Although most people relate a broken heart with someone losing their loved one, breaking your heart can happen in more ways than one; and some of these ways can ultimately lead you to a heart attack. Now, while factors such as your predisposition might be beyond your control, the following is actually something that you can work on your own:
1. Sitting for a long period of time on a regular basis.
Not many people may know it but sitting for extended periods of time on a regular basis actually doubles your risk for developing heart diseases. Without exercise, you run the risk of developing hypertension and unhealthy cholesterol levels. This is because the body takes time in burning unwanted fats. What you can do is make sure that you get up every now and then, or at least engage in a 30-minute exercise on a daily basis.
2. Paying little attention to body signs.
More often than not, your own body would let you know that there is something wrong with it. Some of the common signs would include shortness of breath, chest pains, constant tiredness, and an uncomfortable feeling in the extremities. Unfortunately, when these signs do show up, we tend to push them aside and not pay attention. In truth, doing so can actually increase the likelihood of you suffering from a heart attack. This is because most of these are already signs that a heart attack is about to take place.
3. Paying little attention to your weight and waist size.
Recent studies have shown that there is a correlation between your waist size as well as the health of your heart. That being the case, if your waist measurement happens to be more than 94 cm for men and 80 cm for women, then you might want to start taking those exercises recently. Most medical professionals are of the opinion that a waist that measures more than the said numbers is indicative of a high risk for certain heart diseases. It is a good thing to note, however, that this is primarily applicable only to adults, most especially Caucasian men and women.
4. Not taking the effects of smoking seriously.
While it has been told time and again that smoking is bad for your health, there are still very few people who take these warnings seriously. This leads to these individuals having an increased risk for hypertension as well as heart attack. Now, while most people believe that quitting does not have any impact on your health anyways, that is actually not the case. Studies have shown that quitting smoking can actually reverse any harmful effect it had on the body in the first place. Although the reversal does not happen over night, you can still expect to have lower risks for heart attack as well as a longer life span.
5. No regular check-up.
For most people, a visit to the doctor is out of the question especially if doing so would mess up their work schedule. Unfortunately, very few understand that some of the high-risk heart conditions oftentimes do not present any sign or symptom. This underscores more the importance of making sure that you have your regular check-up.
If you have been doing most of these activities for a long time now, you might want to consider making sure that you have an AED unit on hand. Companies like Citywide CPR provide AED management training in order to help you learn how to make use of an AED.
