Love your heart

Keeping your heart in shape is literally of vital importance. This is even more significant when bearing in mind that around one-third of deaths in Saudi Arabia are caused by diseases that involve the heart and blood vessels, the so-called cardiovascular diseases, and this number keeps increasing, according to a WHO report from 2008. On a more positive note, taking care of your heart is not as complicated as it might sound. Arab News spoke to physiotherapist and personal trainer Mariati Tajuddin, who is also an expert in the field of cardiovascular health. She disclosed the best ways to take care of your heart. “Saudi Arabia, as well as most European countries and the US, experience a high frequency of cardiovascular diseases — the most common being diabetes, heart attack, strokes, varicose veins, arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis,” explained Tajuddin. Most of these diseases are caused by our lifestyle and a lack of awareness, and according to the health expert, these are also the areas where the solutions can be found. “First of all, we need to enhance awareness. Cardiovascular diseases never come out of the blue. Years before a patient gets a heart attack or stroke, the underlying cause, usually atherosclerosis, has been progressing,” said Tajuddin. Therefore, she advises people to undergo regular medical checkups. “A high LDL, or bad cholesterol level, often indicates atherosclerosis, and people with diabetes have an increased chance to develop other cardiovascular diseases. Similarly, hypertension often leads to atherosclerosis and is the biggest risk factor for stroke, besides playing a big role in heart attacks,” explained Tajuddin. As these illnesses can often be successfully treated, having your blood regularly checked is a good way to prevent complications at a later stage, says the instructor. The second step, which is of utmost importance, is to pay attention to your food intake. “Obesity is a major cause for developing heart diseases,” she explained. Obese people have more fat in their body and blood vessels, which can lead to heart attacks, varicose veins, and other cardiovascular diseases. “Try to adopt a partly vegetarian lifestyle,” Tajuddin advised. Although you don’t need to completely remove meat from your diet, she recommends people to try to focus on plant foods, such as vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains. A balanced diet, according to her, consists of fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals. “All five categories are essential to consume on a daily basis, but we need to make the proper choices. So in the case of fat, our diet should include mainly healthy unsaturated fats from nuts, olive oil or avocado. The carbohydrates we eat should be rich in fiber, as are whole wheat bread, rolled oats, potatoes and brown rice.” The health expert continued, saying that important sources of protein were fish, egg white, chicken breast and beans. Vitamins and minerals are mainly found in fruits and vegetables, although other groups also contain important amounts, such as B vitamins in grains. “The quantity of these nutrients needed,” Tajuddin stressed, “naturally depends on the individual’s gender, height and level of activity.” Undergoing medical checkups and paying attention to our food intake is, however, not enough to keep our heart in shape. “Apart from these, we need to incorporate physical exercise into our daily life.” Together with a healthy diet, physical activity — three to five days a week with a minimum of 30 minutes per day — should be a priority in life, affirmed the fitness coach. But how does exercise help shape up our heart? “The heart is a muscle that, just like all muscles, needs to be trained,” explained Tajuddin. Cardio exercises, as the name reveals, are the perfect way to increase the size of your heart and make it stronger.” They include all kind of exercises that make your heart pump faster, such as brisk walking or jogging, bicycling, swimming, and skating. “While doing cardio exercises, our cardiovascular system needs to supply the muscles with an increased amount of oxygen. So, the lungs will inhale more air, and the heart will pump the oxygen-rich blood to the muscles,” added Tajuddin. In short, cardio exercise not only makes our heart healthier, but also trains the lungs and cleans the veins. “It is the best way to improve overall cardiovascular health,” Tajuddin added, “Although for general health, strength training as well as exercises to improve flexibility and agility are important too.” A plant-based diet and cardio exercise may be important components of a heart-friendly lifestyle, but there is something else we need to eliminate in our lives: stress. “Stress is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, so try to avoid it as much as possible,” the fitness instructor recommended. She added that stress could have various causes, ranging from work or studies to family problems and psychological stress. “Even boredom can be a psychological stress factor,” she commented. In addition, stress and other emotional strain often result in emotional eating, a common cause of obesity in the developed world. In order to reduce stress, Tajuddin advised people to do activities they like, find a hobby, engage in physical exercise, or write down their worries in a diary. A last recommendation from the cardiovascular expert: Quit smoking! “This will reduce your risk of cardiovascular diseases significantly, no matter how long you have been smoking,” she asserted, adding that secondhand smoking equally constituted a risk factor and should be avoided as well,” she said. Tajuddin also gave some tips to stop emotional eating, a major cause of obesity in the Kingdom: Before facing your food, ask yourself the following questions: 1) “Do I feel hungry or do I want to eat because I feel angry/sad/anxious/etc.?” 2) “How long time ago did I eat?” If your last meal was more than three hours ago, you can be hungry. If less, you probably want to eat for a different reason. 3) “Do I have problems at work, in the family, or with friends?” In addition, Tajuddin revealed two ways to avoid eating too much. “First of all, control the portions you eat. Instead of scooping things onto your plate without thinking, take a small portion. If you still feel hungry after finishing your food, you can always go for a second round,” she recommended, adding that eating slowly was another very effective way to eat less. “Our brain receives information from the stomach only after 20 minutes. If you eat fast, you might be overeating before your gut conveys to your brain that it had enough.”