World Heart Day-5 Simple Steps To Keep Heart Healthy

To convert knowledge into action requires that things are kept simple and easy! Here are the five things to do to keep your heart healthy.

Happy World Heart Day.

1. Get away from your seat and go for a walk with your loved one. Walk, we evolved by walking. Walking protects the heart and the brain. The earlier you start the better it is. Even if you are just out of college or in college, you need to establish an habit of walking if not running or jogging.

2. Eat healthy and balanced food. Hmmm, that is too broad an advice. So here you go, avoid soft drinks/carbonated drinks, processed foods like chips, cookies, etc.

3. Get out of bad job and bad relationship. Having a bad boss can b harmful to your heart! Having a abusive partner too is bad for health. Love yourself  to love others.

4.  Smoking damages your heart and lungs. Stop smoking, your heart will thank you.

5. And we have saved the best for the last. Yup, have a good nights sleep and supplement that with an afternoon nap. Good sleep can protect your heart and brain

Now, isn't that simple steps to follow to keep your heart healthy!

Do You Take An Afternoon Nap? If Not, You May Want To Do It For Your Heart

Do you take an afternoon nap?

                                                            Photo Courtesy: Flickr Cell105


Few of you must be saying are you kidding? In our busy schedule with tight deadlines, Whatsapp, Facebook etc, one cannot sleep at night, how can one sleep in the afternoon! Sleeping in the afternoon is a luxury only few privileged like toddlers, kindergarten kids, retired individuals can probably afford. For the rest of the mere mortals if we get sleep for 6 hours at night it will be an achievement.

Having said that, if ask people who are happy, super successful, peaceful, healthy whether they take a nap in the afternoon, you will find most of them answering "YES"!

There are various benefits of taking a nap in the afternoon.

A recent research presented at European Society of  Cardiology (ESC)  has found that taking nap in the afternoon reduces blood pressure and protects you from cardiovascular events by up-to 10%. What that means is that you are safe guarded from heart attack, heart failure, stroke.  Now that should alone be a very strong reason to take a nap in the afternoon.

But let us say you need to convince your boss or wife, please take a look at the other benefits of taking a nap in the afternoon.

• Relaxation
• Reduced fatigue
• Increased alertness
• Improved mood

Improved performance, including quicker reaction time, better memory, less confusion, and fewer accidents and mistakes.

When your alertness increases it can lead to lesser errors and it is shown that a nap for 26 minutes can improve your productivity by 30%!!

Well, so you have health benefits and work benefits from taking a nap in the afternoon.

Happy Siesta!