7 Important Steps Everyone Can Take to Help Prevent Heart Disease

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death, so it makes sense that protecting the health of your heart is key to living a long and healthy life. 

While there are some risk factors for heart disease that you can’t change, such as your age or a family history of heart disease, there are still plenty of things you can do to take control of your health by lowering your risk for developing heart disease. 

At Clover Internal Medicine Associates in Fort Worth, Texas, heart disease specialists Elaine Phuah, DO, MBA, FACOI, and Leon Tio, DO, MA, FACOI, lead our team in both heart disease prevention and treatment. 

This month’s blog highlights seven practical ways you can keep your heart healthy.

1. Eat a heart-healthy diet

A healthy and nutritious diet — especially one that’s good for your heart — focuses on including these food groups:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Whole grains
• Legumes
• Lean proteins
• Omega-3 fatty acids

You also want to eliminate or severely limit these foods or ingredients:

• Sodium
• Red meats
• Highly processed foods
• Refined carbohydrates
• Added sugars
• Saturated and trans fats

Including healthy foods and excluding unhealthy ones keeps your blood pressure down and your arteries clear. 

If you’d like, our team can provide you with a dietary plan outline. But to get you started, we recommend trying out heart-healthy diets that focus on the above-listed guidelines such as the Mediterranean diet or the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. 

2. Move your body

Aiming to exercise for about 30-60 minutes a day, five days per week can not only decrease your risk for heart disease but also other conditions that often lead to heart disease such as high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes. 

If exercise is fairly new to you, start by taking a few 10-minute walks every day. You could also start taking the stairs instead of the elevator or park far away whenever you go grocery shopping. Even tasks like housework, gardening, or walking your dog count towards your daily movement minutes. 

3. Maintain a healthy weight

If you’re carrying some excess weight — especially around your waist — your risk for heart disease is automatically elevated. Thankfully, following the recommended guidelines for diet and exercise should help you shed some pounds and lower your risk for poor heart health. 

4. Don’t smoke or use tobacco

The chemicals in tobacco and cigarette smoke can do all sorts of damage to your heart and blood vessels. Smoking and using tobacco products raises your blood pressure and heart rate as your heart works overtime to provide oxygen to the rest of your body. One of the best things you can do for your heart is to stop tobacco use and cigarette smoking, even if you’ve smoked or used tobacco for years. 

5. Get enough sleep

The recommended amount of sleep for adults each night is seven hours. If you’re getting less than that each night, you can raise your risk for conditions that affect heart health such as hypertension, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Practice healthy sleep habits by going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day. Avoid using screens in your bedroom and keep it quiet and dark to promote restful sleep. 

6. Understand your risks

Conditions such as hypertension and high cholesterol do all sorts of damage to your heart. However, if you don't get screened regularly for these conditions, you probably won’t know you have them. So, it’s incredibly important to see our team on a consistent basis. That way we can test your blood pressure and cholesterol levels and better understand where your risk for heart disease is. 

7. Manage your conditions

If you already know you have hypertension, high cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes, make sure you follow your treatment plan exactly. Not doing so can directly impact the health of your heart. Take your medications as prescribed and check your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood sugar regularly.

To learn more about heart disease prevention, schedule an appointment with our team by calling 682-708-0982 or using our online booking feature today.