February is Heart Month! It’s time to become heart healthy. In support of Heart Month and the Million Hearts initiative, a national effort to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the United States by 2017, we have decided to create a list of lifestyle changes you can make to be heart healthy this year because it was recently shown that half of heart disease deaths are due to modifiable risk factors that you can control. So, here are 10 lifestyle habits of heart healthy people:
- Avoiding all tobacco products, especially cigarette smoking. Smoking-induced heart disease is a well-known consequence of tobacco smoke and as many as 30% of all heart disease deaths in the United States each year are attributable to cigarette smoking.
- Measuring your blood pressure once a month to monitor for high blood pressure (blood pressure of ≥140/90 mm Hg). High blood pressure is the leading cause of death globally and the most important modifiable risk factor for heart disease. Recently, it has been shown that a lower blood pressure (systolic blood pressure of <120 mm Hg) is better for longevity and preventing heart disease. Be sure to ask your doctor what your blood pressure should be and, if prescribed medications, take your blood pressure medicine as directed.
- Managing your weight to a body mass index (BMI) of 18-25 kg/m2. An increased BMI (i.e. being overweight with excess body fat) is associated with an increased risk for heart disease.
- Eating healthy. A healthy dietary pattern is higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or nonfat dairy, seafood, legumes, and nuts; moderate in alcohol (among adults); lower in red and processed meats; and low in sugar-sweetened foods and drinks and refined grains. The Balanced diet from the National Health Service (NHS) in England is effective and easy to follow. Recently, the Mediterranean diet was shown to reduce heart disease.
- Exercising. Staying physically active for at least 150 minutes at moderate intensity (target heart rate of 50-70% of your maximal heart rate) or 75 minutes at vigorous intensity (target heart rate of 70-90% of your maximal heart rate) each week. Even small amounts of physical activity are associated with a lower risk of heart disease, but more exercise may lead to an even greater reduction in death from heart disease.
- Sleeping. Evidence suggests that sufficient sleep duration (≥7 hours) contributes to lower heart disease.
- Staying hydrated. Increased hematocrit and increased blood viscosity have been associated with cardiovascular events. High daily intake of water (five or more glasses), compared to a low daily intake of water (two or fewer glasses), was associated with a lower risk of heart disease deaths.
- Getting the influenza vaccine. Sadly, there is under-utilization of the influenza vaccination in many regions of the world including North America. It is widely believed that influenza vaccination should be encouraged wherever indicated, especially in people with existing heart disease and heart failure and it has been shown to offer protection against new-onset atrial fibrillation.
- Enjoying healthy relationships and environments. The quality and quantity of your social relationships has been linked overall health, and risk for death. Heart disease has been associated with stressful life events and social strain, job strain, and psychological distress at any point in life.
- Lastly, following the American Heart Association’s guidelines for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke and the American Heart Association’s national goals for cardiovascular health promotion and disease reduction.
Overall, for men who don’t smoke, were physically active (walking/bicycling ≥40 minutes per day and exercising ≥1 hour per week), had a waist circumference under 37.4 inches, drank moderately (1/3 to 1 ounces per day), and ate a diet of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, reduced-fat dairy products, fish, and whole grains had an 86% lower risk of heart attack than those who didn’t. For women, maintenance of a healthy lifestyle could lower the burden of heart disease by 73%. In summary, adherence to the 10 lifestyle habits of heart healthy people can lead to a significant reduction in death from heart disease. Take control of your health!
Thank you for the article. I have a few questions if I may.
What nonmodifiable risk factors cause heart disease and what percentage of heart disease is caused by them?
CAD runs in my family but I do not have the risk factors that my relatives have: they smoked, had high blood pressure, didn’t exercise, and ate the typical Southern diet high in salt, sugar, white flour, and saturated fat.
I am curious if a vegan diet might be healthier for me. But even that gets confusing with one band recommending no added fat at all.
What about dairy and the buildup of calcium in the arteries?
The real Mediterranean diet includes whole-fat dairy. People make homemade yogurt with whole milk and use a lot of butter as well. I think we should call the diet HAD: Healthy American Diet.
Thanks!!
Non-modifiable risk factors are factors that you have no control over (e.g. age, family history, unknown environmental exposures, etc.). The list of non-modifiable risk factors is relatively small compared to the list of modifiable risk factors (more or less listed above). As far as what percentage of heart disease is attributable to non-modifiable risk factors, it is hard to say. However, age is a very strong predictor for the development of heart disease. As we get older the incidence of heart disease increases, which is why your age is always included in any heart disease risk calculator. This is true for a lot of medical conditions (e.g. cancer, etc.), not necessarily unique to heart disease.
A vegan diet is fine, as are the Balanced Diet and the Mediterranean Diet, the key for all these diets is limiting or completely excluding processed foods. Eliminating processed foods is the common denominator in all heart-healthy diets. So, whichever named diet (e.g. vegan, vegetarian, Balanced, Mediterranean, Paleo, etc.) motivates you the most – stick with that one! I would not worry about dairy and coronary artery calcium, most non-processed foods in moderation are completely appropriate in a heart-healthy diet. Thank you very much for your comment!
I react to anxiety with hypertensive response. My BP can change from 120/70 to 150/90 in seconds. This sets up a negative feedback loop to ill effect. How can one stop this without anxiolytic drugs? And most MD’s fear addiction and will not prescribe anyway.
When I read about risk factors I get anxious and then my risk factors increase.
Anxiety can be an issue for a lot of people. Anxiolytic medications are not preferred, but many anti-depressant medications are, so you should discuss with your physician. Additionally, meditation can be used to reduce blood pressure. You can read more information here:
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Meditation-and-Heart-Disease-Stroke_UCM_452930_Article.jsp#.Vw1jLv72aUk
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22518287
I hope this helps. Thank you very much for your question!
I like to run and feel best running at about 6.2 miles per hour up a 10% grade. My diet is traditional Tarahumara with lots of pinto beans, corn and chiles. I use Buckwheat to replace the beans. Buckwheat is great because it has good taste and goes with just about every other food. Chia seed mixed with cocoa is my favorite drink. Cranberry juice unsweetened helps with dehydration after a long kickass mountain run. Running for me is not as hard as walking. Trotting all day is just natural when you do it the Tarahumara way. I am 72 years old and have no known diseases, ailments and take no medications or pain pills. So, all I cay say is that diet and lifestyle work fine for me. I stopped eating the standard American diet years ago but still every so often will chow down a hamburger. The only problem is the fat is quiet filling. Oh, my bloated stomach!!
I am glad that you are doing so well at 72 years old. Thank you for your comment!
My wife has CHF, but loves salt. She has been warned to avoid salt where she can, but still craves it. What will salt in her diet do to her ‘weakened’ heart?
Excessive salt intake in patients with heart failure will increase the possibility of fluid retention and volume overload, and potentially require a hospitalization.
P.S. My salt loving wife is 82 years old!
This page refers to a “10 year risk” tool but searching for it links only back to this page.
Can you post a specific link?
Yes, you can find it here:
https://tools.acc.org/ascvd-risk-estimator-plus/#!/calculate/estimate/