In North America, heart disease remains the leading and most commonly occurring cause of death. Some risk factors include smoking, obesity, genetics, poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption, and stress.
  
One of the most common conditions affecting the heart is hypertension (high blood pressure), leading to arterial blockage and damage, increased cholesterol and inflammation, stroke, and heart failure. Though some risk factors for heart disease, like genetics, can't be changed, other influential factors can.

Here are a few modifiable factors:  
  • Eating nutrient-dense foods
  • Getting up and moving your body  
  • Supporting yourself with supplements 
  • Managing your stress  

Now, let's see how these factors can help our hearts be at their best.
Eat Nutrient-Dense Foods
Eating nutrient-dense foods is one of the most impactful lifestyle changes that support heart health. The heart’s crucial role is to pump oxygen and nutrient-rich blood throughout the body. Nutrient-dense foods rich in antioxidants and polyphenols help support the health and functionality of the heart. The heart requires plenty of energy to perform its numerous duties.

You can find nutrients in foods like:  
  • Berries: strawberries, blackberries, blueberries 
  • Dark-colored fruits: red and black grapes, plums 
  • Turmeric root 
  • Green tea
  • Goji berries 
  • Citrus fruits 
  • Nuts and seeds 
  • Organ meats and red meat (organic, grass-fed) 
The above provides the heart with raw materials that help the numerous mitochondria (the cell's powerhouse) produce energy and function properly. Avoid processed foods that come prepackaged and loaded with sodium, sugar, and preservatives, which offer no nutritional value, only calories, and toxins.

Try regularly eating the foods mentioned above as part of a whole food diet to regulate your body's inflammatory response and promote an anti-inflammatory environment where the heart can perform its vital function. 
Get Up & Move Your Body  
Depending on the individual's health, there is a type of exercise suitable for all. Dancing, stretching, weight resistance training, and swimming, for instance, are activities that help improve blood and lymphatic circulation, burn calories and release endorphins to help with mood and energy. Research shows that a sedentary lifestyle is detrimental to heart health, so moving your body makes the heart happy to do its role — to carry blood and oxygen throughout your body.  
Support Yourself With Supplements 
There will always be a need for additional support from supplements since our food is not as nutrient-dense as a few decades prior. Some beneficial supplements shown to support heart function include:  
  • Herbs: hawthorn berry, motherwort, arjuna 
  • Vitamins: b-complex, cod liver oil, vitamin E, vitamin D3, vitamin K2
  • Nutrients: resveratrol, pycnogenol, turmeric 
  • Minerals: magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper 
Manage Your Stress  
It’s no surprise that chronic stress is no help to heart health. The stress hormone cortisol, when chronically elevated, will cause inflammation in various parts of the body, including the heart, and disrupt its ability to function correctly.

If left unchecked, stress will cause other hormones to elevate, resulting in unbalanced sugar levels, difficulties with sleep, poor appetite control, and poor decision-making, especially about food choices. Incorporating daily stress management techniques is helpful to reduce the effects of stress on the heart.
Below are some stress management techniques:  
  • Prayer/meditation  
  • Deep breathing techniques (Search “breathing exercises” on Google or Bing for a guided deep breathing exercise)  
  • Walk outside and look at nature
  • Exercise 
  • Listen to classical music  
In conclusion, there are many ways to take care of your heart. This month and every month, let us show love to our hardworking hearts by putting a few simple lifestyle habits into practice to nourish and support the heart’s important role in our lives.  

Love,

Dr. Monique
WeLoveU unites the global village and delivers love and hope to all people through volunteer services.