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How to Keep a Healthy Heart
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Ellie Schneider
Ellie Schneider is a premed student and she enjoys spending her free time playing <a href="http://www.online-casinos-707.net/video-poker-online.html">Video Poker</a> and writing reviews of <a href="http://www.online-casinos-707.net">Online Casinos</a> for gamming websites.  
By Ellie Schneider
Published on 09/25/2007
 
Dying of a painful heart attack is no ones ideal way to die. To avoid dying in such a painful way a good diet and exercise must be maintained throughout the rest of your life. Here I have listed several ways to help avoid a Heart Attack.

How to Keep a Healthy Heart

Today people are eating unhealthier and are in worse shape then ever before, and the average age for people having a myocardial infarction is dropping fast. Here are some things to help avoid a heart attack. There are many things a person can do and avoid to lower the risk of having an early myocardial infarction.

What you Eat:
The things you eat make a big difference in your health. If a person eats lots of vegetables, fish and chicken which are healthy foods if prepared right they will have less of a chance of a heart attack then someone who is constantly eating fried foods, fatty foods, sweets and salty snacks. These types of foods are bad for the arteries and the body in general. They not only help to clog the arteries but also help to build fat in the body with puts pressure on your cardiovascular system raising your blood pressure an making your heart work harder to pump the life giving blood thru your body.

Keeping the Body Strong:
It is not enough just to put good fuel in the body you must also take good care of the body. It is important to workout at least 3 to 4 hours a week. Working out means breaking a sweat and raising your pulse rate, the way to figure out what your working out heart rate should be is simple subtract your age from 220. This means a 35 year old should raise their heart rate to 185 for a workout to be most effective. If you find that you can not hold a normal conversation during your workout you are pushing too fast and should slow down, huffing and puffing means your body is not getting enough oxygen, as you work out more you will find yourself able to push harder and faster. Tog et a good workout you do not need to join an expensive gym. Gyms offer aerobics classes weight training and bikes and treadmills for cardio workouts, but you can get just the same workout with a workout DVD and a fast paced walk two or three times a week.

Smoking, drinking and getting high:
Cigarette and pot smoke are two of the leading factors in early heart attacks. Smoke puts poisons in the blood that cause blood clots that can not pass thru the arteries and if they get stuck near the heart it becomes a heart attack if it gets stuck in the brain it becomes a stroke. Smoking also raises the blood pressure in your body which in turn puts more stress on your heart and cardiovascular system. Alcohol and drugs like cocaine, and crack harden the arteries making it more likely that a blood clot will get trapped and that you will have a heart attack as well as putting a high amount of stress on the heart since these drugs speed up your heart rate and if used often can burn your heart out to the point if a heart attack does not kill you it will weaken you to the point where you have to be bed ridden ad hooked up to machines to help you live.

If you want to live long enough to enjoy your golden years you have to start doing something about it now. Many people will say that 60 yeas ago people ate much worse then we do now, but my reply would be that those people also did more physical labor then we do today.

Ellie Schneider is a dietitian who enjoys playing <a href="Roulettehttp://www.online-casinos-707.net/roulette.html">Roulette</a> and writes <a href="Online'>http://www.online-casinos-707.net">Online Casino</a> reviews.