World Heart Day

29 September is World Heart Day and we are focusing on the simple changes you can make to understand and look after the health of your heart.

What can go wrong?

When your heart and circulatory system don’t work like they are meant to, it can lead to serious health problems. This can then cause conditions like heart attacks and strokes.

These problems come from a build-up of fatty materials in the arteries that supply blood to your heart and your brain. This means that the space for the blood to flow becomes narrower and narrower, limiting the amount of blood your arteries can deliver to your organs.

Knowing your numbers

By knowing your blood pressure and how it affects your health, you have the power to prevent heart and circulatory conditions.

High blood pressure has very few signs and symptoms, which is why it is so important to get your blood pressure checked.

Unlike usual check-ups, you don’t need a doctor’s appointment to check your blood pressure. Here’s how:-

• a quick visit to your local pharmacy
• a trip to one of the new self-service blood pressure machines in major towns around Suffolk.
• calling into your local GP practice to use their self-service blood pressure machines.

For more information about blood pressure visit the Healthy Suffolk website here.

But it’s certainly not all doom and gloom. If your blood pressure is high, there are lots simple of ways to lower the risks of conditions like heart attacks or strokes.

Let’s get moving

Physical activity can have positive, long-term impacts on many aspects of your life, especially on the health of your heart.

The most important thing when it comes to getting active is to be kind to yourself. Find something you enjoy doing and start slow, gradually building up and working at your own pace.

Within Suffolk, there are lots of opportunities to get started:

• Walking
• Cycling
• Parkruns
• Swimming
• Running
• Apps like Couch to 5K and Active10

Remember, getting active doesn’t always mean exercising. Non-exercise activities like cleaning, gardening or taking the stairs instead of the lift can be great ways to boost your mental and physical health without taking time out of your day to go to the gym.

Finding a healthy weight

It is important to note that whilst people generally think of obesity when the topic of healthy weight is mentioned, being underweight also comes with an increased risk of certain heart conditions.
Although your healthy weight range is individual to you, knowing your Body Mass Index (BMI) can help you to understand just how healthy your weight is.
Weight gain is caused by several factors, including:
-Not doing enough exercise
-Stress
-Not getting enough quality sleep

But just small changes in your diet can have a big impact.

By thinking about the way you cook your food, the size of your portions and the amount of fresh foods in your meals you can start to make a positive impact on your health.

If you ever find yourself overwhelmed or unsure of where to start programmes such as NHS Better Health and NHS Adult Weight Management offer support and advice on gaining and maintaining a healthy weight.

The theme of this year’s World Heart Day is Use Heart for Action. With heart and circulatory conditions causing over 20 million deaths every year, it is vital that world leaders take heart health seriously.

You can aid this cause by signing the petition at https://world-heart-federation.org/world-heart-day/petition/.

All of these lifestyle changes can be a lot to take in but when heart and circulatory conditions are the leading cause of death worldwide, it does matter.

For more information and support, Feel Good Suffolk is here to help.