Patients

Show your heart some love.

Show your heart some love by focusing on heart-healthy activities. If you do, it’ll give you a long and healthy life.

The heart is a vital organ. We often take our hearts for granted. After all, we can’t see it, we just know it’s there. Our focus is likely on the more visual parts of our body.

Your heart works hard for you every day. It keeps you alive! It’s absolutely necessary if you’re going to continue living and enjoying the amazing things that you do. All the things that make life worth living are what your heart is working hard to keep you doing! So, how do you say thank you? How are you taking care of this absolutely necessary, essential, vital organ? How hard are you working to take care of your heart? Are you working as hard to take care of it as it is to take care of you?

Consider these heart health statistics.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. as 1 in 5 deaths are related to it.
1 in 6 deaths from a cardiovascular disease came from a stroke.
Diabetes was the 8th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021.

Did you know these facts about your heart?

Your heart is near the middle of your chest, slightly to the left.
The normal human heart is a strong, muscular pump, a little larger than your fist.
This tough muscle weighs about 1 pound.
The average human heart beats 72 bpm.
Each day an average heart beats (expands and contracts) 100,000 times.
The heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood a day.
In a 70-year lifetime, an average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times.‍

Take a time out.

Lay your right forearm on your desktop with your palm facing up. Set a timer for one minute. Make a fist, then release the fist fully and rhythmically as many times as you can for one minute. When the heart is filling with blood, it’s like your hand when it’s open, and when the heart is pumping blood to the rest of the body, it’s like your hand squeezing into the fist. You may get tired even before just one minute of opening and closing your fist, but your heart needs to pump all day long, every day without taking a single break!

This is why it’s important for us to get exercise. Exercise strengthens muscles in our body, including our heart. The stronger the heart, the easier the pumping, the cleaner the blood flow and the more oxygen in the bloodstream.

Your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood to your body and brings oxygen-poor blood back to your heart and lungs. Your blood travels through several miles of blood vessels. The cells in your body need oxygen to survive, and red blood cells carry that oxygen. The more oxygen your body gets, the more energy you’ll have. The higher a person’s heart rate, the greater the demand for oxygen. In other words, as your heart rate goes up, so does the need for more oxygen. Then we breathe harder, pulling more air into our system which eventually goes into our bloodstream. So, exercise your heart if you want to keep it strong, healthy, and happy!

Keep your heart healthy.

Get enough exercise. This means at least 30 minutes of exercise almost every day of the week. I recommend five days a week for a total of 150 minutes of loving your heart! Your heart LOVES to exercise, even if you don’t!

Eat a heart-healthy diet. Load up on fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts and healthy wild-caught salmon. Limit sugar, saturated fats, salt and fatty meats.

Watch your numbers. Get regular check-ups to monitor health conditions that affect the heart, including blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. Make sure these numbers are in the healthy range or are at least under control. And by control, we don’t mean relying solely on medications, or you may be forced to rely solely on medications. Do your part to make the appropriate lifestyle changes to bring the numbers down.

Watch your weight. You may hate the scale, but it’s an important risk indicator so don’t ignore it. Too many pounds can increase heart disease risk, so maintain a healthy body weight for your size.

Watch your waist. Women’s measurements should be less than 35 inches at the waist which is 1” above your belly button. And men should be less than 40 inches at the waist. Your hip is about 7” below your waist. Your hip-to-waist ratio should be less than 0.95 for men and 0.80 for women, which is calculated by dividing your waist measurement by your hip measurement.

Reduce your alcohol intake. Too much alcohol consumption can worsen health conditions that contribute to heart disease.

Minimize stress. I know, easier said than done, right? But stress can compound heart disease risks, so incorporate effective ways to lower stress and therefore lower your risk of heart disease, and other stress-related diseases.

Try this now. Take 3 slow deep breaths to help your body build up a supply of oxygen. When stressed, try the “4-7-8 method.” Inhale for the count of 4, hold for the count of 7, and then exhale for the count of 8. Expel air completely, even beyond what you took in. There, don’t you feel better already?

Are you falling in love … with your heart, yet? Don’t let the love between you and your heart be one-sided! Don’t let your heart love you more than you love it! Show your heart some love – every single day – and it’ll love you well for many years!‍

Care you will love.

First Stop Health providers are here to care for you! You can schedule a visit with our primary care providers, certified diabetes educators and registered dietitians to talk about your health concerns. All our visits are virtual, so you can get care from where you're most comfortable!