Five Heart Health Tips To Prevent Heart Disease

It is typically common knowledge that to keep your heart healthy and to prevent any issues from arising, exercise and a healthy diet are two very important factors. However, this is often where the knowledge stops for a lot of people, with there actually being a lot more you can do to ensure your heart is kept in good working order.

As experts in heart scans (including echo and ECG testing) and cardiovascular health, we have put together our top heart health tips to help prevent heart disease and keep you healthy.

1. Getting Adequate Sleep 

The first of our heart health tips is ensuring you consistently get adequate sleep, a fundamental factor for a healthy heart. We suggest you prioritise your sleep, aiming for approximately 7 to 8 hours of sleep most nights, where possible.

A lack of sleep puts you at greater risk of multiple cardiovascular diseases, regardless of age, highlighting just how important sleep can be to ensuring your heart performs and functions as it should. 

We understand that there are certain instances where getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night isn’t possible, but steps to optimise your sleep hygiene are always worthwhile.; Likewise, those with sleep apnea should get treated as soon as possible, as this can sometimes be linked to heart disease and arrhythmias.

2. Try Not To Sit for Long Periods 

Staying seated for extended periods can be bad for your health, regardless of how much exercise you do, with those who work long hours sitting at desks needing to take action to counteract this. 

We suggest you take time regularly throughout the day to break up those long periods spent sitting at your desk.

3. Eating Healthy Fats 

As mentioned above, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet are important heart health tips and are simply factors that cannot be ignored when working to improve or regain your heart’s condition.

A healthy diet consists of multiple factors and food groups, some being more important to cardiac health than others, with fats being essential as part of any diet, including saturated, polyunsaturated, and unsaturated fats.

However, trans fat (or trans-unsaturated fatty acid) is not needed as part of your diet and is shown to accelerate the development of heart disease and strokes throughout life, clogging arteries by raising your bad cholesterol level and lowering good cholesterol. 

As experts in cardiac diagnostics, we recommend that you read the food labels to ensure that trans fat is kept to a minimum. Additionally, if you are concerned about your heart’s health or would generally just like to know more about your heart’s structure and functionality, you can book your scan procedure online now.

4. Avoid Second-hand Smoke 

Studies have shown that you are 25 – 30% more likely to develop heart disease if you are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, as the chemicals emitted from cigarette smoke cause plaque build-up in your arteries. 

To prevent this, avoid smoking or standing around people who are smoking where possible; it is also vitally important that children are kept clear of second-hand smoke as well.

5. Practise Good Dental Hygiene and Flossing

Arguably, one of our most underappreciated heart health tips is ensuring you practise good dental hygiene, including proper brushing and flossing techniques.

Dental health is a marker of overall health, including your heart, and those with periodontal gum disease often have the same risk factors for heart disease. Furthermore, bacteria in the mouth can move into the bloodstream and, occasionally, cause heart valve infections known as ‘endocarditis’. Thus, you should floss and brush your teeth daily to prevent gum disease.

Contact Us – Echocardiogram and ECG Testing 

Hopefully, our top five heart health tips have given you more knowledge and ideas on how to help reduce the risk of heart disease, including some factors you may never have considered before, like good dental hygiene.

At our comfortable clinics in Farnham and Emsworth, we make heart scans as quick and painless as possible. If you are interested in any of our services, book a heart scan with us today to future-proof your cardiac health.

Alternatively, if you have any questions about our services or want more information about certain cardiac conditions, please email us directly at admin@echomed.co.uk.