Best Way to Strengthen Your Heart

There are multiple ways you can improve your heart health. Looking for the best way to strengthen your heart? Try our seven tips below.

While heart disease is the leading cause of death around the world, you can decrease your risk through simple changes. If you want to effectively manage your heart disease risk factors, follow these seven steps for a stronger heart.

1. Physical Activity

One of the best things you can do to improve your heart health is to exercise on a regular basis. After all, your heart is a muscle and, as a muscle, it gets stronger with exercise. Start by determining your target heart rate, finding an enjoyable exercise activity, and stick with it.

2. No Smoking

While quitting is tough once you’re hooked, it’s important that you quit if you want to strengthen your heart. Smoking can cause damage to your arteries and heart, so find effective strategies that will help you quit smoking. On the bright side, your heart health will improve shortly after you quit smoking and get better by the day.

3. Weight Loss

When we think of losing weight, we usually focus strictly on diet and exercise. However, according to Dr. Bavani Nadeswaran, it is also a personal journey about finding what works for you. Dr. Nadeswaran is a UCI Health physician who specializes in internal medicine, weight management, and primary care.

4. Heart-Healthy Diet

Depending on what you crave, eating healthily may be hard, but you can make gradual substitutions as you go. For example, instead of red meat, you can try salmon and guacamole, which are full of heart-healthy fats. You can also try it broiled and accompany it with other vegetables.

5. Chocolate and Wine

For all the chocolate lovers and wine aficionados out there, we have good news: they contribute to your heart health. However, this only works if you consume them in moderation, so binging on them won’t do you any good. When consumed in moderation, their antioxidant content can increase good cholesterol, lower bad cholesterol, and improve blood clotting function.

6. Stop Overeating

When the holidays come around or when you go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, it’s easy to overeat. However, eating a lot of food at once can increase your risk of heart attacks, regardless of the occasion. In fact, it can lead to blood shifting from the heart to the digestive system and cause irregular heart rhythms.

7. Stress Management

Stress can cause over a thousand biochemical responses, including a faster heart rate and higher blood pressure. It’s essential that you learn to manage your stress in a healthy way or it can lead to more stress.