The heart is a vital organ whose function affects all other body organs. The heart functions to pump blood throughout the body. Meanwhile, blood is responsible for carrying nutrients to every organ in the body.
If the condition of the heart and blood is disturbed, all the body’s organs will also experience bad effects. This means that when there is a problem with the heart, it will affect our overall quality of life.
Why Should We Maintain Heart Health?
The reason why we have to maintain heart health is to maintain quality and survive. Unfortunately, as you get older, your heart health becomes increasingly threatened. Because age is a risk factor that threatens heart conditions.
Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) data from the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes RI) in 2018 shows the same thing by stating that the prevalence of heart disease in people aged 65 years and over is 4.6 percent.
The report shows that the older you get, the higher the prevalence of heart disease. The correlation is that aging causes changes in the heart and blood vessels, which may increase the risk of heart disease. Apart from that, aging is also related to the body’s lack of response to heart disease.
The bad news is, this condition can also be made worse by an unhealthy lifestyle such as lack of exercise, lack of nutritional intake, and so on. Poor diet, such as consuming foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, can trigger heart disease.
How to Keep Your Heart Healthy
So, how do you keep your heart healthy? There are at least 6 ways to keep your heart healthy that we can do. The following are some of them:
1. Sleep 7-8 Hours Every Night
Getting enough sleep is an important part of maintaining overall body health, including a healthy heart condition.
Research shows that not getting enough sleep or poor quality sleep is associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and atherosclerosis. All of these things worsen heart conditions.
On the other hand, sleeping too much at night can also harm the heart by increasing the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
In other words, to maintain heart health, you need to sleep for 7 to 8 hours every night. In order to get good quality sleep, you need to avoid consuming caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime.
You also need to turn off your cellphone, television and computer before bed to avoid distractions. Being active during the day, such as exercising, can also help you have better quality sleep
2. Exercise at least 30 minutes every day
One way to maintain heart health with a healthy lifestyle is to actively exercise. Doing sports activities regularly can reduce the risk of heart attack and/or developing heart disease.
A healthy lifestyle through regular exercise can help control blood pressure, cholesterol and body weight. All of this is useful for preventing heart disease.
To start a heart-healthy exercise routine, you only need to do moderate intensity exercise, such as brisk walking or jogging for 30 minutes every day.
Apart from keeping your heart healthy, regular exercise also helps strengthen bones and muscles. In fact, as a bonus, you will feel more energized, happy and relaxed.
3. Manage Stress Well
Stress is often associated with high blood pressure, a trigger for heart disease. Managing stress can help reduce the risk of heart attack. Apart from that, chronic stress can also increase the hormone cortisol, which is not good for the heart.
To deal with perceived stress, you can do breathing exercises or meditation. You can also do exercise to manage stress. These methods help you feel relaxed and can control the feelings of stress you feel.
4. Avoid sitting for too long
Sitting for too long is one of the characteristics of a sedentary lifestyle or lack of movement. This lifestyle has been linked to heart disease. Sitting too much and for long periods of time or continuously can increase the risk of death from heart disease and cancer.
For this reason, you need to try to avoid sitting for too long. At least, you must stand up after 30 minutes of sitting. While standing, do activities that require some movement.
Alternatively, try walking outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air.
5. Eat more vegetables and fruits
Vegetables and fruit are good sources of vitamins and minerals. In addition, vegetables and fruit contain various plant compounds that can help prevent heart disease. A diet full of a variety of fruits and vegetables is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease.
You can choose types of vegetables that have attractive colors to whet your appetite. Apart from that, vegetables with beautiful colors contain the minerals and vitamins you need.
6. Maintain a Dietary Pattern with Foods or Drinks that are Low in Fat or Vegetable Fat Sources
Choosing the type of fat is also important in maintaining heart condition. You need to limit the amount of saturated fat and trans fat consumed.
This is an important step to reduce cholesterol levels in the blood and reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. High cholesterol levels can cause plaque buildup in the arteries which can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Instead of choosing foods with sources of saturated fat which are often found in animal sources, you can choose vegetable sources of fat. You can consume avocado, nuts, or olive oil as a healthier source of fat.
Nutritional Intake for Heart Healt
Various ways to maintain healthy heart function will be more optimal if you provide additional nutritional intake from Ensure.
Abbott Ensure is additional nutrition to maintain optimal heart function with its omega-3 and omega-6 content. These two important ingredients can reduce the risk of plaque formation in blood vessels, high blood pressure and triglycerides.
The even healthier part is that Ensure fat is sourced from 100% vegetable fat so it is low in cholesterol.
Apart from that, Ensure is also equipped with Triple Protein ( whey, casein and soya), FOS prebiotic fiber, 14 vitamins and 9 minerals to support the body’s endurance, activeness and independence in carrying out various activities throughout the day.
The interesting thing about Abbott Ensure is that you can drink it cold or warm. You can also choose whether you want to drink chocolate or vanilla flavored Ensure. You just have to choose according to your taste.
To get optimal benefits for your heart function, just drink Ensure twice a day. Simply add 5 measuring spoons of Ensure to 200 ml of boiled water, then stir evenly, then Ensure’s additional nutritional intake is ready to drink.
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