What is the “World’s Heart day?”
To be successful:
A big part of maintaining a healthy life style depends on
knowing how to keep yourself motivated along the way. Here
are some steps that could help:
-
Find the
information
you need
about risk factors of heart diseases and how to reduce them.
-
Know your
risk areas.
These include
family history, your body mass index (BMI), waist circumference,
blood pressure, cholesterol levels, cigarette smoking, and
physical inactivity.
-
Set
achievable goals.
Break down
your goals for healthy eating and physical activity into small
achievable parts and develop an action plan to keep you on
track.
-
Keep track
of your progress.
Keep track of
your activities and successes and reward yourself each time you
achieve a goal.
-
Surround
yourself with supportive people.
The people
around you can be highly motivating by participating in a
healthy lifestyle with you, or by reminding you to keep up with
your new habits.
About the world heart day:
Heart diseases and stroke is the world's largest killer,
claiming 17.5 million lives a year. That’s why world heart day was
created to
increase
public awareness of the risks and to promote preventive measures.
World heart day 2006 has a theme "How young is your heart?"
Helps encourage
people around the world to adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle to
maintain a young heart for life by choosing a healthy diet, being
physically active and by not smoking.
Physical activity and heart health
Physical inactivity is proportional to ageing the heart, leading to
overweight and obesity, diabetes and hypertension. The heart is a
muscle that needs regular exercise to keep it pumping blood
efficiently with every heart beat. Regular activity and its effect
on risk factors will help:
-Slow down
narrowing of arteries to the heart and brain
-Body to
utilize excess stored fat and help weight loss and fighting obesity
-Improve
cholesterol levels by increasing HDL in blood
-Maintain
normal blood glucose levels in managing diabetes
-Reduce high
blood pressure
-Smokers to
quit
What type of
activity is best?
Aerobic
Activity:
Best exercise
for the heart
It includes:
Brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, gardening; any activity
that uses the heart, lungs and muscles over a period of time. It
strengthens your heart, uses up calories, help with weight control.
Strengthening
Activities:
Work on
stomach and lower back muscles.
Stronger,
larger muscles burn more calories (climbing stairs, digging in
garden and walking uphill) help to maintain a healthy weight.
Stretching
Exercises:
promotes
flexibility as T’ai Chi and Yoga.
Choose to
move!
Start
exercising slowly and increase the time, intensity and frequency of
activity as your heart gets stronger.
A healthy diet
Calories
consumed must be balanced with calories burned. Most recommended to
combine exercise with a balanced diet including plenty of fruits,
vegetables, whole grain products and unsaturated oils.
Say no to
tobacco
Smoking is
another important risk factor to control to help keep the heart
young. Keeping tobacco-free body decreases blood cholesterol and low
density lipoprotein cholesterol, also reduces blood clotting and
risk of arteriosclerosis. Last but not least, set a good example to
children by not smoking gives a clear message of the dangers of
tobacco.
How about
joining us and keep a healthy heart!
share in the
ASSPSA survey about heart diseases
special thanks to sara imam
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