Healthy Habits to Prevent Heart Disease

Habits to Prevent Heart Disease

There are a number of ways to help prevent heart disease by changing aspects of your lifestyle. By making small, lifestyle changes that you can maintain, you can greatly reduce your risk of heart disease, and even help treat it if you already have a heart condition.

1. Stop Smoking:
• Smoking increases your risk of heart disease by 2-4 times
• Women who smoke have a 25% increase risk of heart disease than men who smoke
• Smoking can shave 13-14 years off of your life
• Makes your heart rate and blood pressure sky rocket
• Smoking robs your heart, brain and arteries of oxygen
• Decreases your tolerance for physical activity
• Quitting smoking can cut your risk of heart disease in half
2. Consistent Exercise:
• Helps you to lose weight, decrease stress, lower blood pressure and increase HDL (good) cholesterol
• It is recommended that you do aerobic exercise most days of the week for 30-60 miuntes
• Exercising helps to improve strength, flexibility and balance
3. Manage Stress:
• Develop habits to help ease stress and stressful situations
• Constant stress is harmful to heart health
• Learn to understand stressful trigger and learn how to respond to them both at home and at work