Simple Lifestyle Tweaks For Mom’s Healthy Heart

How to Have A Healthy Heart Lifestyle

Mom entrepreneurs who juggle it all need to stay healthy. Increased stress leads to more women who struggle with heart health. For mom entrepreneurs, having a healthy heart is paramount to managing stress and success. However, most people aren’t aware of it. According to WHO statistics, nearly 17.9 million people die each year due to cardiovascular disorders. That means that heart problems lead to nearly 31% of deaths across the world. However, nearly 80% of cardiovascular diseases are preventable with a few lifestyle tweaks. If you’re a stressed-out professional woman or mompreneur, these simple lifestyle tweaks can really make a difference.

What’s your heart risk?

Prevention is always easier than curing yourself of heart disease. Hence it’s always best to know at how much risk you stand on the CVD scale. Heart risks depend upon the following:

• Age
• Race
• Family history
• Smoking history
• Blood cholesterol
• Blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Clinical depression
• Inactive lifestyle

If you have more than a few risk factors, consider making some slight lifestyle tweaks. Here are the changes you need to make in your lifestyle for a healthy heart.

Simple Hacks for a Healthy Heart

1. Increase Omega 3 fatty acids

The health benefits of omega 3 fatty acids are unending. For long term sustainable heart health, the anti-inflammatory properties of omega 3 fatty acid are crucial.

However, don’t overdo it. Follow the ‘three by three’ rule by having three ounces of servings a week of salmon or trout and 900mg of omega 3 daily through diet or supplements.

2. Know the differences between healthy fat and trans fat

Trans-fats are the ones that clog your arteries by increasing by the low cholesterol or LDL percent in the heart, while polyunsaturated ones are those which bring up the level of good cholesterol or HDL in the heart.

So cut down on baked goods, fries, processed foods, margarine, and all other products which have trans-fats. Pick products having 0% trans-fats in the ingredients list. Keep your cholesterol level, especially the LDL levels, in check and the range number below 70.

3. A healthy partnership

Although the exact reason is not scientifically proven, elaborative CT scan studies have shown that people with a happy married life tend to have lesser deposits of calcium in arterial walls than the ones who are ambivalent about their partners. Lesser calcium build-up indicates lower heart risk, so a healthy conjugal life is of paramount significance.

4. Exercise

If you are looking for a magic potion to cure all heart and health-related risks then exercise is your holy grail.

What to do? For beginners start with mere walking or simple aerobic exercises. Just 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise also reduces the risk of a heart disorder. In case you can’t deal with moderate aerobic exercises, how about walking? Just take 10,000 steps a day with two short-resistance physical trainings weekly.

5. Quit smoking

Smoking singlehandedly is the biggest cause of cardiovascular diseases in Australia. Every year around 15,000 Australians die of smoking-related heart issues.

Although completely giving up on smoking may look difficult at first, you can always find alternatives to quit smoking, like vaping e-cigarettes and ease out of the habit gradually. The e-juice present in the e-cigarettes has a lesser controlled amount of nicotine, thus helping you reduce the nicotine consumption to a considerable extent.

6. Drop your waist size to 1/2 your height

Obesity, especially with a hanging potbelly not only looks ridiculous but also is extremely lethal on a CVD scale. Cut down those chunks of visceral fat hanging from your belly and maintain a BMI under 30.

7. It’s all in salt and pressure

The single largest contributor to heart disease is cholesterol. Cholesterol is most impacted by sugar intake. You’ll want to eliminate artificial sugar altogether. Another thing that impacts cholesteral is High Fructose Corn Syrup. If you can, avoid it at all costs. Your body cannot recognize it so after digesting whatever it was in, your body will store it as fat. So keep checking your blood pressure levels at regular intervals and try to maintain it around 115/75.

Here are five easy ways to keep a check on hypertension tendencies include:

• Exercise: Go for aerobic or resistance training. Your goal should be more than 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three or more times per week.
• Lose a few: Excess weight is a major cause for stroke in 26% of males and 28% of females.
• Cut down on booze: If you are already hypertensive, it’s best to cut alcohol completely. If it’s tough then start with reducing to two drinks a day for men and just one a day for women. A better goal is to reduce your intake to less than five alcoholic drinks per month.
• Lower your salt intake: As per the recommendations from WHO, the permissible amount for salt intake is 5gm a day to reduce hypertension.

8. Try an infrared sauna bath

Getting infrared sauna four times a week for 20-minute sessions each can give rise to miracles. It’s effective in reducing blood pressure and also alleviates your chronic arthritis pain, inflammatory joints and many other disorders.

9. Feed your mental health

Physical and mental health are intertwined with each other. So to live a happy stress-free life, speak up about your fears, anxiety, depression and all other mental unrests. If you can’t open up to your families, get some help from professionals.

Some quick healthy heart tips

Other than these important factors, here are some last moment do’s and don’ts to follow for a healthy heart.

• Cut out all artificial sweeteners
• Lower your sugar intake overall
• Get a pet
• Be stress-free as much as possible
• Don’t bring work tension back home
• Bond with your friends and family
• Go for occasional dates
• Get optimized sleep for at least 7 to 8 hours
• When in extreme anxiety, start meditating as it calms your soul and reduces blood pressure
• Note that several periodontal diseases alleviate the risk of coronary heart disease by 24 to 34%. So keep a check on dentists regularly. And don’t forget to floss and brush twice a day.
• Drink green tea, the quintessential beverage of life and reap the benefits of its antioxidant properties.

For a healthy heart, it’s important to lead a balanced life. However, always know the symptoms for CVDs and when you feel the slightest of heart issues, rush to a doctor immediately.

Please share your thoughts and comments

Which of these items do you follow to maintain a healthy heart? Which of these tips will you incorporate more into your lifestyle? Share with us in the comments below!

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Special thanks to Lynda Arbon for being our guest blogger today!

Lynda Arbon is a passionate and enthusiastic health blogger. She likes keeping herself updated on health trends and blogs. Her favorite pastime is learning history and solving crossword puzzles. Follow her on Twitter.