How healthy living impacts your heart

Exercise: Doing stress-relieving activities like yoga, are an important part of heart health. — AFP

PETALING JAYA: You are probably familiar with all the usual heart-healthy tips, but how exactly do these choices affect your heart?

When it comes to making informed decisions, many people don’t understand how it can affect heart health and overall bodily wellness.

And for good decisions to have staying power, it’s important to understand the impact they’re having.

When you lose weight, you can see the difference, but the results of a healthier heart are more difficult to measure.

Let’s take a look at five healthy choices and how they impact your heart.

Exercise

We all know that activities like running, cycling and swimming, are good for you, as they improve your overall health.

More specifically, exercise also helps blood vessels relax and widen, or dilate.

Relaxed blood vessels allow blood to flow efficiently and nourish the heart, which stimulates nitric oxide (NO) production in the body.

As NO controls, regulates and protects the cardiovascular system, the result is clear: more exercise equals more NO, which results in a healthier heart.

Eating a balanced diet

Fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins and whole grains give your body the energy and nutrients it needs to maintain overall health.

Foods like fatty fish (salmon, mackerel and tuna), flaxseeds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and soybeans, are jam-packed with omega-3 fatty acids.

And consumption of these EPA (eicosapantaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of heart disease.

These omega-3s also help our bodies maintain normal cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Lowering stress

Doing stress-relieving activities like yoga, meditation and deep breathing, can do more for your body than you might think.

A recent study found that chronic stress is linked to coronary heart disease and that stress management is an important part of heart health.

Many researchers believe that increased stress levels can worsen other states in the body.

For example, if you have high blood pressure or cholesterol, stress can cause these levels to rise even further.

Stress may also impact the way blood clots form, which may increase the risk of a heart attack.

People with lower stress levels may be more likely to exercise and eat well, both of which are important for a healthy heart.

So, lowering stress not only helps you feel better, it also keeps your body balanced and supports healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Losing weight

Even moderate weight loss can have a huge impact on the health of your heart.

A healthy weight lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and positively impacts overall physical health.

While there are lots of benefits of weight loss, it especially impacts blood circulation.

One study found that when body weight, especially belly fat, is within healthy range, arteries are better able to expand, which results in better blood flow.

And since optimal blood flow is one of the keys to a healthy cardiovascular system, weight loss (or maintenance, if you’re at a healthy weight), can be one of the most important steps toward supporting a healthy heart.

Supporting the endothelium

Our bodies contain six trillion endothelial cells, which line 60,000 miles (96,561km) of blood vessels in a single layer, and form the endothelium.

The endothelium is the “production house” of NO, one of the most important molecules in the cardiovascular system.

Exercising, eating a healthy diet, lowering stress and losing weight all contribute to endothelial health.

Supplementing with targeted nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, CoQ10, krill, garlic and green tea also help keep the endothelium healthy by providing the nutrients it needs to function at its best.

A healthy endothelium results in healthy NO levels, which impacts blood flow and blood pressure, as well as the functioning of the entire body.

Dr Louis Ignarro is a pharmacologist, co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, and a member of the Herbalife Nutrition Advisory Board.