How to Keep Your Arteries Healthy
It’s extremely important to keep your arteries healthy.
Getting into certain healthy habits isn’t just a good idea; your arteries absolutely need it. While many are still unaware, a large part of the cardiovascular problems we’re seeing so much of today are the result of artery damage from cholesterol and toxins.
The most worrying part is that living a sedentary lifestyle and eating poorly are the major triggers. Even if there aren’t obvious symptoms at first, later on come the heart and circulatory system issues.
So before you develop a serious illness, learn how to change your lifestyle for the better. Below, we’d like to share 6 very important recommendations to follow if you want to keep your arteries healthy.
Start today!
How to Keep Your Arteries Healthy
1. Consume omega 3 fatty acids
Not all fat is bad for your arteries. For example, foods containing omega 3 fatty acids are very good for them.
This type of lipid increases good cholesterol (HDL) while helping remove bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides from your body.
Regular consumption, even via supplements, will lower your risk of arteriosclerosis, hypertension, and heart attack. In addition, omega 3 is an anti-inflammatory agent, and thus is good for your circulatory system and brain.
You can find omega 3 in:
- Oily fish (sardines, salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring)
- Nuts and seeds
- Avocado
- Olive oil
- Soy beans
Take a look at these tips, too:
Tip to Increase Good Cholesterol
2. Exercise
Exercising regularly is one of the most highly recommended habits to get into if you want to keep your arteries healthy. An active body has good blood circulation and a healthy cardio-respiratory system.
That’s why any kind of physical activity is perfect for preventing and improving things like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and weight problems. In fact, with just 30 minutes a day, your risk of heart attack and stroke goes down.
3. Eat a balanced diet
Eating a balanced diet is good for your body in all kinds of ways. It does everything from keeping your arteries healthy to helping you maintain a healthy weight. Since it consists of a wide variety of nutritious foods, it’s the best way to lose weight and keep your cholesterol in line.
Now, we’re not talking about restrictive diets and cutting out whole food groups. Instead, we’re talking about “a little bit of everything” — but in the right amounts.
It does include limiting sugar and salt, though, because they will do the opposite of keeping your arteries healthy.
A balanced diet contains:
- Fresh fruit and vegetables
- Whole grains and legumes
- Nuts and seeds
- Lean meat and fish
4. Manage your stress
When your body is in continuous or prolonged stressful situations, certain chemical reactions take place. These reactions can lead to problems in your arteries. Your heart rate speeds up, your blood pressure shoots up too, and often your circulation is negatively affected.
Although mood imbalances aren’t directly responsible for poor artery health, they do have a negative effect on it. Therefore, relaxation and breathing exercises are essential; you need to learn to channel your stress.
5. Don’t consume foods with cholesterol
Your body uses a small amount of cholesterol to perform certain processes. However, too much of it in your arteries is a contributing factor to many different heart diseases.
Your liver secretes a large part of the lipid, but you also get it by eating foods containing it. So if your goal is to keep your arteries healthy, avoid them.
Common sources of cholesterol:
- Red meat and offal
- Whole fat dairy products and butter
- Smoked meat, cold cuts, sausage, etc
- Fried food and potato chips
- Processed pastries and bread
Take a look at this, too:
Four Smoothies to Boost Your Protein Intake With Uncommon Ingredients
6. Limit your drinking and smoking
A small glass of red wine a day provides your body with powerful antioxidants that are actually helpful for your heart. But when you drink too much wine or other alcoholic drinks, it’s counterproductive.
And because of the toxic components in cigarettes, they damage your arteries. Smoking also lowers good cholesterol and increases your chances of developing hypercholesterolemia.
To conclude, now is a good time to remind you that regular medical check-ups are also a must if you want to keep your arteries healthy. This way, you can catch illnesses even before symptoms appear.
Start taking care of yourself today!
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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- Restrepo, S. L., Morales, R. M., Ramírez, M. C., López, M. V., & Varela, L. E. (2006). Los hábitos alimentarios en el adulto mayor y su relación con los procesos protectores y deteriorantes en salud. Revista chilena de nutrición, 33(3), 500-510.
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- Weschenfelder Magrini, D., & Gue Martini, J. (2012). Hipertensión arterial: principales factores de riesgo modificables en la estrategia salud de la familia. Enfermería Global, 11(26), 344-353.