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Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. But you can do a lot to protect your heart and stay healthy.
Heart-healthy living involves understanding your risk, making choices, and taking steps to reduce your chances of getting heart disease, including coronary heart disease, the most common type. Coronary and other types of heart disease cause heart attacks, but by taking preventive measures, you can lower your risk of developing heart disease and also improve your overall health and well-being.
Learn more about living a heart-healthy lifestyle, our role in research and clinical trials to improve health, and where to find more information.
The first step toward heart health is understanding your risk of heart disease. Your risk depends on many factors, some of which are changeable and others that are not. Risk factors are conditions or habits that make a person more likely to develop a disease. These risk factors may be different for each person.
Preventing heart disease starts with knowing what your risks factors are and what you can do to lower them.
Your risk of heart disease is higher if you:
Each risk factor increases a person’s chance of developing heart disease. The more risks you have, the higher your overall risk.
Some risk factors cannot be changed. These include your age, sex, and a family history of early heart disease. But many others can be modified. For example, being more physically active and eating healthy are important steps for your heart health. You can make the changes gradually, one at a time. But making them is very important.
Women generally get heart disease about 10 years later than men do, but it’s still women’s #1 killer. After menopause, women are more likely to get heart disease, in part because estrogen hormone levels drop. Women who have gone through early menopause, either naturally or because they have had a hysterectomy, are twice as likely to develop heart disease as women of the same age who have not gone through menopause. Middle age is also a time when women tend to develop other risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure.
Preeclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy) raises your risk of developing coronary heart disease later in life. It is a risk factor that you can’t control. However, if you’ve had the condition, you should take extra care to monitor your blood pressure and try to lower other heart disease risk factors.
Risk factors such as high blood pressure or cholesterol generally don’t have obvious signs or symptoms. A crucial step in determining your risk is to see your doctor for a thorough checkup and risk assessment. Your doctor may use a risk calculator to estimate your risk of having a heart attack, having a stroke, or dying from a heart or blood vessel disease in the next 10 years or throughout your lifetime.
For example, the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Estimator considers your cholesterol levels, age, sex, race, and blood pressure. It also factors in whether you smoke or take medicines to manage your high blood pressure or cholesterol.
Your doctor can be an important partner in helping you set and reach goals for heart health. Ask about your risk for heart disease at your annual checkup. Since your risk can change over time, keep asking each year.
Questions to ask your doctor at your annual checkup
If you already are being treated for heart disease or heart disease risk factors, discuss your treatment plan with your doctor. Ask questions if you do not understand something or need more information. You may want to write down questions before your appointment as well.
Questions to discuss about your heart disease prevention and treatment plan
Two of the major risk factors for heart disease are high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol. If either of these numbers is high, work with your doctor to get it to a healthy range.
Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage your heart and your blood vessels and lead to plaque buildup.
Most adults should have their blood pressure checked at least once a year. If you have high blood pressure, you will likely need to be checked more often. Talk with your doctor about how often you should have your blood pressure checked.
Your doctor will measure your blood pressure to see if it is higher than is recommended. The reading is made up of two numbers, with the systolic number above the diastolic number. These numbers are measures of pressure in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Learn more about getting your blood pressure measured in this video.
This video shows steps to getting your blood pressure measured. Avoid caffeine or tobacco 30 minutes before having it taken and rest for at least 5 minutes before. Then right before, take a breath and relax. Afterward, ask your doctor what your numbers mean and write them down.
Your blood pressure is considered high when you have consistent systolic readings of 140 mm Hg or higher or diastolic readings of 90 mm Hg or higher. Based on research, your doctor may also consider you to have high blood pressure if you are an adult or child age 13 or older who has consistent systolic readings of 130 to 139 mm Hg or diastolic readings of 80 to 89 mm Hg and you have other risk factors for heart disease.
If your blood pressure is high, your doctor will suggest lifestyle changes and may prescribe medicines. Learn more about high blood pressure. You can track your progress with our Tracking Your Numbers worksheet and bring it with you whenever you have your blood pressure taken.
High blood cholesterol is a condition in which your blood has unhealthy levels of cholesterol—a waxy, fat-like substance.
Many factors affect your cholesterol levels. For example, age, sex, eating patterns, and physical activity level can affect your cholesterol levels. Children also can have unhealthy cholesterol levels, especially if they’re overweight or their parents have high blood cholesterol.
A blood test can show whether your cholesterol levels are healthy. Talk with your doctor about having your cholesterol tested and how often you need it tested. Your cholesterol numbers will include total cholesterol, “bad” LDL cholesterol and “good” HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. Ask your doctor what your numbers mean for you.
If you have unhealthy cholesterol levels, your doctor may suggest the lifestyle changes discussed in this topic. If heart-healthy lifestyle changes alone are not enough, your doctor may prescribe a statin or other medicine to help manage your cholesterol levels.
Heart-healthy eating involves choosing certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables, while limiting others, such as saturated and trans fats and added sugars.
Your doctor may recommend the heart-healthy Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan because it has been proven to lower high blood pressure and “bad” LDL cholesterol in the blood. Visit our Delicious Heart-Healthy Eating page for recipes, cooking tips, and more.
The following foods are the foundation of a heart-healthy eating plan.
A heart-healthy eating plan limits sodium (salt), saturated and trans fats, added sugars, and alcohol. Understanding nutrition labels can help you choose healthier foods. Visit How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to learn more.
Limit sodium
Adults and children over age 14 should eat less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. Children younger than age 14 may need to eat even less sodium each day based on their sex and age. If you have high blood pressure, you may need to limit sodium even more. Talk to your doctor or healthcare provider about what amount of sodium is right for you or your child.
Try these shopping and cooking tips to help you choose and prepare foods that are lower in sodium:
For more ways to limit your sodium, visit Living With the DASH Eating Plan or print this handout, Tips to Reduce Salt and Sodium.
Limit saturated fats
Saturated or “bad” fats come from animal sources such as butter, cheese, and fatty meats and should make up less than 10% of your daily calories. Read food labels and choose foods that are lower in these fats and higher in unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are also known as “good” fats and are found in vegetable oils and nuts.
Limit saturated fats by:
Learn more about limiting saturated fat from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Limit trans fats
Limit trans fats as much as possible by:
Dairy products and meats naturally contain very small amounts of trans fats. You do not need to avoid these foods because they have other important nutrients.
Limit added sugars
You should limit the amount of calories you get each day from added sugars. This will help you choose nutrient-rich foods and stay within your daily calorie limit.
Some foods, such as fruit, contain natural sugars. Added sugars do not occur naturally in foods but instead are used to sweeten foods and drinks. They include brown sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, raw sugar, and sucrose.
In the United States, sweetened drinks, snacks, and sweets are the major sources of added sugars.
Lower how much sugar you eat or drink by:
Limit alcohol
Talk to your doctor about how much alcohol you drink. Your doctor may recommend that you reduce the amount of alcohol you drink or that you stop drinking alcohol. Alcohol can:
If you do not drink, you should not start. You should not drink if you are pregnant, are under the age of 21, taking certain medicines, or if you have certain medical conditions, including heart failure.
Read the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to learn about what is considered one alcoholic drink and how calories vary by drink.
You should eat the right amount of calories for your body, which will vary based on your sex, age, and physical activity level. Remember that some healthy foods, including oils and dairy, can still have a lot of calories. Some fruits can have a lot of natural sugar, especially when they are dried. Develop a personalized food plan at Get Your MyPlate Plan.
You can visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans for more information about healthy eating and to read about their recommendations for the following healthy eating patterns.
A healthy weight for adults is usually when the body mass index (BMI) is between 18.5 and 24.9. To figure out your BMI, use our online BMI calculator and compare your BMI with the following table. You can also download the BMI calculator app for iPhone and Android.
Always talk to your doctor or healthcare provider about what BMI is right for you. Talk to your child’s doctor to determine whether your growing child has a healthy weight, because his or her BMI should be compared to growth charts specific for your child’s age and sex. Following a heart-healthy eating plan and being physically active are some ways to help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight. For more information, visit Aim for a Healthy Weight.
Visit our Overweight and Obesity Health Topic for more information and watch our video below.
This video shows how little things we do each day can add up and lead to weight gain. Gaining 10 pounds adds more than 30 pounds of force to your knees, which can cause aches and pains. Taking action by eating healthy and getting physical activity can lower the risk of developing serious health problems. And you can do more of the things you enjoy.
The more body fat that you have and the more you weigh, the more likely you are to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems, and certain cancers.
If most of your fat is around your waist rather than at your hips, you are at a higher risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This risk may be high with a waist circumference that is more than 35 inches for women or more than 40 inches for men.
To correctly measure your waist circumference, stand and place a tape measure around your middle, just above your hipbones. Measure your waist just after you breathe out.
If you have been diagnosed with overweight or obesity, it’s important to follow your doctor’s recommendations for losing weight. Health professionals recommend losing 5% to 10% of your initial weight over the course of about 6 months. Even before you reach this goal, a loss of just 3% to 5% of your current weight can lower triglycerides and glucose levels in your blood, as well as your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Losing more than 3% to 5% of your weight can improve blood pressure readings, lower “bad” LDL cholesterol, and increase “good” HDL cholesterol.
Research suggests that an emotionally upsetting event, particularly one involving anger, can serve as a trigger for a heart attack or angina in some people. Stress can contribute to high blood pressure and other heart disease risk factors. Some of the ways people cope with stress—drinking alcohol, using other substances, smoking, or overeating—are not healthy ways to manage stress.
Learning how to manage stress and cope with problems can improve your mental and physical health. Consider healthy stress-reducing activities such as:
This video shows small steps you can take to reduce stress. Sit in a comfortable place and breathe in slowly through your nose, letting your stomach expand fully. Breathe out slowly through your mouth (or nose, if that feels more natural). Try to practice this once or twice a day for 10 to 20 minutes.
Ask your doctor what kinds of stress management are safe for you.
Regular physical activity can:
Talk with your doctor before you start a new exercise plan. Discuss how much and what types of physical activity are safe for you. Even modest amounts of physical activity are good for your health. Get inspired from this video.
This video shows small changes you can make to move more throughout the day. These include taking the stairs, parking farther away from your destination, and getting up and taking breaks from your computer. You can build up to activity that gets your heart beating faster and eventually aim to move for at least 2 hours and 30 minutes each week. If you are busy, break the activity up into smaller chunks of time—it all adds up. Do activities that are fun, such as jumping rope, taking brisk walks, and dancing.
Aerobic exercise benefits your lungs the most. This is any exercise in which your heart beats faster and you use more oxygen than usual, such as brisk walking, running, biking, and swimming.
The more active you are, the more you will benefit. Participate in aerobic exercise for at least a few minutes at a time throughout the week. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that each week, adults get at least:
Another way you can begin to increase your activity level is by reducing how long you sit at a given time. Breaking up how long you sit will benefit your overall health.
Learn more about physical activity in our Physical Activity and Your Heart Health Topic.
If you smoke, quit. Smoking can raise your risk of heart disease and heart attack and worsen other heart disease risk factors. Talk with your doctor about programs and products that can help you quit smoking. Also, try to avoid secondhand smoke. Learn more in our video.
This video shows small steps to take to help you quit smoking. Set a quit date, get support from family and friends, and stay busy and active. Avoid things like caffeine that trigger cravings, enjoy healthy meals and snacks, and track your progress.
If you have trouble quitting smoking on your own, consider joining a support group. Many hospitals, workplaces, and community groups offer classes to help people quit smoking.
Learn more about quitting smoking in our Smoking and Your Heart Health Topic and visit Your Guide to a Healthy Heart. For free help and support to quit smoking, you can call the National Cancer Institute’s Smoking Quitline at 1-877-44U-QUIT (1-877-448-7848).
Talk to your doctor if you vape. There is scientific evidence that nicotine and flavorings found in vaping products can damage your heart and lungs.
Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. Not getting enough sleep or good-quality sleep over time can raise your risk for chronic health problems. The amount of sleep you need each day will change over the course of your life. This table reflects recent American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) recommendations that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed.
Age | Recommended Hours of Sleep a Day |
---|---|
Babies 4-12 months | 12-16 (including naps) |
Children 1-2 years | 11-14 (including naps) |
Children 3-5 years | 10-13 (including naps) |
Children 6-12 years | 9-12 |
Teens 13-18 years | 8-10 |
Adults 18 years or older | 7-9 |
Sleep helps heal and repair your heart and blood vessels. It also helps:
Over time, not getting enough quality sleep, called sleep deficiency, can raise your risk of heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Get inspired with this video.
This video shows how binge-watching TV in bed may be preventing you from getting the 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night you need to keep your heart healthy.
You can take steps to improve your sleep habits. First, make sure that you allow yourself enough time to sleep. Learn strategies for getting enough sleep in the Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency Health Topic.
It may help to:
For more information about healthy sleep habits, visit Your Guide to Healthy Sleep.
We lead or sponsor many studies relevant to heart-healthy living and reducing heart disease risk factors. See if you or someone you know is eligible to participate in our clinical trials or observational studies.
To learn more about clinical trials at the NIH Clinical Center or to talk to someone about a study that might fit your needs, call the Office of Patient Recruitment 800-411-1222.
Learn more about participating in a clinical trial.
View all trials from ClinicalTrials.gov.
After reading our Heart-Healthy Living Health Topic, you may be interested in additional information found in the following resources. Help educate your family, friends, and community about heart disease with resources from The Heart Truth®.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is participating i...