5 Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Diseases & How to Prevent It

Major Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Diseases

Due to our busy routine, we fail to keep a check on our health. Overlooking our health often leads us to develop habits that are detrimental to our health. However, due to a lack of seriousness towards health, we barely notice the ways our lifestyle or eating habits negatively impact our health until and unless something serious happens. 

Below are some of the major factors that you must overcome to protect yourself from contracting heart disease at any point in your life. 

1. High Blood Pressure

Blood pressure measures the force of blood pushing against the blood vessel cells. Your heart pumps the blood into the blood vessels responsible for carrying blood throughout the body. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is harmful as it makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood to the body. 

High blood pressure could also result in hardening the arteries, stroke, kidney disease, or heart failure. While the exact cause of high blood pressure is unknown, several factors, such as smoking, obesity, genetics, too much salt or alcohol consumption, age, family history of kidney problems, can combine to cause high blood pressure. 

You must keep a regular check on your blood pressure to avoid health issues, especially heart issues. If your blood pressure is constantly higher than a normal range (140 and above and 90 and above), it is time for you to consult a doctor and bring some major lifestyle changes to save yourself from serious medical issues. 

2. High Cholesterol Levels

Depending on which blood vessels are blocked, high cholesterol increases the chances of other medical conditions. However, the main risk associated with high cholesterol levels is coronary heart disease. 

If your cholesterol is too high, it gets built upon the walls of your arteries, resulting in narrowed blood vessels and reduced blood flow to the heart. If a blood vessel is blocked completely, it could result in a heart attack as your heart muscle begins to die. 

Apart from that, high cholesterol levels can also result in impacting other body functions. For instance, as high cholesterol can block arteries to the brain, it can increase your chances of stroke. Similarly, excessive cholesterol deposits in the arteries can also cause jaw pain, which could be a symptom of a heart issue. 

A higher level of cholesterol is also linked to mental impairment. It can impact your memory and may even cause dementia. When buildup in your arteries, LDL cholesterol levels can cause atherosclerosis, leading to the hardening of arteries. Moreover, stomach pain is yet another side effect of higher cholesterol.

3. Smoking

The chemicals in tobacco are detrimental to your blood cells. Smoking can damage the structure and functions of your blood vessels and the functions of your heart. It can increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases, which can result in chest pain, heart attack, heart failure, arrhythmias, or even death. 

When combined with other risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, or obesity, smoking can even aggravate the risks of heart diseases. 

One of the best ways to reduce your chances of heart disease is to avoid smoking or quit smoking if you have already started. If you are already facing some heart issues, quitting smoking will minimize your risk for cardiac arrest. 

Related Article: The Complete Guide of Fat Burners and How to Use for Best Results

4. Obesity

Obesity is among the major causes of many health issues faced by the masses worldwide. The harm caused by an unhealthy lifestyle and poor eating habits is often underestimated unless it results in a serious medical condition. 

Obesity can result in causing a spike in bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels and lowering good high-density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol. HDL is crucial for eliminating bad cholesterol and reducing the risk for heart diseases. 

Besides, obesity can also raise your blood pressure as obese individuals need more blood to supply nutrients and oxygen to their bodies. High blood pressure is a common cause of heart attack, unfortunately, more common among obese individuals. 

Moreover, obese individuals are more at risk of contracting diabetes, yet another cause of heart disease. According to American Heart Association, at least 68 percent of individuals aged 65 or more with diabetes also suffer from cardiovascular diseases. If you have diabetes or are overweight, now is the time to act to save yourself from serious health issues in the future. 

5. Stress

Stress is a major cause of many health issues, including hypertension and heart diseases. If you feel overwhelmed with your everyday work life and experience burnout, it is time to take a break and focus on your physical and mental well-being.

A constant feeling of stress and anxiety can result in hypertension, a leading cause of cardiovascular diseases. Experiencing stress is quite common by most individuals in the fast-paced world of today. 

However, if you aim to live a healthy life, it is important to focus on your mental well-being as it is essential to manage your physical health. To save yourself from everyday stress and anxiety, begin by taking smaller steps, such as planning your day, organizing, and taking one step at a time. 

How to Prevent Heart Disease with These Tips?

Now that you are aware of the issues that put you more at risk for contracting heart diseases, you must try to overcome those to ensure uncompromised health. 

Some of the major steps that you must take to prevent heart disease are: 

1. Aim for a Healthy Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is reading like "120/80". It is read as 120 over 80. The upper number is called systolic, and the bottom number is called diastolic. Normal blood pressure is less than 120 over 80, while 120-129 but less than 80 indicates an elevated blood pressure.

If your blood pressure reads between 130-139 over 80 to 89, you have entered stage 1 of high blood pressure, whereas 140 and above 90 indicates stage 2 high blood pressure. Higher than 180/higher than 120 refers to hypertension crisis. 

As healthy blood pressure is crucial to maintaining healthy body functions, especially a healthy heart, it is crucial for you to monitor your blood pressure and maintain healthy blood pressure. To avoid medications, you must control your diet and avoid excessive salt, alcohol, and fats in your diet. 

2. Monitor Your Cholesterol Levels

As discussed in the previous section, high cholesterol levels can have serious consequences for your heart. 

Due to severe health consequences, it is essential to monitor your cholesterol levels regularly. If you cannot recall the last time you had your medical examination, it is time to visit the doctor and get your cholesterol levels checked to avoid any health issues in the future. 

3. Embrace a Healthy Lifestyle

Managing a healthy lifestyle is essential to avoid major health issues and improve your quality of life. A healthy lifestyle includes everything from eating healthy foods, focusing on your fitness, and taking care of your mental health. 

If you have suffered enough due to your poor lifestyle choices, now is the time to take charge of your life and incorporate some major changes into your everyday routine. Some of the common steps you can begin with are waking up early, having a good night's sleep, following a healthy diet plan, and exercising daily. 

4. Exercises to Strengthen Your Heart

Being physically active remains crucial to maintaining a good heart. It is one of the major tools that can help strengthen your heart muscle and keep your weight under control that would help ward off artery damage from high cholesterol and high blood pressure. 

As different exercises are needed to ensure complete fitness, aerobic exercises and resistance training work best for your heart health. 

Resistance Training

People carrying a lot of body fat are more at risk of contracting heart disease. Resistance training is specifically for people with more body fat, especially a big belly, as it can help reduce body fat and create leaner muscle mass. 

Studies show that a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance work may help increase HDL (good) cholesterol and lower LDL (bad) cholesterol. 

You can begin with at least two nonconsecutive days of resistance training per week. Work out with free weights, such as hand weights, dumbbells, or barbells. You may also work out with a good quality resistance band such as resistance bands. 

The resistance bands can help you strengthen, stretch and make your upper body muscles flexible. Stretching and flexibility are also good for your heart muscles. resistance bands can help you improve your overall body strength, build a firm abdominal area, and help reduce belly fat. 

Besides that, push-ups, squats, and chin-ups are some other workouts that can help you reduce overall body weight. 

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise helps improve circulation, which can result in lowering your blood pressure and heart rate. Moreover, it also helps increase your overall aerobic fitness and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. 

Brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, and playing tennis are some of the aerobic exercises that you can incorporate into your everyday fitness routine to improve your heart health. 

In addition, jumping rope is the best aerobic exercise that can increase your strength, strengthen your heart muscles and endurance level. Use a professional jump rope, such as jump rope, to gain the maximum benefits and strength from your workout. 

The jump rope is specifically designed for cardio, HIIT, and fat loss; therefore, you can use it on your aerobic training day to ensure a perfect workout. 

5. Follow a Healthy Diet for Heart

Bringing positive change to your eating habits remains crucial to ensuring positive lifestyle changes. 

Cut Down on Saturated Fats

One of the major changes that you can add to your everyday eating habits is slicing your saturated fat intake. According to USDA, Slicing your saturated fat intake to less than 8 percent of your daily calories can minimize your risk of heart disease. 

If you do not have a habit of checking ingredients while doing a grocery, start doing so. Take charge of whatever you are eating, and avoid foods high in saturated fat. Similarly, make sure never to skip breakfast as it is the first and most important meal of the day. Eating a nutritious breakfast can help you maintain a healthy weight. 

Healthy Breakfast and Whole Grains

A heart-healthy breakfast must include whole grains, such as whole-grain cereals, oatmeal, whole-wheat toast, lean protein, low-fat dairy products such as low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese, fruits, and fruits vegetables. 

Go fish

If you want to minimize your risks of dying from heart disease by a third or more, you must incorporate fish with omega 3 fatty acids such as salmon, herring, sardines, and tuna into your diet. 

Reduce Salt Intake

Reducing salt intake to just a half teaspoon a day can significantly reduce the risks of coronary heart disease. Salt is one of the major culprits in causing major health issues such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. As most of our high salt intake comes from processed food and restaurant food, it is time to avoid munching on your favorite fast food. 

Cut the Fat

Reducing your fat intake to no more than 30 percent of your daily calories can reduce the risk of heart disease. Keep checking what you eat daily and minimize your fat intake to avoid major health issues, especially obesity and heart diseases. 

While a healthy diet is crucial to ensuring a healthy lifestyle, it alone cannot help provide your body with the exact nutrients needed to maintain a healthy heart. Many health and fitness enthusiasts prefer taking supplements to complete the body's requirement of nutrients. 

Like other supplements, supplements for ensuring a healthy heart consist of the essential nutrients to ensure that your heart stays healthy and strong. The next section refers to the supplements that can improve your heart health. 

Related Article: How to Live a Healthy Lifestyle?

Natural Supplements for Heart Health

Supplements can help your muscles, bones, and other body parts. Besides, it can lower your cholesterol, blood pressure, which puts you at risk of developing heart disease. Some of the supplements that can be a good addition to your everyday routine to ensure a healthy lifestyle are: 

Omega 3 Fish Oil - How Does Fish Oil Help Your Heart?

Omega 3 fish oil pills are the best supplement for you to add more fish into your diet. The omega 3 fatty acids present in fish can protect you against disease and help you maintain a healthy body. 

Moreover, the omega 3 fish oil can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, promote brain functions, and ensure numerous benefits to your immune system. 

It can also protect you against ailments such as high cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease. While there are many organic fish oil supplements available in the market, you must choose the one with reliable ingredients. 

Omega 3 fish oil pills is a highly reliable supplement that you can incorporate into your diet. It is manufactured under the highest quality standards and contains a perfect blend of ingredients. It is pure and easy to swallow and contains 3000 mg of fish oil per serving and 2000 mg of Omega 3 fatty acids. 

It is 100% fresh, non-GMO, and wild-caught fish that would provide the exact nutrients that your body needs to ensure a healthy heart. 

Probiotic

Probiotics are living microorganisms that play a crucial role in balancing the bacteria in your digestive system. You can easily consume them in the form of fermented foods or supplements. The probiotics capsules help maintain a perfect balance of gut bacteria which fights diseases and ensures multiple health benefits. 

Probiotic is an amazing supplement for ensuring a healthy heart. It contains 50 billion CFU (colony-forming-units) probiotics with a prebiotic fiber blend and 13 strains. The highly reliable supplement helps maintain digestive health, improves the immune system, prevents diseases, and promotes good cholesterol levels, essential for maintaining a healthy heart. 

Multivitamins

Multivitamins boost your immune system and reduce stress and fatigue, crucial for maintaining a healthy heart. DMoose all-in-one multivitamin contains the exact ingredients your body needs to improve your overall physical and mental well-being. 

It contains vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and herbal extracts that target specific body systems and promote mitochondrial health. The nutrients ensure cardiovascular endurance along with improving bone and joint health. 

It contains six different adaptogenic mushrooms, enhancing your body's ability to handle mental and physical stress; hence, it will increase your strength, power, endurance and reduce the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. 

Takeaway

Cardiovascular disease is among the leading causes of death worldwide. Unhealthy lifestyles, poor eating habits, obesity, and smoking have contributed to compromised heart health, resulting in heart attack, heart failure, or death.  

Exercising, quitting smoking, and having a healthy diet are the major steps that you can take to improve your heart health. Eating whole grains, fish and avoiding foods containing excessive fat, salt, and saturated fat remains crucial to avoiding cardiovascular diseases. Besides, buying omega 3 supplements along with probiotics and multivitamins can also improve your heart health by completing your body’s nutrition requirements.