A working-age person may take care of their parents’ heart health: stop their salt consumption, encourage them to go pole-walking or check the fat composition of margarine at the dinner table without thinking about their own heart.
The Swedish Heart Association’s chief physician, cardiologist Anna-Mari Hekkala understand well why one’s own heart tends to be forgotten in everyday life.
– As long as the heart is healthy and does not remind itself, we take it for granted that that’s where the engine hums. The fear of cancer is greater and this can be seen, for example, in the fact that more is donated to cancer research than to heart research.
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Unfortunately, many people only realize their heart condition when they have their first heart attack. This happens to a few thousand people of working age every year. Also, the illness of a close person or a public figure can startle and arouse the desire to do something for one’s heart.
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If a sudden cardiac event happens to a close relative, many people start to wonder if they themselves have a tendency to heart disease.
It is comforting that the progression of arterial disease can be slowed down by lifestyle at any age. It is possible even after a heart attack.
– Arterial diseases are the sum of many things, so even individual small actions and choices matter. It is never too late to stop the progression of artery disease.
According to Hekkala, the right moment for this comes for most people in their thirties and forties.
– However, the narrowing of the blood vessels starts soon after the teenage years. Some slower, others faster.
A blood pressure monitor for every home
You can start taking care of your heart by finding out the readings that are important for it. When was the last time you measured your blood pressure? What year are your lab results for cholesterol values from?
– All middle-aged and older people should have a blood pressure monitor. Although rings that measure sleep and recovery are popular, a blood pressure monitor would be more important. It tells you what kind of noise in the arteries is on, Hekkala stresses.
Blood pressure should be no more than 135/85 mmHg measured by yourself or no more than 140/90 mmHg measured by a professional.
Another important number for the heart is cholesterol. Already in your 30s and 40s, it would be good to be aware of the level at which cholesterol levels fluctuate. The sooner you find out your own readings, the better. If it turns out that the lifestyle is not good for the heart, it is high time to make changes.
Women develop coronary artery disease on average ten years later than men, because the female hormone estrogen protects blood vessels. At fifty, the situation changes.
– Even if a woman’s cholesterol values were ideal, when menopause comes, the amount of bad cholesterol increases and the amount of good cholesterol decreases. In that case, it would be the right moment to make changes to the diet and increase the amount of exercise.
The lower the total cholesterol and the lower the proportion of bad LDL cholesterol, the better. In the case of good HDL cholesterol, you can think the opposite: its increase is good. HDL-cholesterol acts as a cleaning patrol in blood vessels and sweeps bad LDL-cholesterol away from artery walls.
Total cholesterol should be less than 5 mmol/l and HDL cholesterol should be more than 1 for men and more than 1.2 for women. The ideal level of HDL cholesterol is about 2 millimoles per liter.
Choose your own changes
If your blood pressure and cholesterol readings are good, you can thank yourself for making successful choices and for taking care of your heart: maybe you put together a plate model on autopilot or hop on a bike for work trips. These good habits should be maintained.
If the readings don’t quite reach the recommended level, that’s okay. Rather, think that you have plenty of good options in front of you. What thoughtful actions would you like and could do for your heart? You can promote significant changes in terms of the heart, especially with those choices related to nutrition, exercise and smoking.
Food raises HDL cholesterol
Good HDL cholesterol cannot be added to the bloodstream with medication. However, HDL-cholesterol is comfortably accumulated from a healthy diet.
The tips are familiar: it is important for the heart to choose soft fats whenever possible, to limit the sprinkling of salt and to prefer fibers.
Making choices in the store is facilitated by the Heart symbol. It says that the quality of the fat and the amount of fiber or salt is better than in similar other products. The heart symbol helps you grab the healthiest option in the cart, if you don’t have time to read product descriptions during a busy shopping trip.
Rarely enjoyed delicacies do not matter from the point of view of the whole. Hekkala advises to pay more attention to the foods you eat daily.
– Finns eat a lot of bread and usually something is put on top of the bread. Such choices that are repeated day after day and year after year matter. The bread should have at least six grams of fiber per hundred grams.
From the point of view of the heart, there is particularly high-quality fiber in oats. Oat fiber contains beta-glucan, which prevents the absorption of cholesterol from the intestines. Low-salt breads that have earned the heart mark are scarce. When you find one, you should also choose its cover with the same Heart Mark logic.
More and more, specialty coffee made with coffee machines, capsule machines or a nut pan steams in a cup. It is bean coffee, which accumulates more harmful cholesterol than filter coffee. The effect on total cholesterol is in the order of 0.2–0.3 mmol/l. Specialty coffees can be reasonably enjoyed, especially when other lifestyles are reasonable.
Exercise also treats stress
The familiar exercise recommendation, two and a half hours a week briskly or an hour and a quarter even more efficiently, is also suitable for nurturing heart health. Anna-Mari Hekkala understands well those for whom this seems like a must.
– Not everyone considers themselves to be active. Some of us prefer to do crafts or read. Getting started can be challenging if you don’t feel like yourself. Hekkala still encourages you to make exercise a part of every day.
Exercise keeps blood vessels elastic and increases the amount of good HDL cholesterol.
– It would be great if a little walk could fit into the day. It used to be thought that exercise should last at least half an hour at a time. Now the studies have come to the conclusion that even shorter clips are important. Even with a single climb up the stairs or other small jolts.
For some, exercise motivation may arise from the idea that exercise is not only medicine for the heart, but also help with stress and worries, which the goings-on in the world can already increase.
– Long-term residual stress is harmful to the arteries, because the cortisol hormone and overexcitation of the sympathetic nervous system make the body go into overdrive and raise blood pressure.
In a state of stress, the sympathetic nervous system, which accelerates the body, dominates, and the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms down, decreases.
Exercise is one way to strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system and restore balance. Any exercise is fine. Many find walks, sports that take care of the body and mind, and water sports to be especially relaxing.
Smokeless heart medicine
In terms of lifestyle, smoking is the only single change that, according to Hekkala, who has worked as a cardiologist for 20 years, it is necessary to make.
– Tobacco has really, really many harmful effects. The best thing to do for the heart is to quit.
Smoking weakens the inner surface of the blood vessel and weakens its function. Tobacco affects blood clotting, which means the risk of clots increases. In addition, smoking maintains chronic inflammation in the walls of blood vessels and expels good HDL cholesterol.
– Quitting smoking works better than a single medicine. Just a few hours after stopping, the blood clotting system gets back to balance. Gradually, chronic inflammation also eases and cholesterol values change for the better.
When the heart is healthy, the whole body will thank you. With the same healthy choices, you can also keep the blood vessels of the brain flexible, which reduces the risk of cerebral infarction and memory disorders.◆
Expert Anna-Mari Hekkala chief physician, cardiologist, Heart Association.
This article has appeared in Hyvä tervey magazine. As a subscriber, you can read all issues free of charge from the digilehdet.fi service.
Source: www.hyvaterveys.fi
