-the place where all your desires, your dreams, and your passions live. It strives continuously to pump blood throughout the body, thus enabling the smooth functioning of all organs.
However, an unhealthy heart can impact everything- directly or indirectly. It can threaten your health, your family, your career, and, indeed, your legacy. It is, therefore, imperative that you guard your heart.
Maintaining a healthy heart means making smart choices now that will pay off the rest of your life. Given below are the ways to keep your heart healthy:
Reduce Stress
Stress contributes to many heart diseases and, in severe cases can cause a heart attack or sudden death. When you are under stress or are anxious, your body pumps out higher amounts of cortisol. Consistently high levels of this hormone crank your cardiovascular disease risk.
Hence, it is crucial to reduce stress. Although it’s easier said than done, carve out time every day to unwind, even if it's just popping in a yoga DVD, getting adequate sleep, or chilling with your iPod.
Make Exercise A Daily Habit
The lack of exercise contributes to the obesity epidemic, which in turn affects your heart. Exercise does more than burning calories; it helps in activating genes that are beneficial to your health. Studies indicate that walking every day is optimal for overall health.
Additionally, regular exercising is one of the best ways to overcome depression and anxiety. So, exercise daily to strengthen your heart, improve circulation, and maintain a healthy weight. All these can lower your risk of heart diseases.
Maintain A Healthy Blood Pressure
The silent killer, ‘high blood pressure, causes wear and tear of the inner lining of your blood vessels, thus putting your heart at a greater risk. Additionally, increasing age and heredity raise the risks. So, the best way to guard yourself is to monitor your blood pressure levels regularly. If it’s in a healthy range, nothing better than it. But if the numbers are not optimal, your doctor can help bring them in line by prescribing medication or recommending diet changes.
Monitor Your Cholesterol
Although you need fats in your diet, the one fat you don’t need is trans-fat. This is because- trans-fat clogs the arteries by raising the bad cholesterol levels (LDL) and lowering the good cholesterol levels (HDL).
This increases the overall risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke over a lifetime. Hence, it is vital to monitor your cholesterol levels. Get your cholesterol levels checked regularly. This simple screening can clue you into your future heart disease risk. Also, cutting or minimizing cholesterol from your diet will help improve the blood flow throughout your body.
Tip: Trans-fats are high in packaged foods, snacks, and junk foods. So, make it a habit of reading the labels on all foods (trans-fats are mentioned as hydrogenated oils). Look for zero percent trans-fat food.
Fill Your Plate with Healthy Food
Plant-based and unprocessed foods have a positive effect on your heart. So, load up on plenty of whole grains, salad, and cereals. Also, keep salt and sugar to a minimum; as simple sugars (found in snacks and processed foods) have been linked to higher levels of triglycerides, which contributes to heart disease. Furthermore, excess salt boosts blood pressure, which stresses the heart.
Just as crucial as what you eat is how much you eat. So, control portion sizes. This step will keep you from packing on pounds, and obesity.
Buy Insurance
Taking adequate precautions is the key to a healthy heart, and one way to protect yourself is by purchasing a health insurance plan that can financially guard against the heart- related ailments. Here’s why:
- A heart surgery could push you back by a few lakhs depending on the type and location of the hospital. Such ailments can also wreck your family’s way of life as maintaining the same standard of living could get a setback.
- Hence, health plans covering heart diseases are gaining importance primarily because of the rise in lifestyle diseases, owing to a modern and hectic way of life. Such plans provide coverage for the early-middle- critical stage of the heart-related event, by making a lump sum payment to the insured.
- If you are looking to buy health insurance plan, Future Generali’s ‘Heart and Health Plan’ is worth considering as it effectively provides coverage against 59 critical illnesses.
Conclusion
If you follow these health and financial tips, you will be doing your heart a favor. So, stay active with a heart-healthy lifestyle and make your heart feel better.
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