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As you start to get older, you’re more prone to all sorts of health problems so you need to start taking care of yourself better. A lot of people think that they don’t need to worry about this stuff until they’re well into middle age but that’s not the case. There are a lot of health problems that can start early so you need to get on top of them right away. Your heart health is one of the most important things to consider and it’s something that people leave far too late a lot of the time. Even if you don’t think that you’re anywhere near old enough to worry about your heart health, you need to look after it by doing these things.
We all know that we should be getting more exercise but it’s hard to fit it into a busy schedule. That means that a lot of us aren’t really moving much at all during the day, especially if you’re sitting at a desk all day. It’s important that you try to fit some exercise into your schedule at least a couple of times a week but on top of that, you should just make an effort to be more active generally. You can achieve this quite easily by making small changes to your routine. Walk instead of driving where possible, take the stairs instead of the elevator and have regular breaks to get up and walk around the room a little. It doesn’t seem like much but moving around more often helps to keep your heart healthy.
If you’re a smoker, you don’t need anybody to tell you that it’s bad for you. Everybody knows that smoking is terrible for you and it increases your chances of getting cancer, but it’s also terrible for heart health and massively increases your chance of having a heart attack. If you’re struggling to kick the habit, you should consider changing to an e-cigarette. It’s not ideal but it’s a good way to eventually give up smoking and even the best e juice is far cheaper than a packet of cigarettes. You can tailor the amount of nicotine in the juice so you can lower it and eventually quit entirely.
Fibre is an important part of your diet that helps you with digestion but a lot of people don’t realize how good it is for regulating heart health. Everybody is different but, on average, you should be getting at least 30 grams of fibre every day. There are plenty of great sources of fibre that you can easily add to your diet. Switching white bread for wholemeal is a good one. Having porridge for breakfast is a good way to start the day with a nice boost of fibre and there is a good amount in potato skins so make sure that you leave them on.
If you don’t start looking after your heart health now, you might be doing damage that you can’t undo later in life.