Love your Heart for Valentine's Day

Valentine's day is this Saturday and so it's an ideal time to talk about the heart and how we can look after it better, helping to reduce heart disease that can occur in later life. Heart disease is the leading killer in this country, with 1 in 5 men and 1 in 8 women dying. It's responsible for 82,000 deaths each year in the UK, that equates to 224 people dying from heart disease each day! So here's my top 5 tips on how to keep your heart healthy and help reduce your risk of getting heart disease 1.) Stop Smoking- Quitting smoking is the single best thing you can do for the health of your heart. Smokers are almost twice as likely to have a heart attack compared to someone who has never smoked. The good news is that the risk of heart disease is dramatically reduced soon after you quit. The NHS has many ways to help you quit from nicotine replacement patches to support groups-contact www.nhs.uk/livewell/smoking for more details. 2.) Exercise- If you do moderate exercise or activity for 150 minutes a week, then you reduce your risk of heart disease by up to 50% and lower your risk of early death by 30%. Inactivity increases the risk of death and developing a lot of diseases that can reduce your life expectancy and quality of life such as heat attacks, stroke, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, osteoporosis and mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. Government guidelines suggest we should be active for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week to get our 150 minutes. The good news is that 10 minute bouts can contribute to your daily 30 minutes if you're strapped for time. Ensure you are slightly out of breath and perspiring in order for it to count as moderate exercise. 3.) Have a healthy BMI and waist circumference- by keeping to a healthy weight and having a BMI (Body Mass Index) of between 18.5-25 and not having a larger waist circumference than you should for your gender, no more than 102 cm for males and 88 cm for women, you greatly reduce the risk of getting heart disease in the future. 4.) Go Mediterranean - research has shown that following a diet like this can help reduce the risk of heart disease. The Mediterranean diet consists of plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, grains, peas and beans, with moderate portions of chicken, fish and red meat. Most of the fats come from unsaturated, such as fish and olive oil rather than saturated that is found in meats and other animal products, which are not so healthy for the heart. 5.) Get married- since it's Valentine's and it's good for your heart, you have the perfect excuse. A study of nearly 15,000 people who had a spouse, had a strong social network of friends and family and socialized regularly had significantly lower BP and other heart disease factors than those who lived alone. So on this Valentine's Day love your heart and try to adopt some if not all these tips(if you're not doing them already of course) to help reduce the risk of getting heart disease and increasing the chances of living a long and healthy life. Have a very happy St Valentine's Day and see you next time x.