Every 7 minutes someone dies in Canada from heart disease or stroke. These two disease states are two of the three leading causes of death in Canada. To reduce your risk for being part of this statistic here are list of the top 5 things that you can do that will BOOST your health:
Heart Health Boosters
- Get educated: heart health education is quickly evolving, new research is coming out daily that will help you understand fact from fiction, as well as learn the latest medications and natural solutions for disease prevention and management. Two very different blogs that we recommend to follow are TRACK your PLAQUE (alternative eating solutions from Canadian cardiologist Dr. Davies) and HARVARD HEALTH publications HEART BLOG (this site publishes the most relevant and up to date research). Also take a look at our recent post A real look at fats.
- Take your supplements…regularly: the top three supplements for heart health include Omega 3 (especially high in DHA), vitamin D and Co Q 10. Low levels of these vitamins have been linked to increase cholesterol as well as heart disease.
- Get to your healthy weight: even ten extra “fat” pounds will effect your blood lipid levels. The best approach to get to your healthy weight is to combine a sound nutrition program with an exercise program. See the next two health boosters to understand the best approach to a nutrition and exercise program.
- Exercise: everyone at some point has engaged in exercise and we all know how good it is for our bodies, the challenge is to consistently fit it into a busy lifestyle. I suggest you look at your current level of exercise and your goal is to increase it, in order to do this, track your compliance. To get motivated…23 1/2 hours.
- Nutrition: nutrition like exercise, is one of those habits we know we should do, but life seems to get in the way. A sensible nutrition program will encompass WHAT to eat, HOW much, WHERE your calories come from and WHEN to eat. In order for you to practice these elements successfully the dietary program needs to be EASY, ENJOYABLE and EXACT. As with exercise, start small find one habit listed below and for the month of February track your compliance:
DAILY IDEAS
- Drink 8 glasses of water
- Take your supplements
- Aim for more fibre (up it by 5 grams daily)
- Reduce your consumption of grain products to once a day
WEEKLY IDEAS
- Reduce red meat to two times per week
- Eat omega rich fish two times per week
- Eat out less than once per week
- Limit sweets to once a week
- Limit alcohol to twice per week
- Eat 5 servings of vegetables each day
