World Heart Day: 7 habits that are harmful for your heart

World Heart Day: 7 habits that are harmful for your heart

A few seemingly innocuous habits in your daily life could increase the risk of getting a cardiovascular disease.

• dna Research & Archives

You probably thought that your daily regime of exercise and a strict diet was enough to keep away from  the risk of developing aheart disease. However, certain studies indicate otherwise. A few seemingly innocuous habits in your daily life could increase the risk of getting a cardiovascular disease.

1. Sitting too much: Most working folks amongst us lead a sedentary lifestyle. This means you end up sitting in front of a screen or the steering wheel most of your waking hours in the day. But this could bad for your heart, as research say that sitting for five hours or more every day could lead to a heart disease, as per American Heart Association (AHA) Journal Circulation: Heart Failure.

u could change this habit by going for a short five minute walk. This will help your arteries stay flexible and help them maintain good circulation in your body.
 
2. Excessive alcohol consumption: If 'work hard, party harder' is the mantra that you follow, then it means your heart too is working hard to oxygenate and pump your blood.

Two glasses of a drink per day and one glass of a drink for women is what the AHA recommends. Go over board and it will affect interrupt normal heart rhythm, it can increase high blood pressure and lead to a heart failure. Not only this, you also invite diabetes and obesity. It can also cause cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. 

Following AHA guidelines on alcohol consumption will take you far in keeping your heart healthy

3. Tendency to get angry quickly: If you fly off the handle too often over petty issues, then you are putting your heart at a serious risk. Men and women who had problems withanger management had two times the risk of CAD and three times the risk of heart failures.

Anger combined with anxiety can lead to increase in blood pressure, disrupt the electrical impulses of the heart and could advance the fat build up in the arteries (arteriosclerosis). Next you feel that boiling rage inside, a few deep breaths and practice breathing exercises on a regular basis.

4. Cynical attitude: Does the glass always seem half empty to you? If yes, then you need to start looking at the bright side in your life, as studies show that negativity and cynicism contribute to poor heart health. 

A 2009 research on the topic says that cynicism and hostility could not only increase chances ofheart disease and fatalities causing from it, but can also lead to other illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and suffer from depression.

5. Sleeping too little: If you don’t rest your body through enough sleep, it is as a bad as making your systems go through stressful situation. Chronic sleep deprivation leads to high resting cortisol and adrenaline levels, which is what the body experiences when in a stressful condition.

So adults need to make sure they sleep for  a good eight hours and young adults need to sleep for at least 10 hours.

6. Skip on flossing regularly: Yes dental health and cardiac health are directly related. The bacteria from a gum disease can flow into your blood vessels in the mouth to the coronary arteries and narrow them. This affects blood supply to the heart. A study says that 38% with people with CAD have gum issues.

7. Skip going to your doctor: Regular health check-up is essential as you get a heads up on whether you have symptom of a cardiac disease or carry an illness which could be contributing factor to it.