Tag: Tips

  • 9 Tips For Lowering Your Risk of Heart Disease

    9 Tips For Lowering Your Risk of Heart Disease

    Among Americans, heart disease is the leading cause of death. Someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds in the US. While heart disease statistics are scary, heart disease, generally speaking, is preventable for those who don’t have preexisting heart conditions. 

    However, there are challenges and several risk factors that can’t be changed, including family history, sex or age. Additionally, some people don’t have access to heart-healthy foods and others don’t have the opportunity to see a doctor and get insights about their current health status. 

    For the most part, however, the average person can significantly reduce their risk of heart disease with simple lifestyle changes, like the nine steps detailed here.

    Health tips don’t end here. Check out tips to help you quit drinking alcohol, a dietary supplement that doubles as a sleep aid, and the best food for lowering blood pressure

    a close-up of runner's shoes

    These lifestyle changes can significantly boost your heart health.


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    1. Take a daily walk

    Decades of research support cardiovascular exercise as a first defense against heart disease. Walking is an easy, simple way to get cardio exercise in, and you can do it pretty much anywhere outdoors or indoors with a treadmill. 

    Studies show that walking can prevent heart disease risk despite being a less intense modality than other forms of cardio exercise, such as hiking, jogging or cycling. Plus, research suggests that more people stick to a walking plan over time versus other types of exercise, which makes walking more effective in the long run (no exercise is effective if you don’t keep it up). 

    And you can always make your walk harder if you want to improve your health even further. 

    Related: Best Treadmill for 2022

    2. Strength train a few times each week

    Most research on heart health and exercise has focused on aerobic exercise like walking. An emerging body of research points to resistance training as another way to reduce your risk of heart disease. In fact, a 2018 study found that lifting weights for less than one hour a week could reduce your risk for a heart attack or stroke by up to 70{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} — independent of aerobic exercise, making these results even more significant.  

    According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, this profound effect probably has something to do with the way weightlifting changes your body composition. Lifting weights helps you build muscle and lose fat. Excess body fat is a major risk factor for heart disease, so any exercise that helps you reduce body fat is helpful. 

    You don’t need a gym or fancy equipment to start strength training. Bodyweight exercises, such as air squats, push-ups and lunges, provide the same strengthening benefits at home.

    3. Eat heart-healthy foods

    Many delicious foods have a direct link to improved heart health. In general, a diet rich in whole grains, fruit, vegetables, lean protein and healthy fats from nuts, seeds, fish and oils promotes heart health. If you don’t have access to fresh produce, frozen and canned fruits and veggies work just as well (just be mindful of salt intake when eating canned foods). 

    4. Limit foods linked to heart disease

    On the flip side, several foods have direct links to heart disease. To reduce your risk of heart disease, limit high-fat and high-sugar foods such as potato chips and store-bought desserts. Highly processed foods, including most fast food, processed meats (think hot dogs and cured meats) and boxed snacks like Twinkies and crackers, also contain ingredients harmful to your heart. 

    Specifically, look out for trans fats (hydrogenated oils) and high-fructose corn syrup, two common key ingredients that aren’t great for your heart. Trans fats increase “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood, while high-fructose corn syrup is a driver of several heart disease risk factors and comorbidities. 

    Side note: Don’t be afraid of saturated fat on its own, as research has debunked the myth that saturated fat alone leads to heart disease. Many healthy foods, such as avocados and cheese, contain saturated fats. Processed foods are often high in saturated fat, but it’s more so the trans fats and refined carbohydrates to look out for. 

    5. Quit smoking

    It’s common knowledge by now that smoking is just plain bad for health. Your heart is no exception. According to the Food and Drug Administration, cigarette smoking is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes. 

    Smoking impairs your cardiovascular system in a few ways: It leads to plaque buildup in your arteries, changes your blood chemistry and thickens blood, and permanently damages your heart muscle and blood vessels. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says that even an occasional cigarette can cause substantial damage

    6. Limit alcohol intake

    We’re not here to tell you that you can’t enjoy your favorite cocktail or crack a cold one on game day, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the consequences of excess alcohol consumption. Drinking too much is generally bad for all your body systems. 

    In regard to heart health specifically, alcohol has been linked to various cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and stroke. However, the exact relationships vary greatly depending on the quantity and pattern of consumption. 

    The American Heart Association maintains that drinking in moderation is OK, but once you inch past that mark (one drink per day for women and two for men), things take a turn for the worse. And, no, the link between red wine and heart health isn’t all that clear

    7. Keep stress levels low

    More research is needed to understand exactly how stress contributes to heart disease, but scientists have observed a relationship between stress and heart health. For starters, high levels of chronic stress can trigger unhealthy coping habits, such as smoking, drinking alcohol or eating lots of high-fat or high-sugar food. Stress also undermines your body’s ability to rest and sleep. 

    Researchers have even identified a specific and unusual sort of heart attack called takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as stress cardiomyopathy and “broken heart syndrome.” This condition has been linked to emotional trauma, but many patients with this condition exhibit no identifiable cause

    So, don’t underestimate the impact of stress on your heart. While stress is inevitable and unavoidable at times, it helps to have a handful of stress-relief tactics to rely on in times of extreme duress. 

    8. Prioritize sleep

    If there were a miracle drug, sleep would probably be it, with exercise coming in a close second. Scientists have positioned sleep deprivation as a risk factor for heart disease because of inverse relationships between sleep duration and cardiovascular diseases: It seems the less sleep you get, the higher your risk for cardiovascular events. 

    Insomnia and sleep apnea have also been linked to heart disease, and sleep duration and quality seem to have a direct effect on blood pressure. Indirectly, sleep deprivation causes people to make poorer food choices and lack motivation to exercise, both of which increase the risk for heart disease. 

    Read more: Why You Should Skip Your Workout If You Didn’t Get Enough Sleep

    9. See your doctor and keep up with health records

    If you’re able to, schedule a yearly checkup with your doctor to make sure all’s in order. 

    Getting a blood panel that checks for cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar and other important health markers can help you keep close tabs on your heart health. If you don’t have a primary care doctor, call your nearest urgent care or walk-in clinic to see if it offers basic blood tests. At the very least, checking your blood pressure with an at-home monitor gives you some indication of how you’re doing. Keep track of your health records so you can identify any changes or patterns over time.

    If any indication of heart disease arises, don’t be afraid to ask your doctor any questions. Make sure you understand what the numbers mean, what changes you might need to make to your lifestyle, and if you’ll need any medications. Being an advocate for your own health gets you far. 

    Want more health tips? Read here how to naturally cure an upset stomach, 8 tips to help you quit smoking and how 15 minutes a day can make you more fit

    The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

  • Celebrity fitness tips that are useful for everyone

    Celebrity fitness tips that are useful for everyone

    Whether or not you are a conditioning fanatic or just starting out on your workout journey, procedure is crucial if you want to attain your aims. And who much better to offer expert training assistance than a host of celebs who have created maintaining in shape a precedence to guidance their accomplishment?

    While typically, movie star conditioning regimes feel so much-fetched that their irrelevant to mere mortals (we’re conversing about the 3am exercise or several hours used in the health club each individual working day), many renowned faces have surprisingly handy ideas. Below are our favourites…

    Superstar physical fitness recommendations

    JOE WICKS: Slumber Properly, Eat (THE Appropriate) CARBS

    Lockdown conditioning expert Joe Wicks is the go-to man for overall health advice for so numerous of us. But it is not all about doing the job out, it’s about a complete lifestyle method. ‘People undervalue the effect of absence of rest,’ Joe told The Guardian. ‘Not only will the depth of your exercise sessions suffer, but you are likely to crave sugary foods the future day. My major ideas for deep snooze are to swap off your notebook and mobile at minimum 30 minutes in advance of bed and depart them in one more area. Ditch the bedroom Television set listen to audio as an alternative. Get a cozy eye mask. It normally takes having utilized to, but have confidence in me, it will permit you to sleep deeper and for a longer period.’

    Joe also encourages a healthy relationship with meals. So no fad meal plans or ruling something out. He suggests: ‘Eating as well a lot of [carbs] causes you to keep body fat, but they’re good for fuelling and recovering from routines. Try to eat carbs these types of as sweet potato or jasmine rice within a single hour of your exercise routine. Reduce down on them on relaxation days when you really do not will need the more fuel.’

    JENNIFER ANISTON: Get the job done OUT Anywhere

    At any time questioned how Jennifer Aniston stays so toned? She takes her weights with her just about everywhere. ‘I acquire eight-pound weights with me every time I’m remaining in a lodge,’ she says. ‘It’s often great to do arm workout routines when you are seeing television or chatting on the cellular phone. I also enjoy to stretch in advance of I go to bed, and normally throw in a couple of sit-ups.’

    DWAYNE ‘THE ROCK’ JOHNSON: BE Productive

    Keeping in condition for another person like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is component of each day daily life, but how does he maintain up the routine when he’s occupied filming? He claims it’s all about scheduling: ‘The essential to my teaching is effectiveness — I do a good deal of circuit education and supersets. A single to two entire body components a day,’ he a short while ago informed Muscle and Health and fitness magazine.

    Looking for a super-productive training? Lucy Wyndham-Read – ex-army corporal turned fitness trainer – is greatest identified for her exercise routine films on Youtube – managed to rack up an extraordinary 75 million sights of her most preferred video clip of all – a 7 moment residence exercise session that aims to assist you shed tummy excess fat.

    KATE HUDSON: GET Outside

    Exercising outdoor boosts endorphins and can raise your purely natural vitamin D stages when completed on a regular basis. Kate Hudson is a major enthusiast. In an interview with Condition magazine, Kate reported: ‘I grew up in Colorado and was usually outside. I nevertheless am, even when I’m in the town. If I’m in Amsterdam, I get on a bike, experience almost everywhere, and actually see the place. I adore that freedom, which you just can’t get in a vehicle. In New York Town, if I’m remaining downtown and have a assembly uptown, I’ll set on my earphones, hear to good tunes, and just stroll.’

    BEYONCE: NAIL YOUR PLAYLIST

    Deciding on the proper tunes to work out to can maximise overall performance and melt away, just question Beyoncé! When she was interviewed by Form, she reported: ‘I’ll place on a track that I actually like and I’ll do [bicep curls with] 5-pound weights for the duration of the music and just check out to burn off out.’

    ANTHONY JOSHUA: Get well Suitable

    Although emphasis lays with how we work out, we also require to think about what we do after, and just as crucial as ingesting the ideal issues is winding down the suitable way.

    Boxer Anthony Joshua commits time immediately after just about every workout to therapeutic massage and chill out his muscles, and is this kind of a firm believer in the power of therapeutic massage guns he has even intended his very own! The AJ Ignite variety by Pulseroll is a confined edition line of sporting activities massage guns experimented with and examined by Olympians and major tier athletes, and rely the British gymnastics staff, celebs these kinds of as Marvin Humes and Mollie King, and Strictly Arrive Dancing gurus Janette Manrara and Luba Mushtuk as enthusiasts.

    AJ explained to YOU: ‘I’ve been applying Pulseroll merchandise each working day for pretty much five several years now – they are key to my preparing and restoration regimen which will help make improvements to my total efficiency. When you train or do the job out, recovery is critical at all degrees, not just for experienced athletes.’

     

  • 10 healthy New Year’s resolution expert tips so you meet your goals

    10 healthy New Year’s resolution expert tips so you meet your goals

  • Workout Tips Football Players Use, According to Personal Trainer

    Workout Tips Football Players Use, According to Personal Trainer

    • We can understand a ton from the way football players perform out, in accordance to personal coach Maurice May perhaps.
    • He reported football players are really intentional with the exercise routines they pick and how they teach.
    • Training in phases is one particular way soccer players get the very best benefits from their exercise routines, he mentioned.

    There is certainly a whole lot we can learn from the way football players educate, according to certified toughness and conditioning specialist Maurice May perhaps.

    Could, who performs as a coach at Ohio Athletics and Health in Cleveland, specializes in doing work with athletes in middle and superior university. Could played football in college, and thinks the methods football gamers use in their conditioning can be executed into anyone’s fitness regimen. 

    May possibly told Insider that teaching in phases and starting workout routines with a heat-up regimen can assistance take your physical fitness to the subsequent level. 

    Exercise with intention 

    May possibly primarily based the tagline “shift with objective” for his corporation Amayze Athletics on the strategy that athletes generally train with intention. For football players, he said this intention is typically to get bigger, more quickly, and more powerful.

    However, if your aim is to operate a marathon, education precisely like a football player is likely to be counterproductive. Any individual with a fitness regime must make their possess objectives, he mentioned, and choose workouts that align with them.

    Even if you’re not education for an athletic function, Might explained owning the aim of incorporating muscle to a specific region, acquiring much better, or getting to be faster will make your routines a lot more helpful and retain you inspired.

    Coach in phases  

    A single way football gamers prepare more deliberately, Might mentioned, is by training in phases during their period. May usually trains his football players in 3 phases: a hypertrophy or muscle-creating phase, a strength period, and a ability section.

    Hypertrophy instruction is mainly centered on raising the dimensions of your muscular tissues. In the course of this section, May perhaps has his consumers do physical exercises with gentle to moderate volume of body weight for a lot more reps and fewer sets. 

    May possibly then ups the weight and sets for the toughness stage, he explained, but decreases the total of reps. With a foundation of muscle mass from the first period, he said gamers typically observe that they get more robust more quickly and can lift a lot more excess weight than they imagined.

    In the remaining ability section, pace gets important, Could mentioned. “All right, now we are able to produce the pressure, but how quick can we generate the pressure? So then bar velocity gets seriously significant. How speedy are we even pushing that bar ahead or up,” he mentioned. 

    Football players not only want to be robust, he said, but also have to be equipped to activate that toughness immediately. 

    Often heat up

    In get to get the best effects from your exercise routine, it can be crucial to always heat up ahead of starting up your exercises. May possibly ordinarily has his customers do a cardio exercise session like jogging, cycling, or rowing when they initially get to the health club. He then likes them t0 shift all-around the muscle groups they are likely to function on that working day to get them cell, he claimed. 

    Lastly, he has his purchasers do an physical exercise to start with at a low body weight to prep the muscle and get blood circulation to the location. It is significant to get the procedure of a movement proper before introducing weight to it, he explained. 

    Make certain you’re activating the correct muscle tissue all through the motion, he said, in order to create a powerful brain-muscle connection, which will give you much better outcomes when you conduct the physical exercise with more pounds.

    Could stated that when you insert in these principles to your regimen, your routines will be a lot more purposeful and finally efficient at making in the direction of your health and fitness purpose.

  • Tips to improve your child’s bone health: Here’s what every parent must know | Health

    Tips to improve your child’s bone health: Here’s what every parent must know | Health

    Our bones and joints make the standard guidance framework of our entire body and perform a essential position in protecting our organs, sustaining our muscles and storing calcium hence, bone care is critical for our bodies. Mom and dad are often involved about their child’s actual physical and psychological well-remaining and while accomplishing so they can’t miss out on out on developing their child’s bone well being.

    Your child’s bones mature even larger and stronger throughout childhood and adolescence and bone density develops rapidly for the duration of this time. When your little one reaches adulthood i.e., the age team of 18-25, he/she achieves “peak bone mass” and their bone density stops building as 90{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of their bone mass is already developed consequently, it gets to be important for parents to contain healthier and healthy food items in their child’s diet.

    In an job interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr Sagar Bhattad, Expert – Paediatric Immunology and Rheumatology at Aster CMI Clinic in Bangalore, highlighted, “Weak bones not only maximize the possibility of accidents and fractures but also lead to ailments like osteoporosis and rickets in young children at an early age. Encouraging your little one to adopt a nutritious lifestyle and ensuring that their body receives all the crucial vitamins and minerals can enable them in keeping healthy and hearty bone health and fitness.”

    He recommended some necessary suggestions that can help you in protecting fantastic bone well being for your boy or girl:

    1. Increase your Vitamin D consumption

    Vitamin D performs an crucial part in improving upon your bone health and aids your system take in calcium. Vitamin D deficiency is fairly common among the the two children and adults. Numerous scientific studies have highlighted how minimal vitamin D concentrations direct to reduce bone density and raise the danger of bone loss. For this reason, an abundance of Vitamin D can defend your youngster from bone-similar health conditions. There are numerous quick ways as a result of which you can improve your vitamin D ingestion –

    ● Enhanced publicity to sunlight and make sure that your boy or girl will get at minimum 5 to 10 minutes of sunlight for two to three days a week on your hands, legs, and experience.

    ● Encourage your youngster to eat foodstuff dietary supplements like cheese, liver, and fatty fish. These can also be specified to children in sandwiches and pasta and so forth.

    2. Make sure your child will get more than enough Calcium

    It is common knowledge that calcium plays an vital role in bone development and is very important for strengthening muscle tissues and retaining heart health and fitness. Dairy products and solutions like milk, cheese and yoghurt are powerhouses of calcium. As mom and dad, one need to guarantee that their youngster consumes at least 2 glasses of milk every day which is essential for their bone development. Moreover, you will have to involve a bowl of curd/yoghurt in your child’s meal at the very least the moment a day and really should also consist of environmentally friendly greens like spinach, kale and okra in their diet program. Apart from offering Vitamin C, orange is also recognised as a very good source of calcium and is a tastier way to enhance your child’s calcium ingestion. Other popular resources of calcium are soybeans and its merchandise like soy milk, soy yoghurt and fish.

    3. Vitamin K and Magnesium for right bone density

    It is found that folks with larger quantities of Vitamin K and Magnesium have wholesome bone density and are a lot less inclined to bone ailments like rickets and osteoporosis. These nutritional vitamins get the job done with calcium to make your child’s bones expand stronger. Green vegetables like spinach, kale, cabbage, and eco-friendly sprouts are great sources of Vitamin K and Magnesium and for that reason instilling a routine of feeding on cereals and a hearty breakfast in your little one at an early age can aid them get all the necessary amount of magnesium and other vitamins.

    4. Encourage your baby to skip the automated daily life for a healthier long term

    In the electronic age nowadays, every little thing is available with a press of a button on our telephones. As additional children are obtaining addicted to cellular telephones and pc video games, they are now more confined to their couches than at any time right before and have a tendency to steer clear of physical interactions with their mates. These kinds of routines are escalating the stress of bone illnesses among little ones and have heightened the need for actual physical activity for them. Activities like going for walks, jogging, working, and climbing staircases can enable your boy or girl in making more robust bones and are critical for trying to keep their intellect and overall body lively. These physical exercises can help the entire body in stimulating the expansion of bone cells. Last of all, if your boy or girl is facing any extreme bone conditions and is exhibiting signs that do not go away after many times/ months then you must consult your health practitioner.

  • 6 mental health tips for parents

    6 mental health tips for parents

    RALEIGH, N.C. — As every single parent understands, when our children are not flourishing, we endure with them.

    We talked to UNC Overall health psychologist Samantha Pflum, PhD, about how mother and father can safeguard their very own psychological wellbeing so they can enable their children offer with diagnoses these kinds of as depression, stress, interest- deficit/hyperactivity ailment, behavioral issues and other diseases that have an effect on the complete family.

    “It’s challenging to take care of many others if we have not taken the time to treatment for ourselves,” Dr. Pflum states. “It’s significant to just take care of our very own mental overall health whilst using treatment of our loved ones.”

    Listed here are some of her strategies:

    1. Figure out the challenge.

    Parenting is an immensely tricky career beneath any circumstance,” Dr. Pflum suggests.
    If your youngster is having difficulties, in particular with mental health and fitness or behavioral difficulties, then the task is even more durable, specially in the aftermath of COVID-19.

    “The demands of the pandemic have been very complicated for family members as a entire,” she suggests. “Parents have been uniquely tasked with taking care of the family’s health and safety when it arrives to partaking in different social routines, making alternatives about vaccination, etc.”

    Kids used months or years away from their good friends, groups, instructors and many others, and in numerous cases, moms and dads have been hoping to assist fill those people gaps. At the similar time, mothers and fathers were socially isolated by themselves, perhaps performing from dwelling, and divided from prolonged spouse and children and their outdoors activities.

    A lot of grownups also treatment for their possess moms and dads or other more mature kin.

    “They have two groups of cherished types who require care and distinct styles of awareness,” Dr. Pflum states. “They stop up investing a incredible amount of money of time and energy—physical and emotional—caring for other individuals.”

    2. Really don’t forget self-care.

    When other people are dependent on you, it’s very important that you take care of oneself, Dr. Pflum suggests. You are not being selfish or disregarding your kids when you get some time for you.

    “Self-treatment consists of points like receiving more than enough slumber, doing exercises, consuming nourishing foods, shelling out comforting time with good friends and household,” she says. “Take time for your hobbies and do other matters you love.”
    If dad and mom are having difficulties with their have psychological well being or have thoughts about how to help their young children, they should really not wait to go after counseling through local community assets or via their function. Numerous businesses have an staff support program (EAP), which may possibly provide assessments, brief-term counseling and other aid choices.

    3. You really do not always have to “fix it.”

    “The want to correct a perceived challenge is a quite pure element of parenting,” Dr. Pflum says. “When we see that a person we treatment about is having difficulties or encountering troubles, we want to get it absent or uncover a alternative.”

    But you just can’t often repair the issue, in particular in predicaments that don’t have neat options. And occasionally your children do not want you to take care of it for them. They just want your aid.

    “Remember, what your young person may possibly want from you at this time is diverse from what you may want to deliver,” Dr. Pflum states.

    They could occur to you simply because they require to vent, and they just want you to be there.

    “We can validate their thoughts,” she suggests. “Actively listening can go a very long way.”

    4. Test not to become overcome with get worried.

    Your baby might feel superior immediately after telling you their difficulties, but now you are anxious about them, and it feels like there is nothing at all you can do to aid.

    What then?

    Very first, Dr. Pflum claims, identify that most difficulties are short term. Exams will conclusion. Heartbreaks will heal. New good friends will arrive along.

    Also, look at who else in your existence may share your problems. Perhaps it’s a wife or husband or a relative. Possibly it’s other dad and mom who have been by way of very similar encounters.

    “There is huge price in realizing that you’re not the only parent who is acquiring this stressor or problems,” Dr. Pflum claims. “There’s a full community of caregivers who are coping with the exact same considerations and experiences.”

    You may discover about new methods or coping competencies to test.

    5. Be vulnerable.

    “It can be complicated for moms and dads to share their struggles or complications with close friends and neighbors,” Dr. Pflum claims, “but if you can be open and truthful about how really hard it has been, you could come across others stating, ‘Yes, I concur!’ It’s hard to be vulnerable, but it can help us get the guidance we want.”

    That does not necessarily mean you have to spill your guts to anyone.

    “This may possibly be a predicament wherever good quality is greater than amount,” she says. “A tiny team of friends or spouse and children associates, or even a single individual, can offer seriously impactful aid.”

    6. Be a superior part model.

    It is significant for dad and mom to be client and gentle with by themselves. You are setting a great example for your youngsters.

    “This could be a pleasant opportunity for dad and mom and youngsters to apply strategies to just take care of by themselves,” Dr. Pflum suggests. “If you go to a counselor, you may perhaps want to notify your young children how that has been practical for you.”

    Permitting them know about your expertise could support destigmatize treatment or get away some of their concern of conversing to a specialist. It also demonstrates them that you respect the importance of mental health and that trying to get enable is worthwhile.