Brianna Laplante

In an average lifetime the heart beats more than 2.5 billion times, without ever pausing to rest.  The heart is like a pumping machine, the heart provides the power needed for life.  Here are the essential tips for maintaining a healthy heart and lifestyle… 

Healthy Diet: 

A healthy diet is the best defense against high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and excess body weight.  These are the 3 main contributors to heart disease!!  The American Heart Association says lists the following guide for improving heart-healthy diets:  Eat a variety of fruits and veggies.  (5+ servings per day).  Eat a variety of grain products, especially whole grain and bran, which is particularly good for the heart.  (6+ servings per day).  Include organic milk products, beans, seeds and nuts.  Choose healthy fats like Omega 3 fatty acids from flax, nuts and avacado.  Limit your intake of foods high in calories and low in nutrition.  This includes foods and drinks with lots of added sugar like soft drinks and candy.  Choose food low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol **Reminder:** animal products such as red meat, chicken, pork and eggs are high in these fats.  Limit your sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day.  Limit alcohol intake and try to always maintain your ideal weight!

Exercise:

Remember, the heart is a muscle, and the only way to keep muscles healthy is to exercise!  The trick is to find some form of exercise you enjoy doing, and do it at least 5 times a week to please our hearts and the rest of our bodies, all at the same time!  Exercising can also help us maintain healthy weight levels, which is important to many other factors pertaining to the heart. 

Smoking, Drugs and Alcohol:

The heart’s job is to pump nutrient-rich blood throughout the body.  If you smoke, take drugs or drink excessively, you are giving the heart a lot of extra work.  The heart cannot handle too much extra work over a long period of time.  Over time, the healthy heart will suffer.  Scientists have proven that smoking doubles your risk of having a heart attack, and doubles, triples even quadruples your risk of having sudden cardiac death.  Because drugs are foreign substances, they can really damage your heart.  While drinking in moderation may not pose heart damage, drink heavily is extremely harmful to the heart.  While alcohol flows in the blood stream, the nutrient-rich blood is less able to nourish the heart. 

 The heart is the essential organ in the body, and it is our job to keep it going strong!!! Enjoy

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