If you’re one of the millions of Americans who’ve made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, exercise, or eat better, here’s one more reason to stick with it: It can protect your heart.
Heart disease is main cause of death in the United States. And habits like smoking, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle can lay the foundation for disease long before symptoms appear. These habits “won’t kill you the next day,” but they can dictate how you live in the final decades of your life, said Dr. Kyla Lara-Breitinger, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Rochester, Minnesota.
“If you say you’re going to hike the Dolomites when you retire, what are you doing now to prepare? » she said.
First, take stock of where you are.
Doctors can use your blood pressure, cholesterol level, and blood sugar level to determine predict your risk of heart disease and suggest possible treatments. So start by seeing your primary care doctor to get your numbers checked, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, a preventative cardiologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
A visit to your primary care doctor is also an opportunity to talk about your health goals. You can discuss what might be stopping you from achieving them and chart a path to change.
“It can feel overwhelming if you’re trying to do everything at once,” Dr. Khan said. But you can talk with your doctor about starting with what’s easiest or what changes would make the biggest difference.
If you smoke, try to quit.
Smoking is responsible for approximately a third of all deaths linked to heart diseaseaccording to the American Heart Association. Smoking causes inflammation, increases plaque buildup, and increases the risk of plaque rupture and blood clots, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. E-cigarettes and vape pens also contain nicotine and other substances harmful to heart health.
Evidence suggests that a combination of medication and counseling is one of the most effective ways to help smokers quit. THE North American Quitline Consortium can help you find resources in your state.
Don’t underestimate the power of stairs.
Dr. Khan’s best advice for patients after quitting smoking is to see how many stairs they can climb without getting out of breath, and then start building on that.
Regular exercise strengthens the heart muscle and makes the body more efficient at extracting oxygen from the blood. It also lowers blood pressure and glucose levels and helps reduce excess body fat that can lead to insulin resistance and other metabolic disorders.
The American Heart Association recommends adults get 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, but not everyone has 30 minutes each day to hop on a treadmill or do a high-intensity workout, said Dr. Lara-Breitinger. This is where small goals and short periods of exercise can enter.
If you work from home, for example, try taking breaks between meetings to do lunges or climb a flight of stairs. When they sit down to review patients’ exams, Dr. Lara-Breitinger and her team try to get up and do 20 reps of something — push-ups, squats or lunges — every hour if they can.
For some people, tracking steps, calories and blood sugar with digital devices can be “extremely motivating,” Dr. Khan said, helping them track progress and feel a sense of accomplishment when they reach a goal particular.
Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store.
Doctors recommend eating a plant-based diet containing plenty of whole grains, lean proteins, and fresh fruits and vegetables, which are typically found in the outer aisles of grocery stores. THE DASH diet has been shown to be particularly effective for people with high blood pressure, and decades of research support the hypothesis health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Both emphasize unsaturated fats, like those found in olive oil and nuts, rather than saturated fats typically found in foods like red meat. And both diets can help lower your LDL cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol that can cause plaque to form in your arteries.
If you’re eating a lot of red meat right now, start by replacing a few dinners each week with a plant-based option or lean poultry or fish, Dr. Lara-Breitinger said.
Replacement ultraprocessed foods — packaged products often found in the middle aisles of the grocery store — along with less processed options can also reduce the risk of develop a metabolic condition like obesity or diabetesboth of which increase the risk of heart disease.
Prioritize rest.
Getting seven to nine hours a day of quality sleep is essential for good heart health and better metabolism, said Dr. Lara-Breitinger.
Lack of sleep increases your stress hormones, promoting inflammation that can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries. This can disrupt your circadian rhythm and alter your metabolism, leading to weight gain, insulin resistance and, possibly, type 2 diabetes, Dr. Lara-Breitinger said.
Many things can disrupt a good night’s sleepbut as best you can, try to follow a daily sleep routine, avoid caffeine late in the day, and plan for it screen-free time to relax before going to bed.
Avoid alcohol.
Alcohol consumption increases overall caloric intake and may increase levels of certain fats called triglycerideswhich, in large quantities, have been associated with fat accumulation on artery walls. Excessive alcohol consumption can also cause high blood pressure, arrhythmias and heart failure, said Dr. Jennifer Haythe, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
“Alcohol is actually a toxin for the heart,” Dr. Haythe said. She encourages her patients to abstain or significantly limit their alcohol consumption, relegating their consumption to just one evening per week, for example. She recommends that patients with heart failure stop drinking altogether.
Remember, heart disease is the leading cause of death among men. And women.
Dr. Haythe, who specializes in advanced heart failure, female cardiovascular disease and cardio-obstetrics, said it’s especially important for women in their 20s, 30s and 40s to pay attention to their heart health.
Women have many risk factors that men don’t have, she said. Early menopause (before age 40) and breast cancer treatment can increase heart disease risks, as can autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, which disproportionately affect women.
Pregnancy-related conditions also affect the heart. During pregnancy, blood volume increases and the heart has to pump harder and faster than normal. Some women may not tolerate this stress and develop gestational diabetes, high blood pressure or even heart failure, which, although temporary, indicates an increased risk of heart disease later in life, Dr. Haythe said.
“It’s important that women don’t put all of their medical care on the back burner” during their younger years, she said.