Everyday things that can harm your heart

Many people desire to have a healthy heart. But to achieve this, experts say it would also require individuals being mindful of everyday things that affect this important organ of the body, reports Sade Oguntola. 

In recent times, heart diseases had become rampant among people aged 25 and 35 years.

Nearly 90 per cent of heart problems are associated with lifestyle factors like smoking, drinking, overeating, and lack of exercise.

The good news is that some simple, everyday habits can make a big difference in the ability to live a healthy lifestyle. Even a small, positive change in lifestyle can help to improve heart health.

Too much TV
Spending too much time in front of the TV can be hazardous to the heart. This simple act of sitting, which adds up to hours is a risk factor for not only heart disease, depression, diabetes and obesity, but also premature death.  

One of the most revealing new studies, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, found that the risk of dying was 1.54 times higher among those who spent almost all the day sitting, compared with those who spent almost no time sitting.

Alcohol
Though consumption of red wine has some heart healthy properties, excessive consumption of any type of alcohol is not good. Men who take five or more drinks had a 30 per cent greater risk for death from heart disease.

Women who regularly consume two or more drinks a day and men who regularly drink three or more are at a higher risk for liver damage, cancers, high blood pressure and depression. 

Fast food
Fast food is super-convenient, but surprisingly inexpensive. Trans fat, often found in fast food, raises ‘bad’ cholesterol and blood fats that contribute to hardening of the arteries, as well as firing up inflammation, which contributes to the build-up of fatty plaque in artery walls.

Regular bouts of rage, worry, or stress
Anger and anxiety have been shown to increase blood pressure, disrupt the electrical impulses of the heart and possibly speed up the process of atherosclerosis, a fatty build up in the arteries.

A 2000 study published in the journal Circulation found that those with negative emotions such as highest anger had almost twice the risk of coronary artery disease and three times the risk of heart attack when compared to those with the lowest levels of anger. The released stress hormones increase blood pressure and blood sugar, lower immunity and slow digestion.

Smoking cigarettes
Smoking astronomically raises the risk for heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure, aside possibly triggering or aggravating breathing problems like bronchitis and asthma attacks.

A 1997 report in Circulation found that constant exposure to second hand smoke in the workplace or at home nearly doubled a person’s risk of having a heart attack. 

Overusing pain killers and sedatives
Long-term habitual use of some painkillers can cause more problems than it solves. Using drugs like ibuprofen or aspirin for arthritis or muscle pain can over time increase the risk for ulcers, gastrointestinal bleeding, high blood pressure, and heart attacks.

Too much or too little sleep
Getting fewer than five—or more than nine—hours of sleep a night can hurt the heart because both extremes elevate blood pressure and levels of stress hormones.

Researchers according to the Nurses’ Health Study of more than 71,000 women found that sleeping five or fewer hours each night increased the risk of heart problem by 45 per cent. Those who regularly slept nine or more hours had a 38 per cent greater risk than those who slept eight hours—even after taking snoring and smoking into account.

Oral hygiene
Bad oral health can give bad breath and can also increase the chances of heart arrest. When germs from the gums pass through the blood vessels, over time, it leads to narrowing the passages and reducing the blood flow. This invariably hurts the heart. 

Air pollution
A February 2005 study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that the longer healthy men and women in Los Angeles were exposed to air polluted with fine particulate matter, the thicker the blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the head and neck. The thickening of the blood vessel walls over time is a major risk factor for fatal heart attacks and strokes.

Snoring
Besides being annoying, it is also a sign of sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea have an increased risk of heart problems because they usually breathe in intervals, which cause the blood pressure to increase.
In addition, a new study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, suggested that treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleeping condition, could reduce blood pressure in men with hypertension.

Over exercising
Exercising past your limit puts a strain on your heart, which results in heart fatigue or fainting.  Hence, never push yourself beyond your limit. However, since the majority of people everywhere usually exercise below or up to moderate activity levels, this is a problem that only exists for a very minor group.

Stopping or skipping medications
Non-adherence to medication is one of the most important reasons people with high blood pressure may develop stroke, heart  or kidney failure.

Researchers in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that that taking just one more pill as recommended each week (from a one-a-day regimen) cut stroke risk by nine per cent and death risk by seven per cent. They reviewed the medical records of 49,000 Tennessee Medicaid patients to see if the type of blood pressure-lowering drugs these patients took were associated with stroke or their risk of dying.

Avoiding fruits and vegetables
Perhaps unsurprisingly, eating a lot of fruit, vegetables and whole grains is to curb bad cholesterol, thus preventing heart problems.

Scientists, who carried out the research on why eating fruits daily can help prevent or reduce the risk of death from heart disease, said people who eat 10 grammes of fibre daily, reduce their risk of heart attack by 14 per cent and their risk of dying from coronary heart disease by 27 per cent. This was published in the journal, Archives of Internal Medicine.

High salt intake
Health experts had continued to urge individuals to reduce their table salt consumption to avoid hypertension, which can contribute to heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and even premature death.

Researchers in a new study in the journal, Circulation, hinted that eating a high-salt diet for several years might damage blood vessels, stiffening it and so leading to high blood pressure and other dangers.