DO<\/strong> increase physical activity. Not only does exercise have physical benefits such as healthy weight maintenance and positive health outcomes, it also reduces stress hormones that cause negative heart health risks. Exercise may improve heart health by regulating the body\u2019s cholesterol and blood pressure. Evidence also shows that regular physical activity improves brain health, bone health, mood, and the ability to fight colds, as well as decreasing risk of cancer and diabetes. Even a modest amount of exercise helps and it\u2019s never too late to get started! Aim for at least 30-60 minutes of physical activity daily.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nDON\u2019T<\/strong> smoke. Studies have linked cigarette smoking to coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attacks. A smoker\u2019s risk of dying from this disease is two to three times greater than a nonsmoker\u2019s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n- DO<\/strong> manage stress. Chronic stress may increase your risk to have heart disease, high blood pressure, chest pain, or irregular heartbeats. The stress itself can be a problem, but the way you handle stress also matters. Responding to stress in unhealthy ways (such as smoking, overeating, or being physically inactive) can make matters worse. Finding healthy ways to deal with stress such as exercising, maintaining a positive attitude, not smoking or drinking too much alcohol, getting plenty of sleep, enjoying a healthy diet, and maintaining a healthy weight can help keep you in good heart health as well as improve your overall quality of life. If you\u2019re finding it hard to deal with stress, seek help from a doctor or counselor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
DON\u2019T<\/strong> skip your checkups. There are silent heart risk factors that are harder to detect on your own so it is important to regularly get checked out by a doctor. Some of the most common, symptom-free heart issues are easily treated, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. It is better to get the milder problems and heart risk factors in line before it becomes a major issue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heart disease can be preventable, so it is important to know what you should do to improve your heart health, as well as what you shouldn\u2019t do. Check out these 5 do’s and don’ts for a healthy heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[76,1298],"tags":[73,74,201,77,78,248,521,81,82,83],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90Iz0-Ci","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skinnygeneproject.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}