February is National Heart Month, a great time to focus on your heart health and make some heart healthy changes to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. The providers at San Juan Regional Heart Center are here to help with some great ideas on things you can do at home to show your heart some love.

Exercise

“I think it’s important for everybody in the community to make a goal and try to get out and exercise,” Tom Janney, Nurse Practitioner at San Juan Regional Heart Center, said. Exercising is a great way to prevent a heart attack by reducing your blood pressure, helping control cholesterol and improving your overall well-being. 

“Exercise can also improve your mental health by improving your overall outlook,” Janney said. “Get out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine that we have here in this whole area. Enjoy your friends and family.”

The American Heart Association recommends 30 minutes of exercise five times a week. Different ages may have different abilities, so a good rule of thumb is to start low and slow.

“Don’t feel like you have to start by running a marathon,” Janney said. “Just get out and be as active as you can. By exercising we improve our overall heart function as well as our overall cardiovascular health.”

Some ideas to get you moving:

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• If you sit for long periods of time at work, get up every hour
• Go outside with co-workers and walk during lunch or breaks 

Healthy Diet

You’ve probably heard that one of the best things you can do to reduce your cardiovascular risk is to have a healthy diet. But what does that really mean?

“Your diet should be diverse amongst all of the food groups,” San Juan Regional Heart Center Nurse Practitioner Kelsey Wolfe said. “Be wary of diets that restrict you to just one or two food groups. You want to have lots of healthy whole grains, fruits and vegetables, low fat meats and fish. Salmon is my favorite fish. It’s quick to make and it’s pretty tasty.”

Another important tip is to watch how much sodium you’re ingesting and work on reducing your intake. Too much sodium can cause high blood pressure. Moderation is key, whether it’s salt or another sneaky additive we don’t always realize we’re consuming – sugar. 

“I personally have a pretty big sweet tooth so I try to limit my sugar intake to maybe one small treat a day,” Wolfe said. “Having it in moderation is the best way to be.”

How to Eat 

Now that you know what you should be eating, it’s time to consider how you should be eating in order to maintain a healthy weight. San Juan Regional Heart Center physician Dr. Rahul Gokhroo suggests spending at least 20 minutes focusing on each meal. 

“This is a connection between the stomach and the brain. The hormones which make you feel full take around 15-20 minutes for the body to realize I’m feeling full it’s time for me to stop eating,” Dr. Gokhroo said.

During that 20 minute timespan, Dr. Gokhroo recommends focusing solely on your meal and not doing any work that may distract you or cause you to eat too fast. 

“Eating fast, you are going to eat more. Eating slowly can help you to digest food properly and have better absorption, better nutrients for your body,” Dr. Gokhroo said.

To help you slow down while eating, take the time to chew your food properly. Try to chew each bite of food 32 times, or as much as possible. 

Kids and Heart Health

A lot of people ask what they can do for their kids to set them up for a healthy heart later in life. Cardiovascular disease prevention starts in childhood. One of the best things you can do is to limit screen time for your children.

“Have them play outside because being active is very beneficial to the cardiovascular system,” San Juan Regional Heart Center Nurse Practitioner Kelsey Wolfe said. 

Another thing parents can do is provide their children with healthy snacks and limit those sweet treats that kids tend to like. Take the healthy snacks quiz to find out more about healthy snacking.

Be sure to focus your attention on older children, such as young adults, as well. Young adulthood is a time in life when we tend to eat things that are easy, fast and often not good for us. 

“A diet filled with quick and easy convenience food is likely to contain a lot of sodium and we don’t even realize that we are eating salt,” Wolfe said.

So, in addition to eating a healthy diet at any age, be sure to keep an eye out for hidden salt to lower your children’s sodium intake. 

San Juan Regional Medical Center and San Juan Regional Heart Center offer diagnostic, invasive, and interventional cardiac and peripheral vascular services around the clock. Our compassionate cardiovascular team has diverse experts working with state of the art technologies to facilitate prevention partnered with advanced treatment for optimal healing and recovery.