How To Have A Healthy Heart
Jane Thurnell-read asked:
Keeping our hearts healthy is important, but how do we do it? Fortunately the answers to this are very clear.
Being overweight, particularly if you carry the weight around your waist, puts unnecessary strain on the heart. To find out if you have a problem you need to know your height to weight ratio (WHR). To work this out measure round your waist in centimetres and divide it by your hip circumference. The measurements need to be in centimetres, so if your measuring tape is in inches, multiply each measurement by 2.5 before dividing one by the other. If the figure you end up with is greater than 0.9 for men and 0.8 for women then your fat distribution is likely to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Research has shown that many overweight people with angina, raised blood cholesterol and high blood pressure found their condition improved greatly, even after losing only some of their excess weight. Many of those who kept their weight off were able to reduce their medication or even stop it entirely.
Exercise is important for your heart too. If you take regular exercise, it will speed up your basal metabolic rate. This means that you will burn more calories, not only when you are exercising but for some time afterwards as well. People often imagine that they have to exercise hard to have an effect, but it’s enough just to take exercise that leaves you warm and breathing heavily, but still able to hold a conversation.
Did you know that each day most of us take between 3,000-4,000 steps? And that’s just not enough. Experts say that we should aim to take 10,000 steps to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Increasing to 10,000 steps a day will burn between 2,000 and 3,500 extra calories per week, which will result in achieving a vastly better health profile and longer lifespan. There are lots of ways you can increase the number of steps you take: get up to change the TV rather than using the remote; park further from the supermarket; take a walk around the local park or your garden/yard; walk rather than take the car on short journeys. Using a pedometer will help motivate you to clock up those extra steps.
Giving up smoking is likely to have a dramatic effect on your heart. Carbon monoxide produced when you smoke cigarettes attaches to red blood cells, so that in smokers up to half the blood can be carrying carbon monoxide rather than oxygen. No wonder many smokers are breathless! If you need help giving up smoking, try one of the books or CD’s by Allen Carr. He has helped thousands of people to give up.
And, if you don’t already, start flossing your teeth! This may seem bizarre in relation to the heart, but it has been shown that there is a link between gum disease and heart disease. The exact mechanism isn’t understood fully yet, but flossing your teeth and having regular dental checks is important for a healthy heart.
Finally, give and receive love. The scientific evidence isn’t there (yet) for how important this is for our hearts, but it has been established that people who have loving relationships also tend to have long and happy lives
healthy heart
Keeping our hearts healthy is important, but how do we do it? Fortunately the answers to this are very clear.
Being overweight, particularly if you carry the weight around your waist, puts unnecessary strain on the heart. To find out if you have a problem you need to know your height to weight ratio (WHR). To work this out measure round your waist in centimetres and divide it by your hip circumference. The measurements need to be in centimetres, so if your measuring tape is in inches, multiply each measurement by 2.5 before dividing one by the other. If the figure you end up with is greater than 0.9 for men and 0.8 for women then your fat distribution is likely to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Research has shown that many overweight people with angina, raised blood cholesterol and high blood pressure found their condition improved greatly, even after losing only some of their excess weight. Many of those who kept their weight off were able to reduce their medication or even stop it entirely.
Exercise is important for your heart too. If you take regular exercise, it will speed up your basal metabolic rate. This means that you will burn more calories, not only when you are exercising but for some time afterwards as well. People often imagine that they have to exercise hard to have an effect, but it’s enough just to take exercise that leaves you warm and breathing heavily, but still able to hold a conversation.
Did you know that each day most of us take between 3,000-4,000 steps? And that’s just not enough. Experts say that we should aim to take 10,000 steps to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Increasing to 10,000 steps a day will burn between 2,000 and 3,500 extra calories per week, which will result in achieving a vastly better health profile and longer lifespan. There are lots of ways you can increase the number of steps you take: get up to change the TV rather than using the remote; park further from the supermarket; take a walk around the local park or your garden/yard; walk rather than take the car on short journeys. Using a pedometer will help motivate you to clock up those extra steps.
Giving up smoking is likely to have a dramatic effect on your heart. Carbon monoxide produced when you smoke cigarettes attaches to red blood cells, so that in smokers up to half the blood can be carrying carbon monoxide rather than oxygen. No wonder many smokers are breathless! If you need help giving up smoking, try one of the books or CD’s by Allen Carr. He has helped thousands of people to give up.
And, if you don’t already, start flossing your teeth! This may seem bizarre in relation to the heart, but it has been shown that there is a link between gum disease and heart disease. The exact mechanism isn’t understood fully yet, but flossing your teeth and having regular dental checks is important for a healthy heart.
Finally, give and receive love. The scientific evidence isn’t there (yet) for how important this is for our hearts, but it has been established that people who have loving relationships also tend to have long and happy lives
healthy heart
Cardio Exercise – Tips For A Healthy Heart
Abhishek Agarwal asked:
First, you need to understand that you are not alone in considering that heart health is a matter of extreme importance as it is the vital organ of your body that keeps you going about in life; everyone worries about cardio exercise for the same reason – they want to stick around long enough to enjoy life to the lees! I don’t blame you for wanting the same thing; but, did you know that there are ways to increase your cardio output so as to ensure your heart is healthy even as you age?
If not, stick around and learn just how you can have a healthy heart!
The most important thing that you need to understand about heart health is that exercise in moderation and under supervision after doctor’s permission is always good for your increased heart health; there are two essential types of cardio exercise that you can consider, depending on the current condition of your heart functionality.
These are high and low intensity exercises that work to burn off body fat, which can be harmful for the efficient functioning of the heart and even cause the arteries to clog up with excess fat leading to serious complications and much discomfort, pain and expenses that can well be avoided simply by healthy levels of cardio exercise.
Medical science reveals to us that during the course of the body enduring an intensive work-out, the benefits for the human system are many: it works on the principle of the body burning stored glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that is present in the liver and muscles for energy. However, during low intensity workouts, the body burns fat.
So, if you see so many fat people around you that are currently on low intensity workouts you may well be wondering if this works at all for reducing fat; the answer is no. If it did work, then why would they still be fat? Think about it!
This is because what happens during a low intensity workout like walking or swimming is that the body does burn fat, but actual calories are only burnt during high intensity work-outs such as running, cycling, jogging etc. So apart from burning off stored glycogen, the high intensity work-out also has the added advantage of burning up many more fat calories than the lower intensity exercise, which in turn spells a healthy heart for you – for many years to come.
Thus, the benefits of a high intensity cardio exercise includes raising the fat burning metabolism during and even after the work-out is completed, which is not available to those indulging in low intensity cardio or aerobic exercises; furthermore, the freedom of combining various kinds of high intensity work-outs (5 minutes of running interspersed with 5 minutes of jogging then another 5 minutes of cycling etc.) allows for more variety and more calorie-burning during high intensity work-outs that are not present at all in low-intensity ones.
It also helps build endurance and energy in the long run, so you may want to stick to that cardio exercise track for a while – and gift yourself a healthy heart.
Caffeinated Content
First, you need to understand that you are not alone in considering that heart health is a matter of extreme importance as it is the vital organ of your body that keeps you going about in life; everyone worries about cardio exercise for the same reason – they want to stick around long enough to enjoy life to the lees! I don’t blame you for wanting the same thing; but, did you know that there are ways to increase your cardio output so as to ensure your heart is healthy even as you age?
If not, stick around and learn just how you can have a healthy heart!
The most important thing that you need to understand about heart health is that exercise in moderation and under supervision after doctor’s permission is always good for your increased heart health; there are two essential types of cardio exercise that you can consider, depending on the current condition of your heart functionality.
These are high and low intensity exercises that work to burn off body fat, which can be harmful for the efficient functioning of the heart and even cause the arteries to clog up with excess fat leading to serious complications and much discomfort, pain and expenses that can well be avoided simply by healthy levels of cardio exercise.
Medical science reveals to us that during the course of the body enduring an intensive work-out, the benefits for the human system are many: it works on the principle of the body burning stored glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that is present in the liver and muscles for energy. However, during low intensity workouts, the body burns fat.
So, if you see so many fat people around you that are currently on low intensity workouts you may well be wondering if this works at all for reducing fat; the answer is no. If it did work, then why would they still be fat? Think about it!
This is because what happens during a low intensity workout like walking or swimming is that the body does burn fat, but actual calories are only burnt during high intensity work-outs such as running, cycling, jogging etc. So apart from burning off stored glycogen, the high intensity work-out also has the added advantage of burning up many more fat calories than the lower intensity exercise, which in turn spells a healthy heart for you – for many years to come.
Thus, the benefits of a high intensity cardio exercise includes raising the fat burning metabolism during and even after the work-out is completed, which is not available to those indulging in low intensity cardio or aerobic exercises; furthermore, the freedom of combining various kinds of high intensity work-outs (5 minutes of running interspersed with 5 minutes of jogging then another 5 minutes of cycling etc.) allows for more variety and more calorie-burning during high intensity work-outs that are not present at all in low-intensity ones.
It also helps build endurance and energy in the long run, so you may want to stick to that cardio exercise track for a while – and gift yourself a healthy heart.
Caffeinated Content