Take Care of Your Heart This Valentines and Beyond!

Valentine’s is upon us and it is the time when we see heart-shaped objects everywhere, so it seems a fitting time to talk about our own heart, which works day in and day out keeping our body alive.

Our heart is a muscle with the main function being to pump blood around our body so every other cell, tissue and organ can get access to oxygen. Without oxygen, these areas wouldn’t stay alive so it plays a crucial role in keeping us alive.

Unlike our bicep on our arm which we can see each day, train to get stronger and with some intentional work see positive results, our heart sits within our chest and just beats away without us having to consciously think about it. As we can’t see it, it can be easy to neglect its health which is why I wanted to share this blog today, to provide a little reminder that it too needs some attention.

The World Health Organisation reports that heart disease (which encompasses a number of heart-related conditions) is the leading cause of death worldwide, and since the year 2000, has risen by more than 2 million, to an astounding 8.9 million deaths in 2019.

The good thing is that there are many lifestyle factors that impact the health of our heart, and these are within our control.
 
So, what can we do to take care of our heart?

1. Stress Management:
It would be unrealistic for me to say you need to eliminate all stress from your life, however, being chronically stressed causes the hormones cortisol and adrenalin to be elevated in our body longer than they would normally be. These cause our heart rate to increase and blood vessels to narrow, which will therefore increase our blood pressure, and by doing so puts more pressure on our heart and whole cardiovascular system. Here are some tips to help manage stress:

a. Box Breathing: a great technique you can use anywhere to help your body move from the ‘stressed’ mode to a calm one. Practice this daily and it can really help reset your body and create resiliency which will help you deal with stressful encounters.

• Breathe in for 4 seconds through your nose.
• Hold your breath for 4 seconds.
• Exhale for 4 seconds through your mouth.
• Pause for 4 seconds and repeat.

b. Good quality sleep: sleep is essential for our body to heal and repair. Our brain goes through a cleansing process during our sleep, which impacts how well our brain functions the next day. Research has suggested that getting good quality sleep each night can impact our ability to manage our emotions and stress. To learn more about how to improve your sleep, check out my previous blog here.

2. Diet and Toxins
As humans, we are designed to eat certain foods which help our body function well underneath the surface. Eating foods that are not natural to us puts extra strain on our body and stress upon our heart.

Here are some foods to avoid:

• Highly processed foods: fried foods or highly processed foods such as bread, fast foods, cakes, margarine, and vegetable oils.  Due to the way they have been processed, the fat’s chemical structures have changed to ‘trans-fatty acids’ which are bad for our health and our heart.

• Sugar: studies have identified that the higher the intake of sugar, the higher the risk of heart disease. Sugar plays havoc on many of our systems in our body and increases the risk of high blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes and fatty liver disease. These are all linked to heart disease. Check the labels on packets for added sugar and try and reduce your intake as much as possible.

Here are some foods to add:

• Leafy Greens: vegetables such as spinach and kale have high nitrate content which helps our blood vessels to widen (vasodilate). This will aid blood flow.

• Omega 3 Fats: found in fish (salmon and mackerel), game and nuts/seeds (such as walnuts and flaxseed), and cold-pressed oils (such as avocado oil, olive oil or coconut oil) omega 3’s help to reduce inflammation and help to build the cell walls, therefore, protecting against heart disease.  I would also recommend supplementing with a good quality fish oil such as Eskimo 3 by Nutri which we stock at Epoch.

• Dark Berries: excellent for our health as they contain polyphenols which help to protect the blood vessel walls.

• Garlic: Easy item to add to our foods and have so many health benefits. It has been shown to reduce the build-up of platelets within our arteries which can reduce the blood flow, therefore excellent for our cardiovascular health.

Alcohol and Smoking:
Drinking more than 3 alcoholic drinks a day or binge drinking regularly has been associated with increasing blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. There are a number of reasons why this happens, but in short, it encourages our blood vessels to narrow and heart rate to increase. Therefore, causing more stress and pressure on our system. Try to keep your alcohol intake to a minimum, or avoid completely if you can.

We all know smoking is bad for us and it has been linked to increasing our risk of heart attacks and strokes. Smoking also increases the risk of our blood vessels hardening due to a build-up of plaque (called atherosclerosis). High blood pressure has been linked to accelerate this.
 

Exercise:
Exercise helps to get our heart muscle firing and the blood pumping around our body. Here are some tips to help:

• If sat down for long periods of time, stand up and sit down every 20 minutes.

• Add 30 minutes of intentional exercise every day that will elevate your heart rate. We are all on our own health journey so adapt it to where you are at. But whether it is a walk, a jog or something more intense, get your body moving and exercise your heart daily.

It doesn’t need to be a huge overhaul when it comes to making a positive impact on the health of our heart, however it does take some intentional and consistent actions. Even if you pick one thing that I discussed in the blog either to add in, or reduce in your life, it forms a great starting point.

If you do have any concerns with the health of your heart, please speak to your health care provider, it is better for things to be addressed sooner than later down the line.

With love,
Sarah