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Majority of the studies on heart health include patients between the ages 40 and 75 years.
A healthy heart rate typically ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. If your heart beats steadily without any irregularities, it is a sign of good health. (News18 Hindi)
As you find yourself hitting 40’s, you may start thinking about health issues especially heart health you previously didn’t concern yourself with. Apart from traditional risk factors, age is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Risk of cardiovascular diseases mainly heart attack and stroke increases with age due to cholesterol deposition. Majority of the studies on heart health include patients between the ages 40 and 75 years. 40 is an age that can start to motivate many to consider heart disease risk and how to lower it with lifestyle modification. Dr M Sudhakar Rao, Consultant – Cardiology, Manipal Hospital Sarjapur Road) lists are a few crucial things to know about your heart and practical tips to keep the heart healthy.
- “10000″ daily step countWith the current sedentary lifestyle sitting is being identified as the new smoking. Studies have established that prolonged sitting or being excessively sedentary poses similar risk for heart disease as smoking. As per the studies, brisk walking for 30-45 minutes per day or 150 minutes per week can significantly reduce the risk factors and occurrences of cardiac events in many studies.
- Watch what you eatRefraining or minimizing consumption of outside food, eating home-cooked food can help reduce consumption of excess calories and ensure a nutritionally balanced meal. Oils rich in poly or mono unsaturated fats are anytime better than saturated fats. At the same time avoiding all forms of trans fats are ideal.
- Attain targetIt’s a good idea to have your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and general health assessed every one to two years (more often if you’re having symptoms of health problems). Ideal targets should be blood pressure less than 130/ 80 mm of mercury, Fasting blood glucose less than 100, HbA1C less than 5.7, bad cholesterol or LDL less than 100 and BMI of less than 24.5.
- Control your weightA healthy diet and regular exercise will go a long way toward maintaining your weight in a range recommended by doctor. Larger waist circumference is often linked to a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, heart attack and stroke. Visceral fat particularly around the abdomen is considered the worst kind of fat as it gets stored deep in the belly around vital organs. A waistline under 35 inches if you’re a woman and under 40 inches if you’re a man, and maintaining a BMI less than 24.5 is considered ideal.
- Stress managementResorting to food, alcohol, sleeping pills, cigarettes or drugs that aren’t prescribed, for stress management may lead to new health problems. It is recommended to try, healthy stress management strategies such as yoga, breathing exercises, and mindfulness.
