How Do You Protect The Heart?

Published in

St. Marcellinus Social Justice League

3 min readFeb 26, 2022

https://online.ahu.edu/blog/show-your-heart-some-love-5-ways-to-protect-your-heart/

The heart is commonly defined as one of the most powerful organs in the body. It is what keeps blood rushing through our veins — offering a refreshing taste of life. Hence, to protect our hearts is to protect ourselves. What are factors influencing the condition of the heart? What are components that can protect its blood flow?

Heart Disease

Heart disease is a group of conditions that affect the function of our hearts. It is the accumulation of plaque in the heart’s arteries.

How severe can it be? How often is it the leading cause of heart failure, heart attacks, or death? Did you know 1 in 4 people dies from a heart attack before even receiving proper medical attention? Or that in 2019, 189 out of 100k people’s death was consequential to cardiovascular disease? As a matter of fact, the 2nd root of demise in Canada is heart disease. This is to show the threat heart diseases pose.

How Do We Provoke Change?

Heart problems are extremely common in society. To change it, we must uncover the underlying cause. Understanding what can lead to heart disease will lead to the understanding of its prevention.

To live a healthier life and increase the odds of a beating heart — take into account the ways to protect it:

1. Check up on your Health Screening

The importance of knowing where you stand with your blood sugar levels is a necessity. The heart relies on your blood flow to receive nutrients and oxygen. As a result, high blood pressure damages arteries — developing heart disease.

High blood pressure is what is known as hypertension. It is a blood pressure ranging between 140/90 mm Hg or higher. Around 1 in 3 Americans are unaware of their condition. And thus, regular checkups can heavily impact both your treatment and survival rate.

2. Understand the Root Cause

Many people are at higher risk of increased blood pressure due to their demographics (gender, age, etc). Being aware of your likeliness to the disease can advise your daily lifestyle changes.

Age: high blood pressure increases with age. Additionally, growth increases the risk of damaging your arteries.
Gender: men are more at risk of developing increased blood pressure before the age of 55. Women are at greater risk after the age of 55.
Family history: genetics are greatly influential in the likelihood of high blood pressure.

4. Implement Change in Your Life

To decrease the risk of high blood pressure — and heart disease — in your life stems to making simple lifestyle transitions, this may include:

Avoiding smoking: The chemicals in cigarettes injected decrease the oxygen in the blood. Due to this, a difficulty arises in supplying enough oxygen to the body. As a result, your heart rate is impacted.
Managing your stress: Let yourself breathe. An increased heart rate is linked to higher blood pressure. Furthermore, when stressed, try to find healthier ways to cope that do not endure overeating, smoking, etc.
The perfect night sleep: Disturbed sleep is linked with increased blood pressure. Although your blood pressure is meant to drop during sleep, sleep problems do the opposite. Certain sleep conditions such as insomnia and sleep apnea (the inability to breathe for short periods of time during sleep) can prevent a good night’s rest.

Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, a healthy heart is the key to a functioning body. Benefits occur when we begin to execute changes in our routines. To follow the suggestions listed — check up on your blood levels, avoid the cigarettes, take care of your sleep, etc — is to allow yourself to breathe longer. It is to live free of high blood pressure or heart disease. It is to allow yourself to inhale oxygen every second of every day.