People’s lifestyle these days involves a lot of things that cause harm to your body. The organ most likely to be affected is the heart because of people’s overconsumption of fast food and lack of exercise. They tend to have a weakened heart as they grow older.
One can feel the effects of a harmful lifestyle on the heart through their blood pressure. You will be surprised to know how many things you do directly affect your blood flow and, worse yet, what unbalanced levels can do to your body.
If you are feeling a bit of hypertension and a lot of strain on your heart lately, here are seven tips that you might find helpful to counteract your high blood pressure.
Exercise Daily
Blood pressure on how healthy your heart is. You cannot have a healthy heart merely by avoiding anything that may harm it. You need to exercise your heart to be healthy.
The best way to do this is to exercise. Exercise can cover a broad range of aerobic activities from jogging, walking, and swimming but still include everyday work such as house chores. Most experts suggest that you should participate in daily exercise ranging from 30 minutes to as much as possible. However, do take time to rest and regulate your exercise because even though it’s good to get your heart rate moving, too much will only do more harm than good.
Preferably, find an exercise that you enjoy: biking, gardening, or even walking with your dog. It is a trick to implement it seamlessly into your daily routine.
Find a Healthy Diet
Right up there with exercise. Finding the right diet is one of the most important tips to follow. The heart is all about nutrition, and you might need to follow a strict set of principles if you want to maintain healthy blood pressure and heart rate.
A diet that consists of fruits, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products can help lower your blood pressure by a significant amount. And has been carefully crafted by years of hypertension clinical trials and is now even called the Dietary approach to stop Hypertension diet or DASH.
Being an informed and careful shopper is key to keeping a healthy diet. If you always check the food labels when you shop, it will allow you to weigh in on how that product will potentially affect your body, and it will allow you to be wiser when it comes to bringing food home from the grocery store.
Quit Smoking
Not everybody smokes, but this is a very important tip to keep in mind for those who do. We all know of the detriments of smoking, but when it comes to blood pressure, the negative effects kick the moment you take a hit. It will increase your blood pressure the moment you start, and if you do not stop, it will have irreversible effects on your whole body and most likely end up in heart and lung disease.
Take it from us, the professionals, and the doctors, the best way you can help your heart immediately is to stop that habit of smoking.
Add Potassium
Potassium is one of the best minerals for your body. It has many benefits for the body, but in this case, it rids the body of harmful sodium and will decrease pressure on your blood vessels. These days, people tend to consume an unhealthy amount of sodium, so it is better to be mindful of what you consume and to make sure that potassium is balanced in your intake.
Foods that are high in potassium includes
- Dairy
- Tuna,
- Beans,
- Nuts,
- Leafy greens,
- Potatoes.
Try Some Dark Chocolate
A tip that might delight some of you. You may just hold on to that excitement for a little while.
Chocolate can be good for your heart, but you need to consume dark chocolate for it to have a positive effect. Chocolate containing 70 percent cacao can help lower the risk of heart disease because it works against inflammation from flavonoids found within the chocolate that dilate blood vessels.
Yoga and Meditation
Maintaining a healthy heart does not only concern the cardiovascular system, but it has a lot to do with your nervous system as well. Keeping yourself relaxed, at ease, and away from stress can have a life-changing effect on your mentality and your heart’s health.
A great way to start working on this is through yoga and meditation, which research has proven to affect blood pressure positively. Yoga and meditation both implore deep breathing, which helps regulate blood flow within the body.
In fact, this small tip can be so effective that even taking just six deep breaths can help lower your blood pressure. This tip is a win-on-win, and it comes highly recommended.
Get Enough Rest
Rest is vital to almost any function within your body. It is simple science that your blood pressure tends to go down when you are resting. This in and of itself is a good way to maintain a healthy heart, and the absence of a good amount of sleep can lead to stress hormone imbalance and other bodily problems.
You can easily make a lot of mistakes when it comes to the health of your heart, but this does not mean that it has to be that way. If you are careful and mindful enough, you will find that it is just as easy to do right by your heart as it is to harm it.