How to Support Heart Health

Change is an important part of living with heart disease or trying to prevent it. A jump in blood pressure or cholesterol earns you a lecture on healthy lifestyle changes. Heart attack and stroke survivors are often told to alter a lifetime of habits.

Some people manage to overhaul their exercise pattern, diet, and unhealthy habits with ease. The rest of us try to make changes, but don’t always succeed. Instead of undertaking a huge makeover, you might be able to improve your heart’s health with a series of small changes. Once you get going, you may find that change isn’t so hard. This approach may take longer, but it could also motivate you to make some big changes.

Here are 10 small steps to improve heart your health.

1. Take a 10-minute walk. If you don’t exercise at all, a brief walk is a great way to start. If you do, it’s a good way to add more exercise to your day.

2. Give yourself a lift. Lifting a hardcover book or a two-pound weight a few times a day can help tone your arm muscles. When that becomes a breeze, move on to heavier items or join a gym.

3. Eat one extra fruit or vegetable a day. Fruits and vegetables are inexpensive, taste good, and are good for everything from your brain to your bowels.

4. Make breakfast count. Start the day with some fruit and a serving of whole grains, like oatmeal, bran flakes, or whole-wheat toast.

5. Stop drinking your calories. Cutting out just one sugar-sweetened soda or calorie-laden latte can easily save you 100 or more calories a day. Over a year, that can translate into a 10-pound weight loss.

6. Have a handful of nuts. Walnuts, almonds, peanuts, and other nuts are good for your heart. Try grabbing some instead of chips or cookies when you need a snack, adding them to salads for a healthful and tasty crunch, or using them in place of meat in pasta and other dishes.

7. Sample the fruits of the sea. Eat fish or other types of seafood instead of red meat once a week. It’s good for the heart, the brain, and the waistline.

8. Breathe deeply. Try breathing slowly and deeply for a few minutes a day. It can help you relax. Slow, deep breathing may also help lower blood pressure.

9. Wash your hands often. Scrubbing up with soap and water often during the day is a great way to protect your heart and health. The flu, pneumonia, and other infections can be very hard on the heart.

10. Count your blessings. Taking a moment each day to acknowledge the blessings in your life is one way to start tapping into other positive emotions. These have been linked with better health, longer life, and greater well-being, just as their opposites — chronic anger, worry, and hostility — contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease.

Image: FatCamera/Getty Images

Share this page:

• Share this page to Facebook
• Share this page to Twitter
• Share this page to Google Plus
• Email this page

Print this page:

Disclaimer:
As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

You know that exercise and a good diet can keep your heart healthy. But what else can you do to keep your ticker going strong? Here, cardiothoracic surgeon Marc Gillinov, MD, recommends five key things you need to do every day to help your heart work most efficiently. Incorporate these habits into your lifestyle and your heart health will be the best it can be for you.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy

1. Eat healthy fats, NOT trans fats. We need fats in our diet, including saturated and polyunsaturated and unsaturated fats. One fat we don’t need is trans fat, which is known to increase your risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke over a lifetime. This is because trans fat clogs your arteries by raising your bad cholesterol levels (LDL) and lowering your good cholesterol levels (HDL). By cutting them from your diet, you improve the blood flow throughout your body. So, what are trans fats? They are industry-produced fats often used in packaged baked goods, snack foods, margarines and fried fast foods to add flavor and texture. TIP:Read the labels on all foods. Trans fat appears on the ingredients list as partially hydrogenated oils. Look for 0 percent trans fat. Make it a point to avoid eating foods with trans fat.
2. Practice good dental hygiene, especially flossing your teeth daily.Dental health is a good indication of overall health, including your heart, because those who have periodontal (gum) disease often have the same risk factors for heart disease. Studies continue on this issue, but many have shown that bacteria in the mouth involved in the development of gum disease can move into the bloodstream and cause an elevation in C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the blood vessels. These changes may in turn, increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. TIP:Floss and brush your teeth daily to ward off gum disease. It’s more than cavities you may have to deal with if you are fighting gum disease.
3. Get enough sleep.Sleep is an essential part of keeping your heart healthy. If you don’t sleep enough, you may be at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease no matter your age or other health habits. One study looking at 3,000 adults over the age of 45 found that those who slept fewer than six hours per night were about twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack as people who slept six to eight hours per night. Researchers believe sleeping too little causes disruptions in underlying health conditions and biological processes, including blood pressure and inflammation. TIP:Make sleep a priority. Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep most nights. If you have sleep apnea, you should be treated as this condition is linked to heart disease and arrhythmias.
4. Don’t sit for too long at one time. In recent years, research has suggested that staying seated for long periods of time is bad for your health no matter how much exercise you do. This is bad news for the many people who sit at sedentary jobs all day. When looking at the combined results of several observational studies that included nearly 800,000 people, researchers found that in those who sat the most, there was an associated 147 percent increase in cardiovascular events and a 90 percent increase in death caused by these events. In addition, sitting for long periods of time (especially when traveling) increases your risk of deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot). TIP: Experts say it’s important to move throughout the day. Park farther away from the office, take a few shorter walks throughout the day and/or use a standing work station so you can move up and down. And remember to exercise on most days.
5. Avoid secondhand smoke like the plague.Studies show that the risk of developing heart disease is about 25 to 30 percent higher for people who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work. According to the American Heart Association, exposure to tobacco smoke contributes to about 34,000 premature heart disease deaths and 7,300 lung cancer deaths each year. And nonsmokers who have high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol have an even greater risk of developing heart disease when they’re exposed to secondhand smoke. This is because the chemicals emitted from cigarette smoke promote the development of plaque buildup in the arteries. TIP:Be firm with smokers that you do not want to be around environmental smoke — and keep children away from secondhand smoke.

Follow these five tips and you’ll be doing your heart a favor. You’ll feel better and be able to stay active with a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Cardiovascular disease, also known as heart disease, or coronary artery disease (CAD), is the number one killer in the United States. Diet and lifestyle play an important role in preventing and reversing heart disease, and certain herbs and supplements can help lower your risk for heart disease and treat heart conditions you’ve already been diagnosed with.

Several herbs and supplements may help in fighting atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of most heart disease. Atherosclerosis causes plaque to build up in your arteries, blocking the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart and other organs. It can cause a heart attack and even death.

Atherosclerosis is common in the developed world, but virtually unknown outside of it, due to the different diets and lifestyles of people in the developing world.

Here are some nutritional supplements that may help decrease your risk of developing heart disease:

Coenzyme Q10

CoenzymeQ10, or CoQ10, or ubiquinone, is a chemical that plays a crucial role in a cell’s ability to extract energy from food. Because the heart is the hardest working muscle in your body, it’s essential that your heart have a constant supply of CoQ10 so it has energy to do its work. This chemical decreases with age and low cholesterol also depletes it.

This study shows that taking CoQ10 supplements reduces oxidative stress and increases antioxidant enzyme activity, relieving symptoms of cardiovascular disease. CoQ10 is safe and well-tolerated and although it’s not readily absorbed orally, a more “bioavailable” form, ubiquinol, offers better absorption into your bloodstream.

Statin therapy can deplete CoQ10, therefore anyone taking a statin drug should consider taking CoQ10 supplements.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that help reduce inflammation caused by atherosclerosis. They also lower levels of triglycerides, fatty blood components that block your arteries. High triglyceride levels are linked to atherosclerosis and diabetes.

This study shows that consumption of omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in fish, is linked to lower blood pressure, better blood lipid profiles, including lower triglycerides, and a reduced risk of death from heart disease.

Green Tea

For centuries, people around the world have consumed green tea for its health benefits. This study looks at one of its chief components, the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), for its ability to protect the heart. The study shows significant benefits with the consumption of five to six cups of green tea per day. Green tea extract is also available as a supplement in capsule form.

Pomegranate

Like green tea, pomegranate juice has been consumed for centuries, with the belief that the ruby red fruit promotes health. Modern scientists prove this belief in this study . Powerful antioxidant chemicals in pomegranate fruit and juice may help reverse atherosclerosis and lower blood pressure.

Magnesium and Potassium

One study shows that taking magnesium supplements may reduce blood pressure and that they are good for overall heart function and heart disease.

Another study shows dietary intake of potassium to improve heart function as well by helping to offset the rise in blood pressure from a high-salt diet.

You may have always been told that sodium chloride, or table salt, is bad, but substituting magnesium and potassium salts for table salt can actually lower blood pressure, as shown in this study .

Heart disease is a serious and dangerous disease in the United States. You can treat and prevent heart disease by decreasing risk factors, such as maintaining a healthy blood pressure and cholesterol level, managing stress, eating healthfully, and getting plenty of exercise. Herbs and supplements can help prevent heart disease and reduce its symptoms by lowering blood pressure, improving breathing, and helping your heart to function better.

How heart-healthy are your daily habits? In a new book, South Beach Diet creator Dr. Arthur Agatston explains how your everyday routine can damage — or save — your heart.

Heart expert Dr. Arthur Agatston, creator of the South Beach Diet, wants you to take a good, long look at your daily habits. “Americans are fatter and sicker than ever,” says the cardiologist, “and we have to do something about it now.” In his book The South Beach Wake-Up Call, Agatston examines many of the reasons why Americans are now so unhealthy, and provides seven simple strategies for turning our toxic lifestyle around, one step at a time. He also shares stories of ordinary people who have made good health a permanent way of life. Agatston is also issuing a Wake-Up Pledge to encourage people to reverse their toxic lifestyle.

Unfortunately, the poor health of Americans is only predicted to increase. Due to sedentary lifestyles and junk-food-heavy diets, 34 percent of adults in the United States are now obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and a shocking 20 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 11 are as well.

The problem of obesity goes far beyond a person’s waistline. Obese and overweight people are also at greater risk for a number of heart-related problems, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes. In fact, according to the American Heart Association, even without any of these other risk factors, obesity by itself increases the risk of heart disease.

But there are many things you can do to help your heart. Here are the simple and practical steps Agatston recommends to get yourself on the road to a healthier heart, and better health in general, as soon as possible.

Take Stock of Your Kitchen

In order to take control of your heart health and your health in general, it’s important to evaluate what may be holding you back. Often the problem begins with the clutter in your life. Outward clutter is often a sign of inner clutter, or emotional turmoil that is preventing you from moving forward when it comes to your health. A good place to start decluttering is in your kitchen, and that begins with eliminating the junk foods lurking there. “The biggest part of turning a kitchen into a healthy place to cook and eat is to get rid of the bad food to make room for the good,” Dr. Agatston says. He encourages you to look through your pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator and toss out empty-calorie foods such as sugary sodas, candy, baked goods made with refined flour, and sugary cereals, as well as half-eaten cartons of take-out food, or anything that has passed its expiration date. You can also look in your freezer and get rid of unhealthy frozen entrées and half-finished cartons of full-fat ice cream. Your freezer space can be better used to store healthy meals you cook ahead of time for quick dinners during the week.

Managing unhealthy habits and destressing is key to change

Constant stress — whether from a traffic-choked daily commute, unhappy marriage, or heavy workload — can have real physical effects on the body. It has been linked to a wide range of health issues, including mood, sleep, and appetite problems — and yes, even heart disease.

Doctors don’t know exactly how chronic stress affects the heart. Most likely, stress triggers inflammation, a known instigator of heart disease, but that hasn’t been proven. “I think the conventional opinion is that stress is bad for your heart, but the data are much murkier,” says Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of the Integrated Interventional Cardiovascular Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Yet stress may influence heart disease in more subtle ways. “Stress does cause some people to act in ways that increase their risk for heart disease,” Dr. Bhatt says. For example, when stressed, people often eat unhealthy food and don’t have the energy or time to exercise. Stress can also lead us into other heart-damaging behaviors, such as smoking and drinking too much alcohol.

Breaking the connection requires both learning to deal with stress and managing unhealthy habits. These five simple tips can help you do just that.

1. Stay positive. Laughter has been found to lower levels of stress hormones, reduce inflammation in the arteries, and increase “good” HDL cholesterol.
2. Meditate. This practice of inward-focused thought and deep breathing has been shown to reduce heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure. Meditation’s close relatives, yoga and prayer, can also relax the mind and body.
3. Exercise. Every time you are physically active, whether you take a walk or play tennis, your body releases mood-boosting chemicals called endorphins. Exercising not only helps you destress, it also protects against heart disease by lowering your blood pressure, strengthening your heart muscle, and helping you maintain a healthy weight.
4. Unplug. It’s impossible to escape stress when it follows you everywhere. Cut the cord. Avoid emails and TV news. Take time each day — even if it’s for just 10 or 15 minutes — to escape from the world.
5. Find ways to destress. Simple things, like a warm bath, listening to music, or spending time on a favorite hobby, can give you a much-needed break from the stressors in your life.

Stress doesn’t have to ruin your life or your health. To learn more about how stress affects your heart, health and well-being, and what to do about it, read Stress Management, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

Image: Bigstock

Share this page:

• Share this page to Facebook
• Share this page to Twitter
• Share this page to Google Plus
• Email this page

Print this page:

Disclaimer:
As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

Friends and family can often provide much-needed support.

Managing heart failure isn’t always easy. Physically, many people with heart failure often can’t handle all the tasks they once could. They also have to change their lives – eating differently, remembering medications, paying closer attention to their bodies and reducing stress. These changes can be hard because they often require breaking long-held habits.

But the changes are usually easier to make when loved ones provide much-needed support and care. If you live with or are close to someone who has heart failure, you’re likely to have the greatest impact on their success by following instructions from the healthcare team.

Being a caregiver has its own challenges

Being a caregiver for someone with heart failure requires a long-term commitment of time and energy.

As a caregiver, you need a plan and you need support. You’re not alone. We’ve provided a guide to get you started, and many support groups are online and in your community. Ask the healthcare professionals involved in the patient’s care for contact numbers and help in giving care. And, most importantly, remember that you need to take care of yourself. With proper planning and support, caregiving can be very rewarding.

Find tips, tools and resources for looking after yourself while looking after your loved one.

Reverse Aging | Natural Anti-Aging Program

Information on naturally preventing heart disease may be shocking to some, but the heart health secrets revealed in this heart health program could also open your eyes to a whole new world of how natural health remedies can help heal even the most dire heart problems, once you get to the root of the problem in the first place.

Every year doctors announce some new magic pill or surgical technique to cure heart problems. And each year, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the developed world. Doctors just don’t get heart health. Over the years, they have attributed the cause of cardiovascular disease to smoking, eating habits, weight problems, high-cholesterol, high blood pressure, and just plain genetic bad luck. But even now, scientists are discovering that free radicals, Omega-6 fatty acids, high homocysteine levels, circulating immune complexes in the blood, overall systemic inflammation, and more also play fundamental roles in the onset of heart disease.

In the following seven alternative health newsletters specifically regarding cardiovascular health, take a detailed tour of the anatomy and physiology of your cardiovascular system. In this detailed explanation, you will find that cardiovascular health is possible and heart disease is even reversible! Information on naturally reversing heart disease may be shocking to some, but the cardiovascular health secrets revealed in this series could also open your eyes to a whole new world of how alternative medicine can help heal even the most dire health conditions, once you get to the root of the problem in the first place.

1. The Anatomy of the Heart
By looking at the basic anatomy and physiology of the heart from a doctor’s perspective, we gain a unique privilege in understanding symptoms of heart disease. We get to evaluate that perspective. Once we understand the underlying basis of medical treatments used to correct heart disease, we can make informed decisions as to which of those alternative health treatments and medications actually make sense for heart disease symptoms…and, more importantly, what alternatives might actually work to improve your cardiovascular health.

2. Heart Problems and Alternative Health Solutions
Although many problems with the heart may seem to be biomechanical in nature and beyond the purview of nutrition and supplements, that’s not necessarily true. Some of the natural health remedies you will learn about concerning heart disease are how:

• Magnesium supplementation can change the shape and condition of heart valves.
• B vitamins can help rebuild the heart.
• CoQ10 can reenergize every single cell in the heart and can literally remold the size and shape of the heart after the onset of congestive heart failure.
• The use of Omega-3 fatty acids can help in reversing heart damage caused by NEFAs.
• Proteolytic enzymes can provide nutritional support for your body as it works to clean out the coronary arteries and repair damage to epicardial tissue surrounding the heart.
• The use of heavy metal chelators such as cilantro and chlorella can reduce the risk of an acute coronary event.
• Regular supplementation of a tonic made with cayenne and Hawthorne berry can rebuild the strength of the heart.
• Proper dental care and the use of avocado soy unsaponifiables and proteolytic enzymes can reduce the incidence of periodontal disease, which reduces the chances of an acute coronary event.
• Regular use of immune enhancers and pathogen destroyers decreases the risk of most inflammatory heart disease and the incidence of viral and bacterial infections that can adversely affect the heart.
• And regular exercise can strengthen the heart and improve its efficiency even in your eighth and ninth decade of life.

3. Secrets of the Heart: Understanding Your Doctor’s Diagnosis
Next we will examine how your doctor unravels the secrets of your heart when you visit his/her office. Learn to take the mystery out of a doctor’s diagnosis so that you know what your doctor is looking at, listening to, and analyzing when he/she is looking at your heart. Arm yourself with some basic diagnostic knowledge so you are not totally at the mercy of the medical mystique when the results of your next physical are pronounced.

4. Vascular Problems: Clogged Arteries, High Blood Pressure, & DVT

This section explores the vascular system — your arteries and veins. Unlike the previous discussion of the heart, which required a great deal of anatomy, this discussion of anatomy is much simpler. Get a deeper understanding about your body’s systems so that you can communicate with your doctor and actively participate in your treatment. If you have high blood pressure, blood clots, or atherosclerosis, it’s imperative that you fully understand how that happened, the physiological consequences of any medical treatments, and any viable alternative health solutions that might be available to you.

5. The Functions of Blood and How It Maintains Health
The cardiovascular system has only one purpose—to move blood through the body. By definition that makes blood pretty important, and as befits its importance, it is a vast topic that we’re merely going to touch on in this alternative health newsletter. Learn the role of blood, from transporting nutrients to removing waste, and how a proper heart healthy diet and hydration can assist your blood in protecting your overall health.

6. What Blood Is Made of and How that Effects Your Health
It’s important to examine the composition of blood and how that determines its functionality. Why is this important? Two reasons:

1. When your doctor runs tests on your blood, he/she is primarily looking at the individual components—like hematocrit, albumin, platelet, and white cell counts. Knowing what your doctor is talking about and what the levels mean will empower you to be an active participate in any treatment. (In the next newsletter we will cover these tests in detail.)
2. Knowing what the pieces are and what affects them will give you access to a world of alternatives that your doctor is unlikely to inform you about—or to be informed about themselves, for that matter.

7. Understanding Blood Types & Blood Tests
Here, we wrap up our series on the cardiovascular system as we explore blood types and blood tests. Once again, the goal is not to help you graduate medical school, but to help you learn enough so that you are not clueless in your doctor’s office and understand the options (particularly the non-medical ones) that are available to you. Specifically you’re going to learn about the importance of blood type, how it affects diet and what doctors test for when they check your blood and what the results mean to you.

Continue reading these other helpful Newsletters on Heart Health and other related issues:

Or, if you prefer to listen, check out Jon’s Podcast:

Heart Health Blogs for Review:

Removing plaque from your arterial walls is difficult. In fact, it’s almost impossible without the use of an invasive treatment. Instead, the best course of action is to halt plaque development and prevent future plaque buildup.

How do arteries get clogged?

The circulatory system is an intricate network of capillaries, blood vessels, and arteries. These tubes move oxygenated blood through your body, helping fuel all your body’s functions. When the oxygen is used up, you exhale carbon dioxide from your lungs, breathe in more oxygen-rich blood, and start the cycle again.

As long as those blood vessels are clear and open, blood can flow freely. Sometimes small blockages build up inside your blood vessels. These blockages are called plaques. They develop when cholesterol sticks to the wall of the artery.

Your immune system, sensing a problem, will send white blood cells to attack the cholesterol. This sets off a chain of reactions that leads to inflammation. In a worst-case scenario, cells form a plaque over the cholesterol, and a small blockage is formed. Sometimes they can break loose and cause a heart attack. As the plaques grow, they may block blood flow in an artery entirely.

You may have read articles or heard reports promoting natural ways to unclog your arteries. For now, research doesn’t support the use of specific foods to unclog arteries, though small studies in animals show promise for the future.

Losing weight, exercising more, or eating less cholesterol-rich foods are all steps you can take to reduce plaques, but these steps won’t remove existing plaques.

Focus on promoting better heart health by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Healthy habits will help prevent additional plaque from forming.

Heart health tips

• Eat a heart-healthy diet.
• Make exercise a part of your regular routine. Aim for 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days a week.
• Don’t smoke. If you do smoke, talk to your doctor about smoking cessation programs to help you quit.
• Limit your alcohol consumption to no more than one drink a day.

Direct your efforts toward decreasing your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels and increasing your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. Your LDL level is a measure of the “bad” cholesterol that’s in your blood.

When you have a lot of LDL, the excess cholesterol floats through your body and may stick to your arterial walls. HDL, the “good” cholesterol, helps whisk away the LDL cells and stops plaques from forming.

Here are some additional tips that may help you prevent plaque buildup.

Eat a heart-healthy diet

Diet can play a big role in improving your heart health and reducing your risk for a buildup of plaque. It’s never too late to eat a healthier diet. Just as years of bad eating can damage your body, good eating can help heal it. A heart-healthy diet contains plenty of good fats and low amounts of bad fats.

• Add more good fats to your diet. Good fats are also called unsaturated fats. They’re found in foods like olives, nuts, avocado, and fish.
• Cut sources of saturated fat, such as fatty meat and dairy. Choose lean cuts of meat, and try eating more plant-based meals.
• Eliminate artificial sources of trans fats. Most artificial trans fats are found in processed, packaged foods like cookies and snack cakes.
• Increase your fiber intake. Soluble fiber helps lower your LDL. You can find soluble fiber in foods like vegetables, lentils, beans, and oats.
• Cut back on sugar. Vitamins and minerals accompany the sugar found naturally in fruit. The sugar found in processed foods like cookies, ice cream, and sugar-sweetened beverages doesn’t have nutritional value. Too much added sugar can negatively impact your health.

Move more

Exercise can improve your cardiovascular health and help prevent cardiac issues. If you’re not physically active, start slowly. Go for a walk once or twice a week. When that fits into your schedule, go for more walks.

Slowly build up your routine and your stamina. Aim to get 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise at least five days per week.

It’s important to always talk with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine.

Shed pounds

When you eat better and move more, the natural result might be that you lose weight. Carrying extra weight increases your LDL cholesterol. That increases your risk for plaque buildup.

Losing as little as 5 to 10 percent of your body weight can have a huge impact on your health, including your cholesterol.

Stop smoking and drinking

The day you quit smoking, your health will start to rebound. Quitting smoking may help raise your HDL levels, too. Talk to your doctor if you need help quitting smoking. They can recommend smoking cessation programs and resources.

Too much alcohol can also affect your heart. But some studies have shown that moderate use of alcohol may increase your HDL levels. It’s not a good idea for anyone to begin drinking for this reason, though. These studies are not definitive enough for doctors to encourage anyone to drink for heart health.

Medication

If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, your doctor may prescribe medication to help lower your LDL and prevent plaques. Be sure to take your cholesterol medication as prescribed. Many medications may also work better when you make healthy lifestyle changes. So, it’s never a bad idea to incorporate healthy changes, even if you’re taking medicine.

If your doctor discovers that one or more of your arteries is blocked, lifestyle changes may not be enough. Instead, your doctor may suggest an invasive treatment to remove or bypass the blockages.

During these procedures, your doctor will insert a tiny tube into your artery to suck out the plaque or break up the plaque (atherectomy). Your doctor may then leave behind a tiny metal structure (stent) that helps support the artery and increase blood flow.

If these procedures aren’t effective or if the blockage is severe, a bypass may be required. During this surgery, your doctor will remove arteries from other parts of your body and replace the blocked artery.

It’s important you work with your doctor to create a treatment plan if you have clogged arteries. If blockages remain untreated, you could experience serious health complications like a stroke, aneurysm, or heart attack.

If you were diagnosed with arterial blockages, now is the time to get healthy. Though there is little you can do to unclog arteries, you can do a lot to prevent additional buildup. A heart-healthy lifestyle can help you lower your levels of artery-clogging LDL cholesterol. It can also help you be healthier overall.

Healthy lifestyle changes are especially important if you have a procedure to remove plaques or bypass a heavily clogged artery. Once you’ve had a clog removed or reduced, it’s important you do everything you can to prevent more plaque buildups so you can lead a longer, healthier life.

Last medically reviewed on January 30, 2017

Your heart is the hardest working muscle in your body, and it deserves all the support it can get*. Learn how you can eliminate certain factors from your daily routine as a way to live a freer, healthier life.

100% Free of: Stress

We all know that stress can have a negative impact on your quality of life. When you’re constantly under pressure or worrying about what can go wrong, you miss out on all the good things in the world. Not only does it affect you emotionally, but stress can actually have an impact on your heart. Excessive levels of stress can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol and increased risk for heart problems. To support your heart, make time for relaxation and try your best to live life 100% free of stress.

100% Free of: Junk Food

Proper nutrition is a huge component of your overall heart health. Foods that are high in sodium and saturated fats can have a negative impact on your heart and could eventually lead to health issues in the future. By eliminating junk food from your diet and incorporating lean meats, fruits and vegetables, your entire body will reap the benefits. To support your heart and overall wellness, be conscious of your diet and try your best to live 100% free of junk food.

100% Free of: Inactivity

Physical activity is extremely important when it comes to supporting your heart health. Although you don’t have to run a triathlon, spending 30 minutes a day exercising lightly can still provide you with health benefits. Although there are days where it seems tough, do your best to stay fit and live a life that is 100% free of inactivity.

100% Free of: Bad Habits

Habits such as smoking, excessive drinking and not getting enough sleep are all things that can negatively impact your heart health. Be mindful of the things you do daily, and consciously make the decision to put your health first. Although making drastic changes to your lifestyle can be tough at times, keep trying your hardest to live a life that’s 100% free of bad habits.

100% FULL of: Sundown ® ! ®

Our Fish Oil and CoQ10 products are 100% free of gluten, wheat, dairy and artificial flavors. ◊ Support your heart health and find the supplement that’s right for you!*

A healthy diet and lifestyle are your best weapons to fight cardiovascular disease. It’s not as hard as you may think! Remember, it’s the overall pattern of your choices that counts. Make the simple steps below part of your life for long-term benefits to your health and your heart.

Use up at least as many calories as you take in.

• Start by knowing how many calories you should be eating and drinking to maintain your weight. Nutrition and calorie information on food labels is typically based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet. You may need fewer or more calories depending on several factors including age, gender, and level of physical activity.

If you are trying not to gain weight, don’t eat more calories than you know you can burn up every day.

Increase the amount and intensity of your physical activity to burn more calories.

Regular physical activity can help you maintain your weight, keep off weight that you lose and help you reach physical and cardiovascular fitness. If it’s hard to schedule regular exercise sessions, look for ways to build short bursts of activity into your daily routine, like parking farther away and taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Ideally, your activity should be spread throughout the week.

Eat a variety of nutritious foods from all the food groups.

You may be eating plenty of food, but your body may not be getting the nutrients it needs to be healthy. Nutrient-rich foods have minerals, protein, whole grains and other nutrients but are lower in calories. They may help you control your weight, cholesterol and blood pressure.

Eat an overall healthy dietary pattern that emphasizes:

• a variety of fruits and vegetables
• whole grains
• low-fat dairy products
• skinless poultry and fish
• nuts and legumes
• non-tropical vegetable oils

Limit saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, red meat, sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages. If you choose to eat red meat, compare labels and select the leanest cuts available.

One of the diets that fits this pattern is the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan. Most healthy eating patterns can be adapted based on calorie requirements and personal and cultural food preferences.

Eat less of the nutrient-poor foods.

The right number of calories to eat each day is based on your age and physical activity level and whether you’re trying to gain, lose or maintain your weight. You could use your daily allotment of calories on a few high-calorie foods and beverages, but you probably wouldn’t get the nutrients your body needs to be healthy. Limit foods and beverages high in calories but low in nutrients. Also limit the amount of saturated fat, trans fat and sodium you eat. Read Nutrition Facts labels carefully — the Nutrition Facts panel tells you the amount of healthy and unhealthy nutrients in a food or beverage.

As you make daily food choices, base your eating pattern on these recommendations:

• Eat a variety of fresh, frozen and canned vegetables and fruits without high-calorie sauces or added salt and sugars. Replace high-calorie foods with fruits and vegetables.
• Choose fiber-rich whole grains for most grain servings.
• Choose poultry and fish without skin and prepare them in healthy ways without added saturated and trans fat. If you choose to eat meat, look for the leanest cuts available and prepare them in healthy and delicious ways.
• Eat a variety of fish at least twice a week, especially fish containing omega-3 fatty acids (for example, salmon, trout and herring).
• Select fat-free (skim) and low-fat (1%) dairy products.
• Avoid foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.
• Limit saturated fat and trans fat and replace them with the better fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. If you need to lower your blood cholesterol, reduce saturated fat to no more than 5 to 6 percent of total calories. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that’s about 13 grams of saturated fat.
• Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars.
• Choose foods with less sodium and prepare foods with little or no salt. To lower blood pressure, aim to eat no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. Reducing daily intake to 1,500 mg is desirable because it can lower blood pressure even further. If you can’t meet these goals right now, even reducing sodium intake by 1,000 mg per day can benefit blood pressure.
• If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation. That means no more than one drink per day if you’re a woman and no more than two drinks per day if you’re a man.
• Follow the American Heart Association recommendations when you eat out, and keep an eye on your portion sizes.

Live Tobacco Free

Don’t smoke, vape or use tobacco or nicotine products — and avoid secondhand smoke or vapor.

Learn more about quitting smoking.

• twitter
• linkedin

Jeffrey S. Lander, MD, is a board-certified cardiologist and the incoming President and Governor of the American College of Cardiology, New Jersey chapter.

• Prevention
• Causes & Risk Factors
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Living With
• Atrial Fibrillation
• Heart Attack
• Heart Valve Disease
• Palpitations & Arrhythmias
• Chest Pain & Angina

View All

While heart disease kills more men and women than any other disease in developed countries, it turns out there’s a lot you can do to keep your heart healthy.

We have learned a tremendous amount in recent years about the risk factors that predispose us to heart disease. One of the important things we have learned is that each of us has significant control over most of these risk factors. And therefore, to a large extent, each of us holds our cardiac fate in our own hands. Even people who have a strong genetic predisposition to heart disease can often significantly delay the onset of heart problems by adopting healthy lifestyles.

There are at least eight categories of lifestyle choices that can substantially impact your odds of developing heart disease. The following is a list of resources that will help you understand the kinds of lifestyle changes you can make, in each of these eight categories, to help prevent heart disease and keep your heart healthy.

Manage Your Diet and Weight

A poor diet often leads to obesity, and obesity can be very damaging to the heart and vascular system (especially when it is accompanied by a sedentary lifestyle). Learn how trans fats affect your heart and how the Mediterranean diet might help. Also learn about the BMI controversy so you can best gauge your risk.

Get Plenty of Exercise

A sedentary lifestyle is very bad for the entire cardiovascular system, and it can also contribute to metabolic problems, such as high cholesterol and high blood sugar. Getting plenty of exercise is one of the best things you can do for your heart. Learn how much exercise you really need, how exercise affects your HDL cholesterol, and the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation if you’ve already had a heart attack.

Don’t Smoke

Of all the things you can do to ruin your health, smoking is the most ruinous. If you smoke you are likely to develop heart disease decades earlier than you otherwise might. Even if you don’t develop premature heart disease, you will likely suffer from one of the other scourges of smoking: cancer, lung disease, premature aging, and other conditions that make you sickly, or wrinkly and old, before your time.

Manage Your Cholesterol Levels

Blood lipids—cholesterol and triglycerides—are important determinants of cardiac risk. Here’s what you should know about bad cholesterol, good cholesterol, and the things you can do—diet, lifestyle, and medications—to keep your cardiac risk as low as possible.

Manage Your Blood Pressure

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is extremely common and often poorly treated. Unfortunately, inadequately treated hypertension can lead to both heart attacks and especially strokes. Learn more about living well with high blood pressure and medications used for treatment.

Learn to Manage Stress

Does stress really cause heart disease? What kind of stress? There are things you can do to mitigate all kinds of stress, which can have dramatic positive effects on your overall health.

Control Your Blood Sugar

Insulin resistance—which can manifest as either diabetes of metabolic syndrome—leads to high blood sugar and a host of other metabolic problems that greatly increase your risk of heart disease.

Other Things You Should Know

In addition to all of the above, there are several other risk factors and lifestyle choices that may impact your chances of getting heart disease. Some of these are listed here.