For Your Heart
There is no greater muscle to care for than your heart. And because we don’t actually see our heart muscle, it is sometimes difficult to tell that there is anything wrong or that our health may be in danger. This is why following a heart healthy diet and keeping on top of our overall health is important. Maintaining a healthy weight can greatly improve your heart and vascular health. And those who carry extra pounds can actually be causing their heart to work overtime, eventually finding that it can no longer keep up. Let’s look more closely at how eating healthy and exercising can help to improve our heart health.
Functionality
The normal heart is about the size of your fist and is a strong, hardworking pump system that circulates blood throughout our body and essentially keeps us alive. About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States each year. Heart disease is actually the leading cause of death in both men and women, so to say heart health is important is an understatement. For those of us who are overweight, extra strain is put onto our heart, making its normal function impossible. In the obese, the chamber of the heart enlarges to be able to pump more blood throughout our body. Not only does the size of our heart change when we gain weight, the heart muscle actually gets thicker. Over time, those who do not do anything to change their weight and their lifestyle will find that their heart can’t keep up. This is when heart disease and failure sets in.
Stay On Top of Your Health
Maintaining a healthy weight can boost heart function, lower blood pressure, and improve metabolism in addition to improving your heart and vascular health. By focusing on losing just 10% of your body weight, which is often 15-20 lbs., you can greatly reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. At Proti-Foods, our diets focus on high-protein products to help make weight loss fast and efficient. Heart healthy proteins can actually aid in lowering your risk of heart disease even further.
Make an All-Around Change
Getting started with weight loss is probably the hardest adjustment in your transition to a healthier lifestyle. But while you are at it, you can add other small changes to lower your risk of heart disease. Stop smoking! Not only will this lower your risk of heart attack and stroke, it will make exercise easier on your lungs. Take time to unwind at the end of the day. Stay on top of your oral health because this can cause a great deal of problems for your overall health. Make sure you set aside time for breakfast, as this kick starts your metabolism and helps you continue to burn calories throughout the day. Keep an eye out for new ideas on how to keep your heart healthy.
So while we all want to drop a few pounds to feel and look better, sometimes this can actually be a matter of our overall health. Start with focusing on weight loss to improve your heart health and you will be happy you reduced your risk of heart disease and gained the confidence of having a better image at the same time!