Keep Your Heart Healthy

THROUGH THE YEARS

Photo of woman skiing You can do a lot to take care of your heart throughout your life. And when you do, you’ll help protect yourself against America’s number one killer—heart disease.

Heart-smart fundamentals hold at every age. These include eating right, exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking. It’s also important to control blood pressure and cholesterol, which can build up in arteries and block blood flow. Follow the general guidelines below to treat your heart right throughout life, and encourage loved ones to do the same.

Eat a Heart-Healthy Diet

Heart-healthy eating is important at any age, including for your children. Here are some tips:

Feed your family a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains; half of your grains should come from whole-grain products.
Choose foods that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. Healthy choices include lean meats, poultry without skin, fish, beans, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products
Bake, roast, or broil instead of frying.
Choose and prepare foods with little sodium (salt). Too much salt can raise your risk for high blood pressure.
Stick to foods and beverages that are low in added sugar. Drink alcohol only in moderation.

Stay Fit

Staying physically active plays an important role in keeping your heart in shape throughout life. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, children and youth should have 60 minutes or more of physical activity every day. Most of this should be moderate-intensity aerobic activity, such as walking, playing basketball and biking. Vigorous-intensity aerobic activity—such as running and fast swimming—should be included at least three days a week.

The experts say healthy adults ages 18 to 65 should get at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, five days each week, or at least 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise, such as jogging, three days each week.

People older than age 65 have similar exercise targets. Experts urge older adults to limit inactivity—common in older adults—and to increase moderate activities like walking or dancing.

If you’re pregnant or have recently given birth, talk to your doctor about safe physical activities to do during pregnancy and after delivery.

Watch Those Pounds

The National Institutes of Health says that being overweight or obese increases your risk for heart disease, even if you have no other risk factors. Being overweight or obese also raises your risk for other diseases that play a role in heart disease, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Your doctor can tell you what a healthy weight is for you.

Know Your Numbers

Get your children’s blood pressure checked yearly beginning at age 3. It’s important to detect and treat high numbers early. Starting at age 20, get your blood pressure checked at every doctor visit and your cholesterol screened at least every five years. Your doctor may recommend more frequent tests based on risk. And get a thorough physical exam on a schedule your doctor recommends. Ask the doctor to assess your heart disease risk.


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