Heart health is important. There are no two ways about the importance of maintaining a healthy heart for as long as you live. Cardiovascular disease is one of the major causes of death globally, as well as in India. It takes a serious effort, to say the least, but it's worth all the hard work when your overall health improves in the effort of maintaining a healthy heart.

On World Heart Day, we're here to raise awareness and to remind you to take serious measures towards achieving heart health. Hectic work schedules and Netflix afternoons are anyway killing our social life, now our hearts are at risk too. While there are multiple causes behind the factors that lead to an unhealthy heart. Hence, it is important to be aware of the possible implications, including the impact of a bad lifestyle on heart risk, and make the necessary changes in your lifestyle to achieve a healthy heart.

Watch what you eat
Though generations before us have always considered a big gut a sign of prosperity, we're the smarter generation and pretty much keep it in check. Watch what you eat and check that midriff expansion. Managing belly fat is critical in keeping your heart healthy. Making small but significant changes in their lifestyle can address the belly fat issue. This is easily done by eating right, avoiding junk food, exercising regularly, sleeping well and reducing stress. Start looking after your heart, eat high-fibre foods, go for a walk and get the sleep your body needs. Reduce your intake of highly saturated fats and instead replace them with foods that are rich in monounsaturated fats like almonds, full fat yogurt or fruits. Switch unhealthy snacks with healthier options like almonds, oats and the like, and see the changes for yourself towards your overall health.

Make exercise a way of life
Regular exercise is the path towards a fitter lifestyle. Take a brisk walk, a short jog, spend some time at the gym, or engage in any other activity like swimming, zumba or yoga, any form of fitness keeps your heart engaged. Aside from a healthy heart, a regular fitness regime helps keep depression at bay, gives one a better sense of routine and purpose, and helps you watch your weight as well. Start exercising to ensure you take a proactive step towards improving your heart health.

Stress less
It's hard to avoid stress while leading a busy life in a big metropolitan city. Emotional or stress eating is one major factor that leads to the consumption of unhealthy fats, weight gain, and ultimately affects the heart. Making an effort to add activities like meditation, reading a book, or painting channel stressful thoughts towards something productive, helps keep a check on stress, and keeps unhealthy cravings and binge eating episodes at bay.

Quit the death stick
We're sure you've heard this one before. Smoking increases the risk of heart disease as the chemicals in the cigarette smoke damages the lining of the blood vessels of the heart, which in turn leads to inflammation and narrowing, that can cause angina or a heart attack. According to the World Heart Federation, smoking is estimated to cause nearly 10 % of Cardiovascular diseases and is the second leading cause of CVD, after high blood pressure. Quitting smoking may also have a positive impact on your health because as per a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) heavy cigarette smokers can reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by 39% within five years if they quit. So give your heart the best gift it could have ever asked for, and pledge to quit smoking to improve your heart's well-being.