Heart Health
I’ve just
taken the NHS heart health check. Now I
count myself as pretty healthy, and my Fitbit says I’m ‘excellent’. But the NHS website puts my heart age as
higher than my biological age. But, as I
don’t know my cholesterol, its made a guess and has suggested that I go to my
GP and get my cholesterol checked. Oh
dear. The test doesn’t even have a
section to fill in to say how much exercise I do and what my daily step counter
is like. It doesn’t ask me about alcohol
intake, sleep or stress. Cholesterol
levels are complicated and need to be understood in the context of naturally occurring
levels and those brought about by food. There
are criticisms of the studies of cholesterol and heart health (‘Nourishing
Traditions ‘ by Fallon & Enig New Trends publishing 2001 p 133) so what are
we to do?
An article
in The Guardian on 8th Sept suggests that lifestyle changes can make
a big difference to your heart age. Here
goes:
Diet - keep your refined sugar intake as low
as you possibly can, avoid added salt and eat a good selection vegetables
everyday. Eat fat in moderation, those
that are unrefined and unprocessed. In
fact, avoid processed food as far as you can.
Exercise (well, we would have to include
this!) – go for 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week and strength
training at least twice a week. So, walk
fast, run, bike, swim, get your heart rate up.
Then lift some weights – ask one of us if you don’t know how to do this
safely.
Smoking and drinking - Smoking triples the risk of a heart attack –
so don’t. Alcohol is less clear but new
evidence is suggesting that you are better off without
Pollution - has been shown to have a bad effect
on heart health. I am guessing that
living in the Fens means we have less car fumes and manufacturing fall out to
deal with. Unless muck spreading
counts?!!
Stress - not good for your heart – and not
easy to eliminate – but get some down time – enjoy the moment. Learn how to meditate, breathe deeply, look
up and enjoy the view. Oh – and get some
sleep!
So, I
haven’t immediately improved my heart health – but I’m working on it and I know
that if I keep at it I will feel healthy and keep going well for as long as I
can
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