A great deal of time and money is also spent on the subject of heart health, in schools, hospitals, health centers and even government offices in North America. It is on the minds of so many people and yet there are still so many preventable deaths and illnesses each year. So why is this occurring? Perhaps people have become deaf to all the noise and buzz created on the subject, or perhaps much of what is being said is confusing people. This article was developed to help clear up all that noise and fog, and give a simpler guide on how you can achieve optimal heart health.

Heart Health Superfoods

If you typed in the words “heart health” on any online search engine you would get back over 300,000,000 pages (on Google) related to the subject. Some of the pages deal with certain heart conditions, others with exercise, nutrition, “superfoods”, good fats, bad fats, even sex. But how do you sort out all the information? How long do you suppose it will take you to sift through those millions of sites? By the time you finished you would likely have an unhealthy heart from sitting so long and being inactive. There is an easier way.

 

Your Heart Muscle

Your heart is a muscle, and like any muscle it needs exercise. Since it is a constantly working muscle it needs protein to replace the protein that breaks down during use. Basically then if you take care of these two items, and limit the toxic substances in your blood stream (remember your heart also receives blood to keep it working) you will likely live a long and healthy life.

When it comes to exercise most anything will do. The key is to do something that you enjoy. So walk, run, play a sport of any kind, go hiking, ride a bike, take the stairs instead of the elevator, or even play hopscotch with your children. You do not have to go to the gym or buy expensive exercise equipment that will only sit around the house and collect dust. Use that money instead to buy a ticket to your favorite sporting event and walk to the field or arena to watch the game.

Heart Healthy Foods

I don’t know about you but I don’t usually have the time to read every label on food at the grocery store. I go in with my list, buy what I need (and yes sometimes buy things that are not on that list) and leave again. You could spend hours in the store trying to figure out all the fats, carbs, daily intakes but eating does not need to be so complicated either. Whether your budget is big or small, simply try and get a variety of all the food groups. If frozen or canned vegetables are easier to afford than fresh, then buy those. If you will only let whole grain bread turn green in your cupboard then find bread you like, perhaps with hidden fiber in it. Don’t spend money on food items you won’t eat within the next month or so; having spent money unwisely in that way will only create stress in your life. Oh yes, stress and heart health is the third thing you need to consider when you are thinking heart health.

Work Off Stress

People’s lives today are stressed enough on a daily basis; working long hours to pay the bills, perhaps spending too much money on the latest tech gadgets, long commutes just to get to your jobs, all of this adds up to unhappy people. You don’t necessarily need a therapist to help you figure out how to deal with life’s stresses, or again, expensive exercise equipment or gadgets to help you “work off the day’s stresses”; people today just need to laugh more. Yes, laugh. If there is one thing your doctor does get right it is that laughter is indeed the best medicine (and actually, so is sex with your loved one). Science has proven that “feel good” hormones that are released with laughter, or good sex, do actually have a health benefit; a heart health benefit.

In Closing

So you see, getting heart healthy is really quite simple; it doesn’t need to be complicated. Get some fresh air, have fun, play, eat a variety of food with different colors, live, love and laugh. That is all there is to a happy and healthy life.