10 Ways to Prevent Heart Disease

Our world is moving at a fast pace and is only getting faster. Often, it’s hard to find the time to exercise and eat healthy meals. We tend to fill our bodies with what is easiest and fast – going for junk foods like potato chips and cookies rather than cooking healthy food like vegetables and chicken. Thus, we’re eating foods low in fiber and full of sugar and fat. Although we’re living longer than our ancestors, we spend much of our older years in poor health, relying on blood pressure and cholesterol medication to keep our blood flowing throughout our bodies.

We can’t completely explain the causes for heart disease or atherosclerosis, but we do know that there are several risk factors that have been identified. The more of those risk factors you have, the more prone you are to having heart disease.

Some of these risk factors include obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, chronic emotional stress, cigarette smoking, elevated homocysteine, family history of heart disease and sedentary lifestyle. The majority of these risk factors can be eliminated.

How do these factors lead a person to heart disease? The majority of them work the same way, but releasing toxic substances that irritate the lining of the arteries. This leads to a buildup of clumps of cholesterol, often called plaque, in the arterial walls. The plaque can get really thick and then this causes a partial obstruction, which then slows down the flow of blood through the arteries. The blood flow to vital tissues and organs slows down which can result in a heart attack or stroke.

10 Things You Can Do to Prevent Heart Disease:

1. Exercise – enough that causes you to breathe deeply for 20 minutes. Try walking, riding a bike or climbing the stairs. These are all great ways prevent heart disease.
2. Replace fried foods and refined carbohydrates – Instead try eating more fruits and vegetables.
3. Eat more Fiber – Add a tablespoon of fiber from oat brain to your meals to keep your digestive system more regular.
4. Eat more fresh garlic – Garlic has been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease.
5. Eat food that contain omega 3 fatty acids or take an omega 3 supplement.
6. Drink more fresh citrus juices – orange juice has lots of great vitamins. If you don’t want fresh juice, you can take a supplement daily.
7. Drink small glass of red wine or large lass of purple grape juice – this has been shown to reduce heart disease.
8. Take Vitamin E daily.
9. Take Vitamin B complex daily – make sure it has 800mcg of folic acid, 25mg of B6, and 50mcg of B12.
10. Share your feelings – Relieve your stress by connecting with loved ones and friends. Less stress affects heart disease.

These 10 recommendations consist of many different ways to lower cholesterol, ensure good oxygen supply to the tissues, keep the blood naturally thin and less likely to clot and eliminates the toxins that irritate the arterial walls. If you apply these recommendations, not only will you lower your risk for heart disease, you will enjoy a healthy and happy long life.