Heart is one of the most delicate organs in our body and the conditions that have a direct impact on the heart are called heart disease or cardiovascular disease. Heart disease encircles a wide range of problems related to the heart.
The health of our heart is directly proportional to our lifestyle habits.
Therefore, in various cases, heart problems can be prevented or cured by making healthy lifestyle changes.
Whereas there are certain heart problems that can not be easily cured, which are:
- Coronary artery disease
- Silent ischemia
- Angina
- Heart attack
- Heart failure
The impact of these heart problems can be moderate to critical depending on our eating habits..
Heart problems due to general lifestyle diseases
Heart problems can be caused due to numerous different reasons, but certain lifestyle diseases can cause heart problems too.
Let’s know more about some general lifestyle diseases that could be risk factors for heart problems.
- High
blood pressure
High blood pressure is one of the biggest factors that cause heart problems. It is a condition which occurs when the pressure of blood against our artery walls and other blood vessels becomes too high. This condition, if left untreated, can damage our heart in the worst way possible.
High blood pressure can be controlled by making healthy changes in our daily life. - Obesity
Obesity is a complicated medical condition that denotes an excessive amount of body fat. Obesity or overweight is a health problem which brings certain harmful consequences with itself such as heart diseases. It is a disease which occurs due to the general imbalance between the calories consumed and the calories burned. The unhealthy patterns of our lifestyle like bad eating habits are known to cause obesity in humans.
Obesity could be absolutely treated by taking some preventative measures which includes developing healthy diet plans, indulging more in outdoor sports and avoiding foods that can affect our health. - Kidney disorders
Kidney disorders are the health problems which are associated with kidney damage. In this, our kidney loses its ability to filter the waste and toxic substances in our blood that can be harmful for our body. The consequences of kidney disorders can be a leading cause to damage the heart as well as the internal organs.
Kidney disorders are often caused due to the over consumption of harmful products without considering the consequences which may create heart problems.
Kidney disorders can be prevented and treated by changing our relationship with food. The improvement in our eating habits can help us to fight back with kidney disorders. - Diabetes
Diabetes is a general lifestyle disease. It is a condition in which the blood sugar in our body rises too high that it starts affecting our internal organs and may lead to heart disease.
Although diabetes is an incurable disease, it can be prevented and its effects can be minimized by adopting a healthy lifestyle.
General lifestyle mistakes that are the risk factors of heart problems
The choices we make with our general lifestyle can be risk factors for heart disease.
- Bad
eating habits - An unhealthy relationship with food can be a major
reason for causing heart problems. Eating foods that are high in
cholesterol, saturated fat and trans fat can seriously damage our heart
and can lead to heart diseases.
- Stress - stress can play a major role in making us more prone to heart diseases. As stress is the root cause of various lifestyle diseases including heart problems and diabetes.
- Over
consumption of alcoholic beverages - the over consumption of alcoholic
beverages critically damages our heart as well kidneys and liver.
- Tobacco use - the use of tobacco is proven to be the most harmful factor that can critically damage our internal organs especially the heart and the lungs. Tobacco contains nicotine which increases blood pressure. This addiction should be terminated without any second thoughts to prevent the heart from becoming severely damaged.
Symptoms of Heart diseases
Heart disease can express various symptoms, some of the common symptoms are:
- Quick or irregular heartbeat
- Fatigue or weakness
- Dizziness
- Dyspnea - shortness of breath while lying down
- Increased urge to urinate
- Reduced stamina
- Unreasonable coughing
How to improve our lifestyle to get rid of heart problems
If a person is really experiencing any of the symptoms mentioned above then his/her first approach should be to consult a dietitian or nutritionist.
Dietitians and nutritionists are healthcare experts who can help us to make healthy changes in our lifestyle so that we could be healthy and free from diseases.
A dietitian can provide us with a diet plan for a healthy heart and increase our wellness by adding nutritional food in our diet. He can help us in the following ways:
- Weight loss
- Stress management
- Controlling blood pressure
- Diabetes management
- To quit smoking
- Can refer some yoga exercises
A person can be free from the problems associated with heart disease just by making some good lifestyle changes.