How to Improve Heart Health Naturally
Beating almost 2.5 billion times during the average lifespan, our heart is the powerhouse of the body that keeps us going. It works nonstop to pump blood throughout the body, expel waste and toxins, and keep your body systems operating. Without it, bodily functions cease to function almost instantaneously.
Given its central role in keeping us alive and healthy, learning how to improve heart health naturally is crucial to our overall mental and physical wellness. Whether it’s finding ways to stay active, adopting healthier lifestyles, or making sure we allow our body to get proper rest and recovery, better heart health makes a noticeable difference. We’re taking a look at 6 ways for how to improve heart health naturally and live a long, healthy life!
Ways to Improve Heart Health Naturally
Taking care of your heart is easier than you think. It doesn’t require major time commitments or laborious tasks each day. Instead, improving heart health naturally is as simple as adopting a few changes into your life that will quickly become second nature. Some easy ways to improve heart health are:
- Improving your diet
- Staying regularly active
- Quitting smoking
- Losing excess weight
- Experiencing the health benefits of zero gravity chairs
- Reducing daily stress and anxiety with self care activities
Start a Better Diet to Improve Heart Health
When learning how to improve heart health naturally the easiest and most important place to start is by improving your diet. Choosing heart-healthy foods will help you feel better and help reduce the risk of heart disease.
The first step in improving heart health with a better diet is to monitor portion sizes. Controlling how much you eat is just as important as choosing what you eat. Introduce more fruits and veggies into your daily diet. They’re low in calories and high in dietary fiber. This will help you feel fuller faster while also reducing your caloric intake and increasing your ingestion of nutritious vitamins and minerals
When it comes to proteins, try to substitute out red meat for fatty fish like salmon at least once a week. The omega-3 fatty acids are healthy fats that improve heart health. Otherwise lower-fat options for protein ingestion are best such as chicken, eggs, and even legumes (which are excellent sources of protein for those who are vegetarian).
Eating the right foods will help you feel better, can help fight inflammation, and is an easy way to improve heart health naturally.
Stay Active to Improve Heart Health
Staying regularly active is another easy method when you’re looking for ways to improve heart health naturally. Studies have widely shown the positive effects of exercise on cardiovascular health. This can be a trip to the gym for a cardio workout, a brisk walk around the neighborhood, low impact exercises such as yoga and tai chi, or even simple exercises in a zero gravity chair or recliner.
The goal of physical activity that will improve heart health is to elevate your heart rate for a period of time. Be sure not to overdo it by monitoring your heart rate as you exercise and making sure it doesn’t get too high. If it begins to rise to high, take a short break to allow it to lower once more.
Regardless of what form of exercise you do, be sure you take care of your body both before and afterward. This means proper stretching before exercising as well as post-workout recovery routines like a massage to keep from getting stiff or even relaxing in the same zero gravity chair you used for your workout for home spinal decompression and increase blood circulation (which results in faster bodily healing).
With the COVID-19 pandemic shifting many employees to work from home setups in 2020, you’re likely finding yourself sitting at home much more often than ever before. It’s important to get up and move around every hour to prevent pain from sitting too long and keep your blood circulating properly. Whether at home or in the office, this makes for good practice!
Improve Heart Health After Quit Smoking
No list of ways to improve heart health naturally would be complete without acknowledging the dangers of smoking. Cigarette smoking is a contributing factor in roughly 1 of 5 deaths in the United States each year. This huge statistic stems from the drastically increased risks of smokers to develop plaque in their arteries known as atherosclerosis. This buildup over time can restrict blood circulation, increasing blood pressure and the risk of heart attack or stroke.
The easiest way to avoid this is to avoid smoking altogether (including secondhand smoke). For those who already smoke, however, it’s never too late to quit. Quitting smoking can improve heart health naturally as it begins to reverse the heart and blood vessel damage previously done. This change in lifestyle improves your overall health and can drastically reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.
Not limited to heart health, another bonus many ex-smokers find is that their sense of taste improves greatly after quitting smoking!
Start a Heart Healthy Weight Loss Plan
Another method on how to improve heart health naturally is to try and lose excess weight. More weight means the heart has to work harder to pump blood throughout the body. Obesity can lead to inflammation, restricted arteries, and drastically increase pressure on the heart.
The good news is that for many, losing excess weight to improve heart health naturally is a byproduct of other actions taken. Choosing a healthier diet and staying more physically active will inevitably lead to shedding the extra pounds and feeling better than ever!
Experience the Heart Health Benefits of Zero Gravity Chairs
One of the biggest health benefits of zero gravity chairs is improving heart health naturally. In the zero gravity position, the legs are elevated above the heart level and weight is evenly distributed along the body. This simple act has drastic results.
Improving heart health in a zero gravity chair is an amazing process that all takes place while you experience deeper relaxation. While reclining in a zero gravity chair, the spine decompresses against the daily effects of gravity. The reduced pressure along the body in zero gravity position increases blood circulation which reduces pressure on the heart while delivering oxygen and nutrients throughout the body more efficiently.
There are other health benefits of zero gravity chairs that work to reduce pressure on the heart, as well. For example, sleeping in a zero gravity chair helps you achieve a deeper REM cycle and can avoid the symptoms of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can be a dangerous condition that results in increased blood pressure and risk of heart attack as airways close off and breathing stops multiple times while sleeping.
Integrating a zero gravity chair into your daily fitness routine is a simple way to drastically improve not only your heart health but your body’s entire mental and physical wellbeing. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!
Reduce Stress and Anxiety With Self Care Activities to Improve Heart Health
Last, but certainly not least, on our quest is learning how to improve heart health with self care activities that reduce stress and anxiety. While heart health is a physical aspect of wellness, mental health plays a role in it, too. Elevated stress levels increase blood pressure and risk of heart attack or stroke in people. Since we all have to deal with different stress triggers each day, it’s important to learn how to handle your stress level and let the day melt away.
Some physical activities to achieve this include yoga and tai chi. Both of these low impact exercises focus on physical movement while focusing the mind. It can be an excellent way to wind down and keep active, resulting in two methods of improving heart health naturally at once!
Another of our favorites is managing stress and anxiety with meditation. There are endless forms of meditation to choose from and find one that suits you. Our picks include guided meditation and simple mindfulness meditation practices.
The key to meditation is creating a zen space in your home where you can focus for even just a few minutes each day. You can meditate in a zero gravity chair, go outside to be in nature, or even spend a few quiet minutes lying flat on a bed. There’s no singular correct method so find what works for you!
Learning how to improve heart health naturally is important to your overall wellbeing and longevity. As we face new challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting our health is more important than ever. You’ll find improving heart health is as easy as adopting a more active lifestyle, choosing a zero gravity chair to use, or taking a few minutes each day for self care activities at home!
While heart health is important for everyone, it may be something you think of as more for adults. Zero gravity chairs offer much more than just adult benefits, however. Learn more about what they are and the benefits of zero gravity chairs for all ages here: What is a Zero Gravity Chair?
