Your heart’s the most important organ in your body. You might not think about it much, but hour after hour, day after day, year after year it’s pumping blood through your arteries, carrying oxygen and vital nutrients to your organs, and keeping you alive.
But your heart is vulnerable. Heart disease is the number one cause of premature death in the United States and the world. The good news is that most cases are preventable, simply by adopting small, everyday healthy habits. Forming the healthy habits that protect your heart is safe, effective, and inexpensive. When you put enough of these habits in place, you will transform your whole lifestyle, and you will:
• Lose weight and keep it off
• Prevent, manage, and even cure high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes
• Prevent heart disease and related medical problems, such as strokes
It’s true—healthy lifestyle changes can be as effective as prescription medications, and without the costs and side effects. Breaking old bad habits and establishing new healthy ones is possible! This book shows you how to create your own safe, healthy, realistic lifestyle-change program. You’ll learn about the heart and heart disease and how the risk factors for heart disease can be impacted by your lifestyle choices. You’ll learn why you may want to make changes and how you can make those changes last. You’ll see the evidence behind specific recommendations and how to break it all down into everyday habits. You will learn simple and straightforward ways to:
• Manage stress and relax
• Sleep longer and better
• Form and improve relationships
• Enjoy healthy food
• Move more, more easily
• Live smarter
And more. In this book, there are 100 habits that will keep your heart—and the rest of your body, for that matter—healthy and happy.
Note: All of my current patients provided written permission to be interviewed specifically for this book. Names and any identifying details have been changed.