Heart Health tips from our Wellness Director . . .
1) Cardiovascular exercise: Walking, biking, swimming, running, or any other form of aerobic exercise will help improve your heart health. If this is not a part of your daily routine, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends beginning with 20 minutes of continuous aerobic exercise at 55-70% of your Max Heart Rate. Try to exercise 3-6x per week and don’t increase time or mileage by more than 10% per week. One trap a lot of novices fall into is thinking that “if a little is good, more is better!” Start moderately, and progress intelligently.
2) According to The Blue Zone (a fantastic, albeit non-peer reviewed book), eating two handfuls of nuts a day will reduce the rate of heart disease, and cancer. Obviously don’t eat anything that you may have an allergic reaction to, but adopting this habit could significantly improve your heart health and over-all health.
3) Finally, according to research by Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist at Harvard Business school, adopting a “power pose” for two minutes a day could reduce cortisol levels by 25% from baseline. Excess cortisol and stress can lead to hypertension added stress on the heart and hardening of the arteries. I would highly recommend watching her TED Talk entitled “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are” <https://youtu.be/Ks-_Mh1QhMc>