How to Improve Heart Health Without Meds

According to the Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. with 696,962 deaths in 2020. Though there are some genetic factors that come into play, heart disease is mostly preventable through healthy living. I wanted to discuss here some of the main ways to improve your heart health before you have to be put on meds. It is always easier and cheaper to prevent rather than to treat.

Though there are numerous things that can improve your heart health, most of them can be boiled down to moving more, improving your diet, and reducing stress. The goal is to be at a healthy weight while eating whole, natural foods that allow your heart to work how it should. The heart can only pump so many times throughout a lifetime before it wears out. So you want it to have to work less and be more efficient.

Move More

I say move more because this doesn’t have to be a formal exercise program. Your heart doesn’t know the difference between walking through the mall or in your house versus a treadmill at the gym. Just make a goal to be less sedentary to start. Aerobic exercises like walking and running have shown to be the most beneficial for your heart especially when paired with moderate resistance exercises.

Your heart works like a muscle and pushing it during an exercise routine helps it adapt to be more efficient during times of rest. This is why endurance athletes will have a lower resting heart rate than a typical person. Their hearts have become more efficient at pulling oxygen out of the blood, allowing them to work less by pumping less blood,

Exercise also increases HDL or “good cholesterol” which helps to remove cholesterol from the bloodstream and flush it from the body. This helps free movement of blood throughout the body and reduces blood pressure.

In addition, exercise will help the heart by reducing stress both during the activity as well as after. Endorphins are released which help create a feeling of well-being, and the focus required offers a moment of escape from present stressors as well. 

I would say regular exercise is one of the easiest and most fun ways to keep your heart healthy and keep you living the longest. They always say a body that moves keeps moving. Strengthen your body and your heart through regular exercise and you will see a huge difference in your overall wellness.

Improve Your Diet

What we put into our bodies will of course have a huge impact on our heart health. Diets high in trans and saturated fats, sodium, and refined sugars restrict blood flow throughout the body. This forces the heart to work harder than it should to deliver blood. 

So first you must try to avoid excess fat, sodium, and sugar. One way to do this is to avoid processed or fast food which typically contain very high levels of sodium and trans and saturated fats. You should also avoid most canned or prepackaged foods which will contain a higher sodium content. 

In addition to avoiding unhealthy foods, you should also seek out heart-healthy foods. You need to consume whole grain wheat instead of white or multigrain. Leafy green vegetables, fruit, and nuts are also beneficial to your heart.

Omega-3 fatty acids found mostly in fatty fish are very healthy for your heart as well. Omega-3 acts as a natural blood thinner, improving circulation of blood and lowering blood pressure. If you don’t eat a lot of fish, you can opt for a fish oil supplement such as Omega Jym which contains 2600 mg of fish oil per serving.

For the sweet-tooths out there, dark chocolate with at least 70% cacao in moderation has also shown to be beneficial for your heart. It contains antioxidants like flavonoids and studies have shown a link between dark chocolate intake and lower risks of heart disease.

Not all fat is bad either. Monounsaturated fats which occur naturally in certain foods such as avocados and olive oil also reduce LDL or “bad cholesterol” in the body. These types of fats have been linked to lower cases of heart disease.

Try to think of food as fuel for your body, not just an enjoyable activity.

Reduce Your Stress

Stress can also cause your heart to work more than it needs to. It causes your body to release certain hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol which cause your heart to pump faster because it perceives a threat. This is useful for short bursts of energy like running away from a lion, but maybe not for a typical job in 2022. For some, since the stressor never seems to go away, they have a prolonged stress response which starts to harm their heart. This can cause increased heart rate and blood pressure leading to a higher risk of heart attack or stroke.

So we cannot ignore how we handle stress if we want to have a healthy heart in this day and age. Here are some ways you can reduce your stress as well as handle it better.

Mindfulness Meditation

This involves being fully present and disconnecting yourself from the past and future, some of the major causes of our stress. You focus on your breathing and senses and just take a break from your life. I think of mindfulness as exercise for your brain. It has to be done consistently to notice the benefits. But it will train your brain to respond better to stress.

Mindfulness is well documented to reduce stress thus improving heart rate and blood pressure. This will translate to improved heart health as well as offer a healthy coping mechanism for when stress arises.

Healthy Sleep Patterns

Anyone who has lacked sleep knows how it can create stress simply by making you more irritable. It lessens your tolerance for stressful situations and just puts your brain and hormones out of balance which creates more stress in the body as well.

You should strive to get enough sleep so that you don’t feel tired every morning that you wake up. The key to this is having a routine before you go to bed and keeping a sleep schedule. You should be sleeping and waking up around the same time every day so that your body knows when it’s supposed to fall asleep and wake up. Also, avoiding lights, heavy meals, caffeine, and exercise right before bed will further aid in your sleep. If you really struggle to fall asleep, you can try meditation before bed or the occasional melatonin supplement to help you rest.

Do Things That You Enjoy

You need to have hobbies that you enjoy. This could be sports, video games, fishing, watching sports, etc. There are so many things that you could do. Doing something that you enjoy will create a sense of well-being and help you escape from the stress you are experiencing. It will also give you something to look forward to throughout the day rather than stressing over things you can’t control.

Therapy

If your stress is simply out of control and you can’t find an escape from it, it may be time to get professional help. Seek out a therapist that can give you ways to better manage your stress and see why you experience it so often. Sometimes it just helps to talk about your stress because it gives you more insight into yourself especially when you formulate it into words and say it outloud.

Be Healthy

We don’t need to have as many heart problems as we do in this world. If you simply strive to do things that you know are good for you, your heart will benefit as well. Move your body, eat well, and control your stress. These three things alone will not only benefit your heart, but every other aspect of your body and your life.