Busy Lifestyles: How to Keep Your Heart Healthy

The lifestyle of the average person can be busy, leaving less time for self-care and prioritising health, often leading to people swapping for quicker, easier and more convenient options, whether that’s fast food, sitting on the sofa after a long day of work, or indulging in energy drinks to give you some much-needed energy.

Your health, and more importantly, your heart’s health, is vital in ensuring you live a happy, energetic life. However, knowing where to start can be difficult, which is why we have put together this article discussing how to keep your heart healthy and how to prioritise your cardiovascular health if you have a busy lifestyle.

This article will look at several easily incorporated practical heart health tips for a busy lifestyle, from simple dietary changes and ECG testing to easy-to-follow exercise routines. These tips will help you make small adjustments that can make a big difference to your overall heart health and teach you how to keep your heart healthy.

For more information on the areas covered in this article, or for more information on our services, please contact our team.

Eat a Healthy Diet

The first and one of the easiest lifestyle changes we recommend when thinking about how to keep your heart healthy is to eat a healthy diet. Maintaining a healthy diet can seem difficult, especially when life is busy with work, family, and social commitments taking precedence.

However, there are some simple dietary changes to help improve your heart health even if you don’t have much time. Making small changes, like limiting processed foods intake and opting for more natural foods like whole grains and lean proteins will help give your body what it needs without taking up too much of your precious time in the kitchen. 

Additionally, including plenty of fruits and vegetables in your diet is always beneficial for your overall health – aim for at least five servings each day! If meal prepping ahead of time isn’t an option for you, then look into frozen veggies or other convenience food options that are still packed full of essential vitamins and minerals.

Eating a healthy diet can help protect your heart in many ways by improving blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Some of the staples that make up a healthy diet include:

• Fruit & vegetables
• Foods from animal sources
• Legumes
• Limit fatty foods
• Limit sugary foods
• Reduce salt intake

Quick Exercises For Your Heart

Having a healthy heart is essential to living a long, comfortable life. A great way to improve the condition and functionality of your heart is by partaking in regular exercise, and taking time out of your day for some quick workouts can make all the difference in keeping your heart healthy.

For those who are short on time and don’t have access to a gym, there are plenty of simple exercises you can do at home that will help boost your heart health. This could be anything from jumping jacks and squats to stretching and running upstairs. Even taking a brisk walk around the neighbourhood or doing yoga in your living room can make a difference!

If you’re new to exercise or have just started acting on how to keep your heart healthy, it can seem very confusing knowing where to start, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Keep things simple, gradually build up your activity levels when you can, and do what you feel comfortable doing.

Try incorporating some of these easy exercises into your daily routine for just 10 minutes each day, and you’ll notice a massive difference.

Prioritise Sleep

Sleep is more important to your heart’s health than you may have initially thought, with sleep deprivation or lack of sleep making you more susceptible to numerous cardiovascular diseases – including other health issues such as high blood pressure, heart attacks, diabetes and depression.

We understand that with a busy lifestyle, good-quality sleep can be hard to come by, but working towards maintaining a good sleep schedule can improve your health and overall mood massively, assisting in other points raised in this article and, in turn, making them easier to obtain and work towards.

Regular Heart Checkups

Completing regular heart scans and health checkups can give you more insight into your heart’s health and how it currently functions, which can provide either peace of mind that your health is fine, opening your eyes to the next steps in how to keep your heart healthy or the steps you need to take to improve its health.

At EchoMed, we have a range of heart screening tests available to book online now, including Echocardiograms, Electrocardiograms, and more.

Get In Contact – ECG Testing

Our Cardiologist Doctors recommend cardiac screening to anybody concerned about the possibility of heart muscle disease, whether they have symptoms or not.

If you have any questions about genetic cardiac conditions, please email us directly at admin@echomed.co.uk.